CHEVROLET RACING NTT INDYCAR SERIES INDIANAPOLIS 500 INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEEDWAY INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA TEAM CHEVY DRIVER ZOOM CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET AUGUST 10, 2020
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, MET WITH MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA ON A ZOOM CALL. FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Q. Simon as we’re headed into the month of August, qualifying coming up on the horizon as the defending pole winner and the defending Indy 500 winner, what are your thoughts? PAGENAUD: Yes, it is finally time to get to Indianapolis. This been my number one priority for several years now and it’s it’s an honor to come back being the reigning champion is a very special feeling. It’s obviously a mythical race the biggest race in the world in a lot of people opinion. But in my opinion for sure and coming here being the defending champion just allows you to you know, feel a lot less personal pressure just allows me to be a lot more focus on doing the right thing and not worrying about the result and I do believe when you don’t worry about result things come together better. So so I’m very excited about this this chance to go back to the Speedway and and just focus on on the performance and being in the moment. So very excited the team’s been preparing really well as you know, anyways, I called Team Penske the speed lab and they’re very impressive at building racecars with a lot of speed and that’s what you wanted to Speedway. So huge confidence going in. We don’t know what tomorrow is about that’s for sure but obviously we have really good foundation and an amazing team behind us or for three drivers actually for all four with Helio (Castroneves), so it’s exciting to get back to to the speedway and it’s August but it feels like May, so I can’t wait to be there actually tomorrow great. 
Q. What is the Indy 500 going to be like without fans? Talk about how much you’ll miss having them around. How different will it be for you? PAGENAUD: Well, yeah, it’s you know, it’s been a big news last week and it but I felt very sad for the fans and felt very sad for Roger Penske as well, you know who is passionate about the race and he’s been doing so much work at the Speedway to please the fans and to make it an even more impressive event that you know, he’s my team owner but it’s also the series owner and the speedway owner. So it felt sad for him that you know, it was going to be a different race here. But you know, we have the chance to display what we do and display it in the best manner with NBC Sports Network and you know we’ve with that a an amazing race last year with Rossi and hopefully there is a battle that’s just as exciting for the fans but it definitely is going to feel different the energy is going to be different. It’s going to feel flat. No no reason, but to to think differently it won’t feel as energetic. It won’t feel like like, you know, it’s like it’s it’s going to be very different but it is the biggest race in the world and the fastest race in the world been very excited to get going and to please people with this competition. That’s really what I’m looking forward to right now.
Q. With all the simulation I wanted to ask you about whether your four driving syles between the four you guys have they gotten further apart because of the additional demands of the aero screen or have you actually come closer together? How close are you form setups? PAGENAUD: Well, I don’t think it’s changed all that much in terms of delta between each other. I think we’re all trying to figure out what the car needs and as a team, I think we all working to try and understand how we could make the tires with the best way this added weight to the car and it certainly added stress to the tires and obviously as you can imagine on a Speedway with this kind of speed the centrifuge all forces when you add weight to the front of the car changes the behavior around the corner or the radius of the car around the corner. So those are things that we all noticed and we’re going to have to work with it in the next few days. The fact that it’s a condensed schedule is a bit stressful because we don’t know what to expect very much yet. So it’s we’re going to have to make decisions quickly and be sure that it’s the right decision. Because we won’t have as much time as usual to go back to the pads and set the car up precise me, so it would be be more like a Pocono weekend. It’s going to be a yeah, it’s going to be a some interesting but still I think it hasn’t really changed all that much. It’s just about who hits the set of the best.
Q. Simon what has been the most difficult for you this season? PAGENAUD: I think it’s the unexpected quite frankly Ricardo. It’s you know, we don’t know what tomorrow is about. We don’t know, you know, like a week ago. We were racing in Mid, Ohio and all of a sudden we’re not and you know you prepare yourself. You can regimen of training nutrition hydration preparation for an event and then it has been canceled. It’s it’s not easy to switch your mind to the next thing when you had a goal in mind but for Indianapolis personally Ricardo, it’s my number one goal and he always has been since 2016 end of 2016. That’s my number one goal and that’s my main focus every year. So that’s the race. I look forward to the most that honestly we work with the most focus on and I know it’s happening this weekend and the next one. I’m very excited about it. So just want to get there and get going strap in my car and get to feel good to feel what it’s like.
Q. You talked about how little time you may get in the car that might be compounded by the weather forecast for this week. Unfortunately, whether sort of forecasted for every day, so how much time do you feel like you need in the car to really feel comfortable for qualifying and just kind of setting yourself up for success in two weekends?PAGENAUD: I don’t quite know yet, but I think you’re right. I think you know, we all know that there’s change to thunderstorms a mile to the preparation. But at the end of the day, you know, it’s going to be the same for everybody. So, you know, the best is going to win and that’s that’s key to the keys right there the keys to being the best. So every decisions we’re going to make we’re gonna have to make sure that it’s the right one to me. I put even more emphasis on the communication with my engineer understanding what my teammates are trying also to try to understand the whole process. But at the end of the day, I need to focus on exactly what I need and and clear-cut decisions. That’s really all it’s all about. And if we have very little testing and be the same for everybody we all going to end up racing at the end and you know, it’s I welcome my experience up to this point. I think I think experience could be a big help this year. 
Q. How is the extended wait to defend the 500 affected your stress and or anticipation level and how you approach the first how you approach the first few months of the season.PAGENAUD: Yeah, it’s it’s been a long wait. That’s for sure the anticipation I would say. Yeah, it’s been a serious anticipation on my part just because I love that race. I love the event and I want to go back. I just want to it’s my favorite race and not only because I want it is my favorite race. It’s the favorite feel I get throughout the entire year in the race car, and I’ve learned to learn and learn to love it and it  sucks when you don’t get to do what you love. So, you know, I was very worried we weren’t going to race this year. So I’m relieved that we are going to get to race, but it’s a pain that we won’t have any fans. That’s for sure. But we get to do what we love we get to show what we love once again, and to me to me, that’s everything so I go I can’t wait for tomorrow wake up get to the airport and and then talk to my engineer tomorrow afternoon.
Q. Last year you had the whole month of May to really build up some momentum and get into a rhythm. Just the disjointed part of this season make it difficult for you to sort of find anywhere them or build momentum will feel really confident. Heading into start on Wednesday.PAGENAUD: It is different for sure. Its up and downs and up and downs. It’s a bit of a roller coaster this year. You know, I thought going into Mid-Ohio. I felt some sort of momentum going and I was like, that’s perfect timing just before Indy and it suddenly stopped and it was it was abrupt. I did not expect that. I wasn’t ready for it to be canceled quite frankly. It took a few days for me, to stop training on the simulator for a road course and just switch to oval but but thankfully like I said earlier and many times. It’s my number one priority is always been Indy. So that’s the one I’ve been looking forward to the most and if there was only one race this year that I would be okay with just being Indy. So, you know, it’s it is a different year. It’s kind of weird quite frankly. I don’t have the right words probably but it’s just a roller coaster up and down emotions.
Q. How much is mental preparation? How much does that play into this?PAGENAUD: To me plays a lot. It is what helps me calm down, you know, like for example, this is rollercoaster of emotion. I’ve done a lot of work trying to make things, you know stable and trying to know where I’m going mentally speaking and trying to influence my subconscious as much as possible. So yes to me, I believe 85% of the drivers performance is is the mental side of things. So I work a lot on that and it’s been working well for me so far.
Q. Simon good afternoon, my friend wanted to ask you about the opportunity to take the Borg order to France in your trip home after winning the 500 last year. What was your biggest takeaway from that? Is there a moment from that trip that still sticks with you here A year later. PAGENAUD: Yes. Yes a lot of moments actually, but the first one that came to my mind is those pictures and seeing the Borg with the Effel Tower in the background, you know, we had a huge press conference with all the media coming to see the Borg Warner in a nice hotel and we chose that hotel because it had the Effel Tower in the background and it was such a weird photo because the Borg Warner is not supposed to be in France. So it’s you know, first of all, it was awesome that Borg Warner and IndyCar wanted to do that for me as a champion. It was a very special great gesture and taking it to my hometown. So just so you know just to Picture This we’re talking about 6,500 people. That’s my hometown it from one end to the other hand of the tail. It’s two minutes by car. That’s it. And you know, and you know, I know everybody so and you know everybody from school. I know everybody from the hospital and everybody from the grocery store the the flow people. I mean, it’s just incredible and everybody were just so excited about it that I sign autographs for more than four hours. It was awesome. So it’s just the fact that you know, there’s a my world here in the US and I’ve been very welcome here and my career has taken off here in the US and been very blessed and I was able to take my world in the US to my world in France and to combine them were very emotional moments. Very emotional.
Q. You are one of eight former winners in this year’s race having that designation of being a winner for the rest of your life. How important to you is that distinction going into, you know, coming back to the track. PAGENAUD: its massive its massive. It’s you know, I actually had a conversation with Haley my wife last night. I was like, you know, it’s you know, it’s those moments when you just relax, you sit on the couch. And you say Hey, you know, I feel really good going in this year because I don’t have that pressure of knowing if I ever will put my name on that race or if I will have a chance to experience winning it so, you know when you’ve done it, it’s such a relief. It’s such a satisfying knowledge, you know, it’s it’s looking back at what you’ve done and your trophies and knowing that you’ve climbed the highest peak in racing. So to me, that’s very special. It’s it’s a chance also now to raise a lot more free so I can just focus on myself a lot more and not worry about the outcome as much and to me it’s always been something. I think it’s for any athlete is something difficult to do to be able to part the outcome and not think about it while you’re race and I think that athletes that struggle to do that struggle more than others. So now I don’t have to worry about this at all. I can just go forward and that’s that’s that’s something I’m really excited about. 
Q. Why don’t guys often win back-to-back 500 you don’t see that real often and second part of that is why will you?PAGENAUD: I would answer to the first one is that just as hard as it is to win it once you know, it’s not because you want it once that you’re going to win it twice and it’s not because you’ve won it that you’re entitled to win it again, and I think you know, we all say it but that race does seem to choose a winner. Now you can do everything you can to win it. You can you know, make sure that you put everything in order. That you can make all the right decisions and bring your A-game on that day that you can do all that stuff. But at the end of the day something might take it away from you and it is the way it is. It’s only once a year. So all I can tell you Brant is that it is probably very hard to do it, especially consecutively. It’s probably almost impossible, but I believe in my chances and you know, I’m not thinking too much about last year. I’m just trying to go into this race. And like I said earlier just making sure that we iron everything and we don’t leave any details any stone unturned. That’s really my main focus this year and make sure that the race car suits me so I can do something like I showed you I can do last year. So that’s really my goal.
Q. What is the feeling going into the Indianapolis 500 this year with Roger owning the track .  PAGENAUD: I’m very proud to know Roger quite frankly. I think he’s a he’s a monument of racing is a monument of business in general and him, you know, I think it’s just the story. That he has is just incredible. If you think about the first time we all went to the Indy 500 and if you ever thought about buying the speedway and if you end up doing it in your life is quite an incredible, but it’s that kind of man. You know, he’s that kind of man that can do the impossible. You can make it happen and I’m very proud to be going to Speedway as as his driver as as my car owner. I would say and I want to make him proud by winning. Frankly, I would like to be the driver to win his first Indy 500 as a team or as an owner of the speedway, but like I said, there’s a lot ahead of us just very excited about the future of IndyCar and the Speedway and have seen firsthand. Some of the Improvement is made to the Speedway. It’s very unfortunate. The fans are not going to see it because there’s a lot that has been done already and enhancement of the places is going to be incredible in the future. So very very excited for the fans to see what it’s like in the future.
Q You will miss the crowd in this Indy 500. PAGENAUD: Yes. Yes. It’s you know last year. I said it that’s I use the energy of the crowd is, you know, I’m a very very spiritual person as pragmatic as I can be with the race car. I am a very spiritual person for those who know me personally, they will tell you that but I I use the energy of the crowd to prepare me and give me give me wings. This year will be different, you know test sessions are not that exciting when there’s no fans in in the grandstand. But but the exciting part is to drive the race car at this track and when you know the history of the place when you know, the previous winners and the stories that have been going on for more than a century and you’re part of that. So so, you know as a driver, I just feel blessed I get to go back and I get to race it. It’s it’s quite quite a great feeling