CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
GRAND PRIX OF MONTEREY
WEATHERTECH RACEWAY LAGUNA SECA
MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA
TEAM CHEVY POST QUALIFYING DRIVER QUOTES
SEPTEMBER 10, 2022
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON 5G TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, POLE WINNER:
CAN YOU TAKE A MOMENT TO THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ACHIEVED TODAY?
“Tremendous milestone. To be up there with an iconic guy like Mario is amazing. When I think about the era that he raced in, how dangerous it was and how much more a risk it was, it just blows my mind that I’m there with Mario. It’s great to have Mario here. Someone I respect tremendously and was a massive fan of growing up. I want to swap a helmet with him, put his in my collection if he would do it.”
WHAT ALLOWED YOU THIS YEAR TO WIN ALL THE POLES TO GET TO THIS MOMENT?
“Really focusing in on certain races that we knew we had a good shot at pole.”
NOW THE FOCUS TURNS TOWARD TOMORROW. WHAT IS THE MINDSET?
“We put ourselves in a great position to lead the first lap to get one point and hopefully lead the most laps to get more points. Competitors with better tires but we have track position for right now, so we’ll have a good think about it tonight and see how we attack that one. But it will be a long day. I’ll do my best. “
Mario Andretti, who held the record with 67 poles:
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS MAN?
“Awesome. I know how much I loved qualifying and I can see that he’s the same. It’s just trying to reach and just try to do the lap that you cannot repeat and that’s what puts you on pole.”
DID YOU KNOW THAT THIS MOMENT WOULD EVENTUALLY COME?
“Absolutely. It’s great fort the series, great for the sport. Records are made to be broken. It’s with a good man. Will Power throughout his career has been a really good qualifier. He deserves this. He’s worked for it and he’s the best when it comes to qualifying.”
WHAT IS IT THAT SETS A DRIVER APART IN QUALIFYING?
“How badly do you want it? If I had the specific formula I’d bottle it and sell it. It’s just a matter of really wanting it and just doing that lap that you know you can’t repeat. That’s how records are made.”
CALLUM ILOTT, NO. 77 JUNCOS HOLLINGER RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 2ND
“This shows what we can do with what we have in a certain way. I mean, we started the season with two and a half sets of dampers and one of them is for ovals. We finished with, I think, three and a half, and they’re not much different to the first one. We just bought another version of the first set and adapted them a little bit.
Our terms of development this year have been what we had to start with, and again, just fine-tuning it. Whether it’s me and the driving and the experience, we’ve just been chipping away and trying to do a good job with that, and yeah, it’s been tough, especially with no teammate to kind of have anything to use very well, learn from. To get to this stage and have a result like this, I think they’re all super chuffed, and yeah, amazing job.
At the end of the day even if it’s just one lap at the end, it’s great to do it, finish it like this, and I think gives us so much more motivation in the off-season when they get some time to really digest everything and work on it.
PATO O’WARD, MO.5 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 6TH:
“It was a decent day for us. We got into the Firestone Fast Six and then made the wrong tire choice and was just on the wrong tire to do that run, which put us P6, but it’s not a bad position to start tomorrow. It’s a tire degradation race. Track position is important. It will be interesting to see who chooses a three-stopper or four-stopper, and we’ll let it rip from there.”
SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 XPEL TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 8TH:
YOU GUYS HAD A QUICK CAR, WHAT HAPPENED OVER THERE IN TURN FOUR SCOTT?
“Yeah, trying a bit hard. We missed the balance all weekend in the Xpel Chevy and unfortunately we made just a little mistake there. Just trying to find the limits and get confidence in this car. I am really proud of the guys because we were nowhere in practice and they really shook this one down and gave us a great car. They did a great job and I think we have something to play with tomorrow. We have some tires up our sleeve and we are in a decent starting spot.”
HOW MUCH OF YOUR FOCUS TOMORROW WILL BE TRYING TO FINISH SECOND IN THE POINTS AS OPPOSED TO HELPING WILL POWER OR JOSEF NEWGARDEN WIN A TITLE?
“Look, we all drive for Team Penske. When the team wins, we win. We will do what we need to do to get the best result for the team. Whether that is Will (Power) winning the championship or us trying to get 1-2-3 or 1-2. We will do what we need to do. I am very happy with this organization and proud to have signed on and proud to represent all these partners and we just want to do a good job for all them.”
FELIX ROSENQIST, NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET. QUALIFIED 9TH:
“In Round 1, Group 2, we did 71.3 second lap and tried to do the same in Round 2, but we were missing four tenths of that lap, so I’m not really sure what happened. Just kind of lacking grip a little bit, something on tire warmup or something I could have done different, but a top 10 is pretty solid. I would have been happy with a little bit higher starting position here, but I think I have a good opportunity tomorrow.”
RINIS VEEKAY, NO, 21 BITCOIN RACING TEAM WITH BITNILE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 14TH: We definitely got better from practice to qualifying, but we should have advanced. A car came out in front of me on my second lap, so even though my time should have improved, it didn’t. It’s a bummer, but we definitely moved in the right direction. We should be in good shape for the warm up tomorrow and we’ve got some good things to try for the race.”
CONOR DALY, NO. 20 BITNILE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET. QUALIFIED 15TH: “Our qualifying session was a bit chaotic. To produce one lap and just get about a tenth and a half away from transferring was actually a good step forward for us. Last year we struggled here, I’m proud of the team for working really hard on this BitNile car. We’ll just get after it in the race. It’s going to be really interesting with the tire degradation, we have a set of reds that are saved. We’ll see what happens. We were close, definitely close!”
KYLE KIRKWOOD, NO.14 SEXTON PROPERTIES AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 17TH:
“So, with qualifying finished, we were one of the few to do red red and it paid off for us because we were in the lead in the first half of qualifying. With the red coming out, we almost got super lucky there. Ultimately, we qualified I think P9 in our group. Not exactly where we want to be, but I think we found some pace between practice one, practice two and qualifying. We are constantly progressing, and we will go into the final practice tomorrow morning hopefully with a good race car and the big thing here is making the tires last. If we can do that, we have a lot of people starting around us that should be up front as well and hopefully we can just move forward from there.”
DALTON KELLETT, NO. 4 K-LINE AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET,QUALIFIED 24TH:
“Our last qualifying of the year and not where we want to be in qualifying P24. We have closed the gap from where we were at the start of the weekend, so I am happy we found some little bit of time on those new tires and we had banked on going red red but I wasn’t really able to find a gap in that first run because we started at the back of pit lane and just at the mercy of that accordion effect. So then on that second set, it was really tight coming in and its pretty much hand over hand and grabbed the clutch coming in and I didn’t quite get it into pit lane speed. Then we sat there and changed tires with the car running so when I launched, I accelerated over pit lane speed, and we got docked there. We had to do a drive through and that probably didn’t help us. It just wasn’t enough to transfer there by seven tenths or so. But the real question tomorrow is how well we keep the tires under us for the long run. That is the name of the game here with how abrasive the track surface is.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 25TH:
“I just made a mistake, it’s a real shame. I think we have the fastest car in the field right here, so, yeah, it’s a bummer, it’s a bummer for everybody. It’s not over but it’s not ideal, what just happened here. It is what it is.”
SIMONA DESILVESTRO, NO. 16 THUN SWITZERLAND PARETTA AUTO SPORT CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 26TH:
It was a tough day. We got stuck behind people that were gapping and we just didn’t put a (good) lap in which was a bummer. This morning I felt it was going to be a good day and we were going to have been a good qualifying result. Anyways, it is what it is and we’ll go out there tomorrow and do our best.