chevy racing–indycar–mid-ohio–race two post race

CHEVROLET NTT INDYCAR SERIES HONDA INDY 200 DOUBLE HEADER MID-OHIO SPORTS CAR COURSE LEXINGTON, OHIO TEAM CHEVY RACE TWO RECAP SEPTEMBER 13, 2020 TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:POS.   DRIVER6th       Simon Pagenaud, No. 22 DXC Technology Team Penske Chevrolet7th        Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet8th       Josef Newgarden, No. 1 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet9th       Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet11th     Rinus VeeKay, No. 21 Sonax Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet13th     Max Chilton  15th     Oliver Askew, No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet                    TOPE FIVE UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS: POS.  DRIVER                                                             1ST      Colton Herta (Honda)2nd      Alexander Rossi (Honda)3rd       Ryan Hunter-Reay (Honda)4th       Graham Rahal (Honda)5th      Marcus Ericsson (Honda) Josef Newgarden continues to cut into the lead in the championship race. Coming into the Mid-Ohio Doubleheader the defending and two-time NTT INDYCAR Series champion, Newgarden trailed ScottDixon by 96 points. After a podium on Saturday and eighth place today, the spread is now 72 points heading to the Harvest GP Doubleheader on the Indy road Course Chevy had four in the top-nine with Simon Pagenaud finishing 6th, Will Power finished 7th, Newgarden 8th and Pato O’Ward finished in 9th place. Team Chevy drivers hold three of the top-five positions in points: Newgarden-2nd; O’Ward-3rd and Power-5th.  The NTT IndyCar Series season continues on October 2-3 with the INDYCAR Harvest GP Doubleheader at the Road Course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for races 12 and13 ot the season. p.m.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 DXC TECHNOLOGY TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Finished 6th:“I think we finally broke our curse. We had a good race today and we’ll take a sixth-p andlace finish in the DXC Technology Chevrolet. Saturday’s result was a real shame – it definitely didn’t show the pace that we had here. I think we’ve had a good car all weekend long and I think today we maximized what we had. We definitely still have some work to do but we are happy with the direction we are headed with the car and that’s a good sign for us heading back to Harvest Grand Prix at Indianapolis.”
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Finished 7th:“It was actually a pretty solid race for the Verizon Chevrolet. We had some radio issues so I really wasn’t sure what position we were running in all the time so I really just followed my teammates and pitted when they did. It was pretty smooth sailing from there but we really couldn’t make up a lot of ground. Obviously it was a pretty disappointing result in qualifying today and that was totally my fault. Considering that and the radio challenges during the race, we come away actually feeling alright with a seventh-place result and a pretty good weekend overall with the win on Saturday.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 PPG TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Finished 8th:“We were just a little too average today. We didn’t really have superior pace and our starting position didn’t help us out. We tried to make some hay in the beginning and the caution didn’t really work in our favor for what we were planning strategy-wise. We were just kind of stuck where we were all day, to be honest. We just need to work on getting a little more race pace. I think that’s what we were lacking. On the car itself, we needed a little better grip and a little more balance. Everything else was solid. I think Team Chevy came with a great engine today. We had what we needed from them and obviously the support from PPG is always great here at Mid-Ohio, so we just need to work on ourselves a little next time out.”
PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET – Finished 9th:“We started 21st and made our way up a few places at the start, but then everything kind of went sideways from there. We came into the pits for the first stop and guys were getting released, which put us into a position where we couldn’t turn into the box quite as tight as we wanted to. This meant the fuel probe couldn’t quite connect and we couldn’t get fuel into the car. This led to us having to go all the way to the back and pit for more fuel. We had to make everything up on track after that. We had such strong pace and I truly think if we had started up front, we would have been better. I made a very stupid mistake in qualifying that really put us on the back foot and I tried to earn back as much as I could today by giving it everything I had. At the end of the day, a top 10 finish isn’t bad from where we started.” RINUS VEEKAY, No. 21 SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET- Finished 11th:“That was a very tough race! Maybe because of the rainy conditions this morning, the track was different. My car felt nothing like yesterday! I had to dodge some cars at the start and did not really move forward like other guys did. It wasn’t the greatest race, but P11 is not terrible! We’ve got the Indy road course again – and again! I had my best road course finish there so I am ready to go back!” MAX CHILTON, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET – Finished 13th:“It wasn’t quite the top 10 that I wanted, but to start back in 18th and make up five positions throughout the race and do it legitimately is something to be proud of. We out-raced and out-paced some strong cars out there and I did two of the best overtakes I’ve done all year around the outside of a high speed corner. I’m very happy with the job we did today. We kept good pace and good fuel mileage and I feel like we managed the race really well. I don’t think we could’ve done much more during the race, the only thing would’ve been to qualify slightly higher up. Regardless, I know that top-10 for myself and the Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet is coming this year.” OLIVER ASKEW, NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET – Finished 15th: “The No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP team made good progress during the weekend. Today was the first time I had to fuel save this year, which was an adjustment, but I felt like I gave it my all. Looking forward to getting back to the Indianapolis Road Course, where we qualified in the Fast Six earlier this year. I think the entire team has a lot of potential and I’m looking forward to capitalizing on that.” CONOR DALY, NO. 20 U.S. AIR FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET – Finished 16th“Today was tough in qualifying. We just didn’t get the right lap in at the right time and we just missed having another lap by a couple of seconds. Starting on the back foot, that’s hard. We took a gamble with the setup which was actually good for me to try. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time for everything that happened on track, it was a shame. However, there were some positives; yesterday, we qualified 4th which was really good. We are still learning together as a team, hopefully we can put what we learned here towards the Harvest Grand Prix.” CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 4 TRESIBA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET – Finished 19tht: “So I definitely think we made the No. 4 Tresiba Chevrolet better overnight from race one to race two. This morning obviously was unfortunate with the spin in the wet so we started last and around here at Mid-Ohio it’s so hard to pass. The guys did a great job in pit lane. We were able to hit the fuel number we needed to get to the end of the race, so on that side of things I think we checked some boxes, learned some things, learned a little bit about the car as we head to the doubleheader at the Harvest Grand Prix back on the Indy road course. We’ll take what we learned from there in July, what we learned from here, put it together and hopefully come up with a good package off the truck.”  DALTON KELLETT, NO 14 K-LINE USA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET – Finished 21st: “The only thing you can do on a day like today is take the positive and learn from what went wrong. The team made some good changes from qualifying to the race.iFor the first half of the first stint, the car felt really good, we were on pace with the guys around us. Our speed was pretty competitive on the alternate Firestones. Just a little mistake on my part on the downshift, it got loose into [Turn] 1 and I couldn’t save it. When I backed it into the gravel, we damaged the underwing pretty bad so it was a big loss in downforce. The rest of the race was more of an exercise in keeping the car on the track and trying not to get in the way of the leaders and the cars that weren’t damaged and kind of chugging along. It’s one we’ll have to file away and come back stronger for the Harvest GP.”