CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
SONSIO GRAND PRIX AT ROAD AMERICA
ROAD AMERICA
ELKHART LAKE, WISCONSIN
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING RECAP
JUNE 10, 2022
JOSEF NEWGARDEN GRABS FRONT ROW STARTING POSITION FOR TEAM CHEVY
PATO O’WARD WILL ROLL OFF FROM THIRD ROW
ELKHART LAKE, WISC (JUNE 11, 2022) – Josef Newgarden did what Josef Newgarden does at Road America – qualify on the front row. The two-time NTT INDYCAR Champion piloted his No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet to the front row with a lap of one minute, 44.9371 seconds/137.705 mph.
This is Newgarden’s fourth front-row start (three poles) on the 4.048-mile/14-turn natural terrain road course. He won from the pole in 2018.
Pato O’Ward powered his No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet to a third-row position on the grid. His Arrow McLaren SP teammate, Felix Rosenqvist, will start in eighth position in the No. 7 Vuse Chevrolet.
Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Sonsio Team Penske Chevrolet, will start ninth, on the inside of row five.
Alexander Rossi won the NTT P1 award. Alex Palou, Marcus Ericsson and Colton Herta made up the remainder of the Firestone Fast Six field.
The remaining Team Chevy drivers will start as follows:
12th Callum Ilott
15th Will Power
17th Rinus Veekay
18th Conor Daly
23rd Dalton Kellett
24th Kirk Kirkwood
25th Tatiana Calderon
27th Simon de Silvestro
Chevrolet and the NTT INDYCAR Series continue the 2022 season with the Sonsio Grand Prix at 12:55 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 12 from Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. The race will air live on NBC, the Peacock streaming service and SiriusXM IndyCar Nation (Channel 160) beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET. Live timing and scoring will be available at racecontrol.indycar.com.
DRIVER QUOTES:
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 PPG TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET
SO, YOU WERE THE BEST ON THE SCUFF REDS.
“I thought he (Rossi) was on used reds. I’m surprised he was able to make that work on blacks to be quite honest. In my opinion I thought it was clear we were going to go used reds. They just seemed significantly better this year than last year. Last year, we obviously used that strategy, but I thought the drop off for the blacks was not as bad, where this year it seems a bit worse. You know what if he made that work, that’s pretty stout. The lap time he did on blacks would be really, really good. That’s an impressive pole. Hats off to that. I felt like I did a good lap, wasn’t perfect. I went for it on my first, because I didn’t know what the rain was going to do. Ultimately, I’d probably handle that differently, but PPG car is fast. Team Chevy has done a great job for us. Just wish we had the pole.”
SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN, NO.3 SONSIO TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET
DID YOU NOT FIND THE SWEET SPOT THERE IN QUALIFYING?
“Yeah, I think all weekend we have just been chasing the sweet spot. I think we found it in qualifying, but it was just too late on learning the car as we’re going along. Proud of everyone on this Sonsio Chevy. The Sonsio Grand Prix too, I’d like to be a little further up, but at the end of the day it’s all good.”
I’VE GOT TO GIVE YOU AN A PLUS ON THAT SAVE OVER THERE IN TURN 12. YOU LOOKED LIKE YOU HAD YOUR HANDS FULL.
“Yeah, I mean I was just up on the (inaudible). You know how it is. It was pretty loose. Hands and feet going everywhere. Yeah, you’re on the limit and you’re trying to find it. You’ve got to be on the limit in IndyCar. It’s the most competitive series in the world and I have so much thrill in qualifying a race car around here and in the IndyCar Series.”
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON 5G TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET
“I punished my reds on that first lap too much, knowing that I was not in the top-six after the black run. Just put you in a more pressure situation. I think that’s some of it, just need to do a better job.
YOU’VE BEEN REALLY COMPLIMENTARY OF YOUR CREW AND HOW THEY’VE GOTTEN YOU INTO THIS POSITION OVER THE COURSE OF THE SEASON. WHAT DO YOU GUYS HAVE TO DO TO GET INTO POSITION TO RUN UP FRONT TOMORROW?
“The only good thing about not qualifying well is the tire situation. You just have better tires. We need to qualify better, but I’m sure we can work something out tomorrow.”
PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET
FELIX ROSENQVIST, NO. 7 VUSE ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET
WHAT KIND OF MEMORY WILL THIS QUALIFICATION SESSION BE FOR YOU?
“I think it’s actually the same spot I started when I won. That’s funny. No eight, maybe seven or eight. I mean, pretty good starting position. A bit bummed I couldn’t do a better lap. Just struggled a bit on the reds to be honest. I think every time we have been on the reds just didn’t get the difference we expected, but it’s a good starting point. Anything can happen on this track. Especially the stints on reds. If you can make that work, I think you’re in a good shape from P8. Little bit bummed like always.”
WE WERE WATCHING THE RAIN DROPS OFF AND ON. WERE YOU DISTRACTED AT ALL? DID THEY AFFECT AT ALL THE GRIP OF THE CAR?
“They did in Q1. I remember when I started my first red lap into 1 it was like oh. I definitely didn’t warm up my tires enough for that. I think it was just on the limit where you can see it on your screen, but it doesn’t really affect the grip much. Just a little bit when the tires are cold.”
CALLUM ILOTT, NO. 77 JUNCOS HOLLIGER RACING CHEVROLET
WHAT HAPPENED?
“I think I pushed it. The front didn’t really respond and then yeah, I just overshot it basically. Bit optimistic maybe. I don’t know, it was a bit strange.”
LUCKILY CAR NOT TOO BAD. YOU COULD HAVE PROBABLY GONE OUT AGAIN.
“Yeah, just with the time and they would have taken away the two laps anyway. So, better to check everything over. Great run to get out of the first Q1.”
SIMONA DE SILVESTRO, NO. 16 PARETTA AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET
REACCLIMATING IN SO MANY WAYS TO THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THAT QUALIFYING RUN?
“Terrible to be honest. I don’t know. I think it’s definitely been tough kind of jumping into the car and just getting my head around it. Then going out on reds, you know we had one set yesterday. I felt kind of ok yesterday, but definitely today when everyone kind of ups their game it changes things a little bit. Just didn’t really use the tire. I went out and yeah just didn’t use it. From that point of view, it’s definitely something that I really need to analyze for the next run we go to.”
WE CHATTED YESTERDAY AND I ASKED YOU WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD RESULT ON SUNDAY. YOU SAID, GIVE ME A PRACTICE, GIVE ME QUALYFING AND THEN MAYBE I’LL LET YOU KNOW. WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU STAND FOR SUNDAY?
“Yeah, I don’t know. I think we can be quicker than a few cars in front of us. I don’t know. We just don’t need to do mistakes. For me, it is going to be important as well to just do 55 laps and finish it. We’ll see. I think if we get closer to where we want to be I think that would be positive.”
RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 DIRECT SUPPLY ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET
“I drove as hard as I could, but we were just way too slow. We’ve been struggling since opening practice yesterday, especially in the slow-speed corners. It’s very unfortunate. I hope we can improve and find something good for the race.”
CONOR DALY, NO. 20 BITNILE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET
WHAT WERE YOU MISSING? WHAT DID YOU LEARN HERE IN THIS SESSION?
“Yeah, it’s tough man. I felt like the balance was good. At least good enough to transfer. When we crossed the line for our last lap, they were like oh you are fifth. I was like alright. Everyone is so good here. Everyone is really good, so you got to be perfect. It’s tough man. We are on the limit everywhere. Just missing a little bit of grip. This is a really challenging place, on multiple different surfaces. As a team, we are definitely working on it so we can have a good day tomorrow for sure.”
WHAT CAN YOU DO FROM WHERE YOU’RE AT IN THE RACE TOMORROW? IS THIS A PLACE WHERE THE CAR IS GOOD AND YOU CAN MOVE FORWARD?
“I mean anything can happen in the race. Last year was kind of a wild mix up of strategy. You never know what can happen in an IndyCar race. The goal is to just try to pick people off one stint at a time. The windows aren’t massive, but we know we’ve raced well all year long. That’s a confidence inspiring thing that we have going for us.”
DALTON KELLETT, NO. 4 K-LINE AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET
“Overall, we were not too happy with how the run went. We’d like to be starting a little further up but we felt like we were maybe a little over the top on being a bit loose that run. I think we are just looking for some grip overall across the camp right now between the three of us. Straightline braking seems to be a bit of a bit of a struggle. I made a little mistake on the start of my second lap and that probably cost us a couple of tenths, but that wouldn’t really have affected our position in our group I don’t think. Overall, still trying to figure out what it is we really need to kind of hit the nail on the head here. We seem to be still looking for that. So we’re going to look at the data between the three cars and see if we can come up with for warmup.”
TATIANA CALDERON, NO. 11 ROKIT AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET
“I think we improved a lot since free practice. Unfortunately, I made a big lock up on my quickest lap where we lost a lot of time. So that cost me quite a lot of lap time obviously. I think this is the closest I’ve been to my teammates. So that’s encouraging and I think the car felt much much better than free practice 1 and free practice 2. So hopefully we can build on that. We need a good race car because they I think that tire degradation will be key here so hopefully we can get closer to the top guys in race trim.”
KYLE KIRKWOOD, NO. 14 ROKIT AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET
“Finished with qualifying, definitely not the best qualifying that we’ve had all year. Qualified P24. I think some of that is caused by losing some [time] in the second practice which was unfortunate. Conditions have changed a lot I think from yesterday to today and I feel like we probably missed out in qualifying. We got the car a lot better from the first run to the second run, but still just not enough and it’s been really tight up at the front. So unfortunate starting position, but we’ll see how the race car goes.”
NTT INDYCAR SERIES News Conference
NTT P1 FIRESTONE FAST SIX
Josef Newgarden
Press Conference
THE MODERATOR: Wrapping up qualifying, we’ve been joined by the outside front row starter Josef Newgarden.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It was unbelievable. I didn’t even realize it was on blacks. I looked like an idiot talking to Greg from Team Chevy. I was like, Clearly, clearly it was better to go use reds, we knew that. He didn’t say anything to me (smiling). Someone else told me. He was like, I didn’t want to correct you. Wow, I feel, like, stupid.
Yeah, I think what Palou did was about what I would figure. Blacks was a low five on new blacks, low five, five-two, five-three. The new reds, I figured we could eke out an eight, nine, maybe a seven in a perfect world, if you absolutely, absolutely nailed it.
We were just a little short. I think Rossi’s lap is definitely an outlier. Must have been a mega lap. It looks like it. Kudos to these guys.
I was pretty happy with my lap. It wasn’t like it was a bad lap. It just wasn’t enough. Wish we were one spot better, but we all day to work on that now with PPG and Team Chevy.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.
Q. Did the rain affect anything?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Maybe a little warmup, but I didn’t notice a big difference from it.
Q. This race has been won from different positions on the grid. Historically seems to favor the guys up front because you can control the agenda of the race. How important is it to be where you’re at?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, I think it’s helpful here for sure. You want to be up front. Ideally it’s a long track, it’s a lot of ground to make up. You get pretty spread out. When you start at the back, it puts you on even more of a back foot here versus a smaller track.
Yeah, hopefully it’s good. The race is very different than qualifying. We’ll have to see how that works out. Tires, in my opinion, are quite different this year. So it will be interesting to see some guys that didn’t transfer, like a Will Power, for instance, it will be interesting to see how they utilize their reds and things like that.
There’s no gimmes this day. I thought Detroit was going to be pretty straightforward last weekend and it was anything but that. Don’t hold your breath.
Q. (No microphone.)
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, I think outside Rossi, it clearly was a better choice for us. I mean, if I was to do it again, I think I could have found a little bit of time in it. I didn’t do a bad lap. It was a good lap I did.
But I think the evidence suggested to me that it wasn’t the same case as last year. Last year was a lot closer between I thought the reds and the blacks. The dropoff was maybe a little different on the reds. To me, I thought it was pretty clear that reds seemed better this year. Yeah, from yesterday, purely off the data yesterday, it seemed clear to me that they would be better. Obviously that wasn’t the case.
But I think Rossi is a bit of an outlier being able to make that work. It’s a very impressive lap, for sure. If you look at the others, five-four, five-three, that’s kind of what it stacked up to be in my mind.
Ultimately if we were to go back and do it again, maybe we could have pipped him. It was that close with how good of a lap it was. That’s INDYCAR, though. Sometimes you really think you have it sorted out, and someone can always put something together.
I think Alex mustered a really good lap together today. Sometimes that’s all it takes, is just really digging deep, putting it all together. That’s obviously enough for today. It’s not always straightforward.
Q. (No microphone.)
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I forget about that stuff half the time, to be honest. I just hope it doesn’t happen again. That would be great to not have that happen.
But we’ve got a lot of racing to do before we get to that point, to the end. I feel just as good as we did last year going into the race. Obviously not in the same position starting, but I think we’ve got a good car to go the distance. Hopefully two laps more the distance (smiling).
Yeah, we should be in good shape. I haven’t really thought of it much, honestly.
Q. (No microphone.)
THE MODERATOR: 1961 was the last time we had eight different pole winners to start the season.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Isn’t that crazy?
THE MODERATOR: There were nine that year. We’ll see what happens at Mid-Ohio. Bruce covered that year, too (laughter).
Q. Talk about how much more a pole means when it’s difficult to earn a pole?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I mean, look, I think anything in this series nowadays is incredibly gratifying whenever you’re successful, whether it’s poles, winning the race. They’re both extremely difficult for different reasons.
It’s just hard these days to stay up front, to find a consistent edge. I think we can find an edge every now and then on people, but consistently having it is incredibly difficult.
INDYCAR is what it is, the product is diverse. You’re constantly swinging between all these different types of tracks. You might find a little edge on a road course and all of a sudden (indiscernible) between a street course, superspeedway. It’s not all just one type. It’s really satisfying when you get stuff right nowadays.
Q. Crowd bigger than you’ve seen here in the past. It seems like the crowd is up. I believe they were saying 20% over last couple years. What did you notice about the crowd?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Just less COVID, you know (smiling).
I mean, truthfully that’s probably accurate. I don’t know. There’s always a huge crowd here. I don’t even know that I noticed a difference because the crowd always feels incredibly big here. So I don’t know. I don’t know there’s a difference. It’s always looked packed here.
Just to speak to Road America, I think they do a tremendous job here. I’ve never stayed here at the track until this weekend. Having a blast. Love f the atmosphere, love the fans. It’s beautiful country. It’s a great place to go racing, absolutely one of the best on the calendar. They do a great job up here of putting on a good show.
THE MODERATOR: Back to the most different poles, the record for most different pole winners in a season was in 1999 in the old CART days.
Q. How the performance of the blacks and reds in the qualifying is changing the preparation for the race?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t know. Clearly I think some people will prefer different things with their cars. I feel more confident on red tires this weekend, which is different than I think probably Rossi feels. I think you’ll see some split feelings amongst the pack.
If we get rained out here in P3, I don’t know. I’m not really sure we’re going to have a great analysis or estimate on how the tires are going to perform across the life, both the blacks and the reds. Hard to say at the moment. I’m not sure what we’re going to get. Could be a mixed bag.
But you’re going to need to be smart. Like I said, I thought we were smart in Detroit with what we were doing. It clearly wasn’t the right thing. It’s hard to always predict these races nowadays. I don’t have a good answer for you.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll let you go. Thank you.