CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES REV GROUP GRAND PRIX ROAD AMERICA IN ELKHART LAKE, WISCONSIN TEAM CHEVY DRIVER ZOOM CONFERENCE – SIMON PAGENAUD JUNE 18-20
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, MET WITH MEDIA VIA ZOOM CONFERENCE. COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT:
THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon. Great to see everyone ahead of the REV Group Grand Prix presented by AMR this coming weekend up at Road America.Great to be joined by former Indy 500 champion, also a former series champion, taking the title back in 2016. Driver of the No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet. We say hello to Simon Pagenaud.
THE MODERATOR: Simon Pagenaud, new dad joins us, sixth in points. Certainly not easy when you go home, maybe not much sleep, then you got on the road, it’s all business. Give us a little glimpse of the life of Simon Pagenaud right now.SIMON PAGENAUD: Man, it’s amazing. It’s a new life. It’s a blessing. I’m sure we could ask Scott, he has a lot more experience than I do in that domain.I’m such a happy person. I’m delighted to be a dad, to learn about what it is about this new life. It’s going really well. We are lucky. Marley sleeps really well. He does his nights, so very lucky that way. I have a fantastic wife in Hailey. She takes the night shift. I’m lucky I get to train and feel fully rested when I get to the track, and that’s good.
THE MODERATOR: Simon, as you go back to Road America, a place where Team Penske certainly has put up a lot of numbers over the years, what will it take for that to happen again this weekend?SIMON PAGENAUD: No reason why you can’t. It’s the case every weekend. It’s just super competitive at the moment. Like Scott explained, sometimes it falls your way, sometimes it doesn’t. You have to capitalize on good weekends when the car is there and everything falls your way. We hoping for a weekend like that coming up.It’s certainly for us on the 22 a very special weekend being partner with Menards for us, Wisconsin is a very important race weekend. We love to represent the best we can and show the yellow car up front to just show our support to the Menards store and the employees working there.Very excited to go there. It’s always a great weekend, great weather supposedly. I look forward to it.THE MODERATOR: Sunny and 70s I think is what the forecast calls for.We’ll open it up for questions.
Q. I know Penske should have a couple wins right now but does not. The last time Penske has gone this long into a season without a win, they went winless the whole year. Where do you think the team is right now?SIMON PAGENAUD: I think we’re making big progress through the season. I think we started off on the wrong foot in Barber. I think we made big improvements. We were very focused on Indianapolis. As you saw in race trim, we were competitive, fighting for the win, which is what exactly the team wanted. So that was a big improvement from 2020.I feel like it’s just super, super competitive. It’s just difficult to hit perfectly every weekend. So that’s where we’re at. This weekend we should have won the first race. Josef could have won the second race. Obviously we have the pace. I felt personally on our car we had pace all weekend. We had something similar to Scott happen, qualifying two, right behind Ferrucci when he crashed on a good lap.It is what it is. At the end of the day we have to scrap the points, continue to score points like that. Realistically we’re fifth in the championship right now, in good striking distance.I have confidence. It’s just very difficult to win a race right now for everybody I think. But you got to wait for your time. When you can’t win, you just got to do the best you can, just score points.
Q. Josef said last week, he was asked what needs to change for Penske to sort of turn a corner. He said he didn’t think anything. Do you agree with that?SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, totally. I don’t think anything needs to change. Sometimes in sport it has to come your way, then you look like a superstar. Sometimes you working really well and things just don’t work out, you look like an idiot (smiling).It’s difficult because, like I said, I think there — Pato is on a tear right now for example. I believe it could happen to us very quickly. It’s just a matter of everything aligning well.Performance is there, which is the most important thing. After that we just have to execute. I feel like the momentum is coming, especially on the 22 car. I really do.
Q. You love talking about contracts.SIMON PAGENAUD: It’s my favorite (laughter).
Q. Roger said last week, he was asked if he thinks you’ll be back with the team. He said, I hope so. Where do things stand in your mind?SIMON PAGENAUD: As you know, I love INDYCAR racing. I love Indianapolis 500. My goal is to be in INDYCAR for a long, long time to come. That’s where I stand.Obviously what’s important at the moment is our relationship with Menards, which is really good. John and I have a really strong relationship. The team also. So everything looks pretty good so far. Performance has been good this year. I’m very excited. So we’ll see what happens next.At the moment I’m in my championship. Like I said, in the beginning of the year, contracts will take care of themselves when it comes the time.
Q. Simon, I wouldn’t say you’ve struggled this season, but it’s been really tough. What do you put that down to? Any one thing specifically or luck hasn’t been with you thus far this season?SIMON PAGENAUD: I guess I have a different perspective than you do.I think it’s going pretty well. You have to understand who is strong when and how to win a championship. The goal for us was to win Indianapolis. We gave it a good run. We finished third, half a second behind Helio. The best man won that day. But we were right there. I think mission was almost accomplished. You have to also be proud sometimes of a good effort, which I am, for my team.Now we’re focused on the championship. We’re fifth. We’re in a good position. We’re not far from Pato. Certainly we need to win races. To win a championship, you’re going to need to win races. I think we’re right there.The momentum is growing within our team on the 22 side. As you saw, Team Penske, we almost won. We really should have won that race, race one. Performance is there as a team. I think the boys are just rolling right now.Very much a different perspective than you.
Q. How do you think Scott is getting on now that he’s had a couple races under his belt in INDYCAR?SIMON PAGENAUD: Unfortunately what happened in Detroit in practice one set him back. He’s tremendous. Great talent. He’s awesome to work with. I really enjoy him as a person and as a driver. He has a very focused mind. He’s very task-oriented. I really like it.It’s going to take time. It’s not that easy in the first year, especially with such a field right now. But, like I said at the beginning of the year, I still believe he’s going to win a race before the end of the year.
Q. We started with sort of the young versus old, we’ve had some new winners, Scott Dixon’s stats maybe aren’t as flashy as they might be, Penske is winless. What are we seeing here? Is it some sort of changing of the guard or just a period of unusual parity beyond what we typically see or something else going on?SIMON PAGENAUD: I would say that the simulator work helps young drivers these day. I know when I came into INDYCAR, there weren’t eight simulator that I could be ready for practice one on any tracks. Now it’s totally different.You take a guy like VeeKay, showed up at Detroit, was on simulator the day before. He had never been there. He was right on pace.You have to think about that new technology that’s really helping young drivers get ready at a younger age. I tell you what, I wish I had the chance to work like that. Even my simulator at home helps me today. It would have helped me a lot 20 years ago, but it didn’t exist. It’s just a generation thing. If I was 20 today, I would be a different driver, that’s for sure.I think that made every driver a lot closer to each other. The cars are very close to each other because the teams have had a lot of time to work on that package. We all know the tracks very well. It’s just super, super tight.Yeah, at the end of the day it depends how the whole weekend aligned for you.
Q. Simon, NASCAR is coming to Road America as well. A couple years ago when you were up here to test, Brad Keselowski jumped in your car for a few laps. What do you remember about that, having a stockcar guy in your car, maybe what his reactions were?SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, well, the most recent experience I have is really with Jimmie, Jimmie Johnson joining us. I have a great relationship with him. I love talking with him about his experience, which is really great to hear because he really loves this sport. It’s amazing to see that transition that he’s going through.Just like Brad, when Brad got into my car at Road America, the braking is what impressed him the most. The cornering speed was very surprising as well to him. It’s a big track. The commitment level was certainly very different than what it would be in a NASCAR vehicle.I remember a big smile on his face. That’s what comes to my mind right now.Q. Did he spin?SIMON PAGENAUD: Who?Q. I think Brad.SIMON PAGENAUD: I don’t recall that. If he says so. I don’t recall that.
Q. Simon, if you could give Magnussen one piece of advice for his first time in an INDYCAR, what would it be and why?SIMON PAGENAUD: I think Grosjean would be a better person to ask because he just went through the exact same path as Kevin. I’ve been in INDYCAR for quite a few years.What I can say is I just love the series because, like we just explained, it’s the most rewarding series when you do well because you know that the day you’ve won that was an exceptional day, that you gave your absolute best, and so did your team.In other categories sometimes you can win without having the perfect day. It’s not the same kind of reward you get out of it. That’s to me the experience of INDYCAR. But you have to expect a rough, fun and spectacular weekend, that’s for sure (smiling).
Q. When it comes to the crunch, if you have a couple of contenders come Long Beach time, each team for themselves?SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, I mean, if you’re looking at it from a pure sports standpoint, it’s a shame when a mechanical thing takes a driver out of a championship, for example. The rules are the rules. We just have to obey by it, do the best we can to support the series and go from there.Personally there are a lot of rules I’d like to see changes, but we really can’t do anything about it. You just have to do the best you can with what you get.
Q. After the problem you had at Indy qualifying, can that affect you more?SIMON PAGENAUD: No. Indy qualifying, we didn’t have any problems.Q. In the practice after the qualifying.SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, it’s a different rule for Indianapolis because you’re allowed to change engine for the race. Everybody usually changes engine for the race. I was just lucky that the engine didn’t blow up in qualifying. It was just good timing, good place. I was just a bit lucky there.
Q. Five of the last eight races of the season are on natural road courses. We have a month off after Mid-Ohio. Is there anything you can take away from this weekend and Mid-Ohio that can apply to later in the year?SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, we’ve made massive improvement since 2020 with the same car really. Now we’re just honing what we really like with this car. Every weekend, since we don’t have much testing, we’re applying evolution toward the next weekend. So I feel we feel stronger and stronger every weekend. I felt really strong in race two in Detroit, better than Detroit one. I think that’s going to help us certainly even for Road America, certainly going into Mid-Ohio. Definitely going to help us for Nashville, as well.You’re always looking forward, always looking at tracks that may be similar. But even if they’re not, there’s always something you can take out of it, for sure.
Q. Simon, is your car pretty close race time to when you unload? Anything you can do during the week?SIMON PAGENAUD: That’s a great point because with less practice, especially Detroit for example, you can’t make big changes because the driver and the machine is everything for lap time. Even though you need a car that handles well, the driver, for him to squeeze some time out of it, the less changes the better. That’s my opinion.We’re finding that we make small changes, changes that you know exactly what they’re going to do so you can be competitive in the next session and not have to relearn the behavior of the car. That’s really what I find is happening with these shorter weekends.So, yeah, you need to unload well. Sometimes I tell you you have to agree with the fact that it’s not perfect, just squeeze the best out of it. That’s probably why a top five is so important right now. If the car is not perfect, you have to be satisfied with it no matter what.
Q. Simon, you’re in the tight battle. With Rinus out for this Sunday, what would be key to get strong points, that elusive podium at Road America?SIMON PAGENAUD: That’s a good point. I didn’t realize we didn’t get a podium there yet.Road America is a tough track. There’s a lot of corners. Each corner is a long, long straightaway afterwards. If you’re a little bit off in one corner, you’re losing a lot of lap time. You just got to nail it, nail the setup, nail your driving. You just got to be fast as soon as you get there.That’s what we’re going to do. Obviously it sounds like a million dollar answer, but we just got to be fast and it will take care of itself in the end.I look forward to going there. We should be competitive. We’ve had some great evolution on the race car. It’s a track that I love, so I look forward to being there.
THE MODERATOR: Certainly our thanks to Scott Dixon and Simon Pagenaud. Save travels.