CHEVROLET RACING IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES
ABC SUPPLY 500
POCONO RACEWAY IN LONG POND, PENNSYLVANIA
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST-RACE QUOTES
AUGUST 18, 2019
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET (race winner; 36th career victory; third win in four years at Pocono Raceway):
TELL US ABOUT THE WIN.
“I had a few issues during the race but we just kept coming back. Full credit to the team. We had a great car and we just kind of hung there and saved fuel and when it was time to go, I went. I was so determined and I really wanted to win. This is my 13th year in a row of winning races and I have been thinking about that. I just wanted to win a race for Verizon and these guys who have worked their butts off all year and just haven’t had the results.”
YOU SAID YOU CHANGED YOUR MINDSET A FEW RACES AGO BASED ON WHERE YOU WERE IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP.
“I just let go. I just let go and said it’s not going to happen for me this year. Just whatever. I still did my homework. We definitely had the car today, great strategy, great stops. I feel like I worked harder for it this year than any other year and it just didn’t work for me.”
YOU HAD TO FALL BACK TO THE BACK AFTER TAKING THAT DEBRIS, HOW DID YOU GET BACK TO THE FRONT?
“Yeah, I passed a lot of cars and saved a lot of fuel. Obviously, we topped off so we had a few laps in hand. We pushed through the sequences and that is how we jumped more cars. We caught a great yellow (flag), which moved us to second and we caught a bad one and that moved us back to seventh. The car was fast enough that I knew if we got to the top five, we would have a shot at the win.”
OTHER TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES:
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 PENSKE TRUCK RENTAL TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET (finished third): “Will (Power) was really fast at the end. We had an adjustment we wanted to do on the last stint and I think the car would have come alive again. It is what it is and you can’t be disappointed when you win Indy. But its good. A good points day of course, but we have to keep going.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET (finished fifth): “It was kind of an interesting day, but it could have been worse. It was sort of like qualifying yesterday where qualifying got rained out, but we started on the pole. We didn’t finish this race, but we finished fifth. We’ll take it. I wish we could have been a little bit higher, but I think Will (Power) was going to be tough to beat today. He looked very strong. Certainly, towards the middle of the race I thought he was looking very good. We fought with what we had today and I thought the Hitachi Chevy with pretty good.”
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET (finished sixth): “We needed a decent run. We DNFed at Iowa, which wasn’t good. I feel like we have been performing better this year, we just haven’t really been able to put it together. It was nice to be in the mix, racing with the guys you need to race with to be up there fighting for wins. I wish we could have seen out all 500 miles, but Pocono always has its own craziness when it comes to the weather. Hopefully, all of the fans got to their cars before they got too wet. I thought it was a really good turnout today, it was a fun race while we were out there. It was unfortunate to see guys kind of lose their minds a bit there at the start, but all in all it was a fun day and nice to be moving forward.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET (finished eighth): “Good day for us, another top 10. We have a few things to improve still, but we’ll take if from where we started. We had a competitive car all weekend. The goal was to finish in the top 10 and we finished eighth, which is my best result of the year. It’s a good energy boost for the boys.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 23 TRESIBA CARLIN CHEVROLET (finished 10th): “First and foremost, I’m glad that everyone is OK from the incidents on-track today. Secondly, I’m just really proud of this Carlin crew. We made great progress with the No. 23 Tresiba Chevrolet in superspeedway trim and we learned a lot after coming here last year. The racing at Pocono Raceway is really tough, but these guys just kept their head down and made it happen. I made a mistake in the first pit stop, but we were able to run our strategy and get a really good run going. To come away with a top-10 finish from a very challenging weekend where we didn’t get to qualify is really a credit to the entire Carlin team. It was really great to get that top-10 finish in front of all of our Novo Nordisk guests who made the trip out to the track to support us and also to round out the top 10 with a bowtie for Team Chevy.”
CONOR DALY, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET (finished 11th): “After where we started at the back of the field, to finish 11th is awesome. It’s unfortunate though, because we were really just starting to get to the point where I was happier with the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet. The last few laps before the final red flag, we were the fastest car on the track so we were definitely moving in the right direction. We were catching all of the people in front of us and starting to get to where we needed to be, but these 500-mile races are long and the goal is to be strong at the end which I really felt like we were working toward that for sure. To be 11th is really good and it’s another strong finish for this group of people here at Carlin. Hopefully we can keep this momentum going into Gateway and that’ll be even more fun.”
MATHEUS LEIST, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET (finished 14th): “Difficult race. I didn’t feel very comfortable in the car after that first-lap incident. I think this track is not ideal for an Indy car. The car was good. The stops were perfect and I think we had a good strategy. We went a lap down because we had too much vibration in one of our tires, so we had to stop early and that was it from there.”
SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 21 AUTOGEEK ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET (finished 17th; contact): “The car hit a bump in Turn 1 and something must have broken on the car over the bump and from then on I was just a passenger. I went straight up into the wall. The steering wasn’t doing anything, unfortunately. Tough end of the day. We were running comfortably there in seventh and the car was feeling pretty good. Just feel bad for everyone at Ed Carpenter Racing. We have a race again next weekend and have a lot of work to do.”