JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 SHELL CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE HOW HAS THE MONTH OF MAY BEEN TREATING YOU, SO FAR? “Great to see everyone on here. Feeling good, feeling positive. I’m excited for this weekend. Let’s see what unfolds.”WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR SUNDAY? OBVIOUSLY, YOU GOT SAVED BY A LIGHTNING BOLT FROM HAVING TO RE-QUALIFY FOR A SECOND TIME ON SATURDAY; BUT IT WASN’T FAST ENOUGH FOR THE TOP-12. “Yeah, I’m really excited about the race. I think we have a strong car; I really do. It’s been a pretty steady month for us with the Shell Fuel Rewards Vehicle. Team Chevy has really had a good step-up for us this month, similar to what we’ve seen at most tracks we’ve gone to this year. We’ve had great performance from Team Chevy and we expect no different in the race. We fell a little short in qualifying, unfortunately. I think on one hand, I’m disappointed we weren’t able to show more of our potential. I really felt we had a large improvement over last year. The hand we were dealt was certainly not favorable, timing-wise. It was just one of those days where, unfortunately, timing meant a lot and you really had to maximize and perfect your first run. We didn’t quite perfect our first run and that ultimately ended up biting us and pulling us out of that Fast 12 group. So, I don’t think we showed our entire potential, but hopefully we can rectify that in the race coming up this weekend.”ANY SHORT-COMINGS OR ADVANTAGES THAT YOU SEE FROM EITHER MANUFACTURER AT THIS POINT? “Yeah, that’s a good question. I see where you’re coming from. I think it’s a full 360, to be honest. We’re looking at improvements in all areas: overall power, power and drivability together, and then fuel mileage. You need all of them, really. At the end of the day, you need all of them to be at their best to compete against our competitors. I think we’ve made performance gains in all areas. We’ve seen that across the board in the previous races leading up to the (Indianapolis) 500; and I think for the 500 specifically, it’s a similar case. “It’s just a matter of where does that ultimately all stack up compared to Honda. I think It’s hard to say when you’re not in the actual race. There is a lot that takes place in practice, whether it’s fuel loads or engine mixtures. You just don’t have a complete read on where you ultimately are. But judging off of history and the races leading up to it this year, I think we’ve made an improvement in all areas and hopefully that is going to be enough to make our day simpler on Sunday compared to last year.”WHEN YOU LOOK AT THIS RACE ON SUNDAY, IT LOOKS LIKE WE’RE GOING TO HAVE A HOT ONE. HOW DO YOU SEE WHERE YOU NEED TO BE WITH YOUR CAR? “Yeah, handling is going to be a premium. There’s no doubt. When the track temperature comes up, that’s when things get tricky. I think we’re in a good spot, I really do. I feel very positive about our car. We haven’t had a lot of hot days in testing. When we were here for the open test, it was cool and perfect and it was like that for most of this month. We had one day that probably represents more closely to what the race will be and that was last Tuesday. It was definitely more difficult. The car was trickier to drive; it was more on the edge. You were worried about the rear a lot more. So, I think that brings in the conversation about degradation and how do you manage that. It will definitely put a premium on handling – looking out for the tires, making sure you have minimal degradation. That’s probably more important than your outright car speed or your fuel mileage. I think it will be interesting to see how that transpires, but that’s the stuff we’re looking at for the weekend.”ON WINNING THE INDIANAPOLIS 500 IN THE YEAR THAT YOU CELEBRATED THE BIRTH OF YOUR CHILD AND HAVING THIS INTERESTING EARLY PART OF THE SEASON: “Yeah, it would be great timing, no doubt. But unfortunately, we don’t get to choose these things. They either happen or they don’t. Sometimes the timing can be just perfect. I don’t know what the future is going to hold. We’ve been in a good spot. Personally, I’ve been very fortunate. My wife and our family have been in a very fortunate position. Everybody is happy and healthy and that’s all I can really wish and hope for. How it’s all going to come together on Sunday, I don’t know. I don’t have the answer for that. I’m just doing the best job I can, like always, and hopefully it works out.”
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 PENNZOIL CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE“I think Team Chevy has done an awesome job bringing us the power this year for the 500. We have great engines and great power against the Hondas. As a team, I think we didn’t take the same step forward that they have in terms of performance. But I have full faith in what we have underneath the hood with fuel mileage, drivability, in pit lane and all that sort of stuff to make decent headway from where we are. It’s not where we want to qualify. Certainly our racecar feels really strong and has been helped with the increase in power and fuel mileage from Chevy this year. I’m excited. I certainly think a Chevy can win the Indy 500 this year, and I hope that’s me.”HOW HAS YOUR MONTH OF MAY BEEN GOING? “It’s great to be back. The month of May has been wild with ups and downs, lots of rain and lots of good weather. That’s the May in Indy and what it’s all about. I can’t wait for Sunday. I think we have a pretty handy race car on our hands and I think we can do some damage from 26th.”ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING THE SPEEDWAY FULL OF FANS? “It’s something that I’m really looking forward to. I had the experience of last year with the quarter-crowd or whatever it was. I remember talking to (James) Hinchcliffe and (Graham) Rahal on the grid before the intros – they were on my row – and I said, ‘Geez, boys, there’s a lot of fans out there.’ And they said that’s nothing, wait until next year when it’s full. I’m starting to feel that vibe. The festivities, the Snake Pit and seeing how big this town is around this time of the month is exciting.”EMOTIONALLY AS A DRIVER, THAT HAS TO GET TO YOU? “I’ve never competed in something as big as this. It will be a new thing for all of us, even though last year was 130-something thousand people. As a driver, it’s a big deal and such a big moment for families. It’s very exciting.” QUALIFYING DIDN’T REALLY PLAY OUT THE WAY YOU WANTED. TALK ABOUT YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR SUNDAY. “That was obviously disappointing to us on car 3. I think 15th would have been a lot better than 26th, but at the same time we know that Indy is a huge race and it takes a lot more than just a qualifying position to have a good one. Things can go your way and things can’t. You just have to make sure you make it as perfect a day as you can. Things didn’t work out our way in qualifying. We had a pretty solid car, but I felt like conditions at the time maybe weren’t favorable for us. But I still don’t think we would have made the jump we need to for qualifying. There’s been a lot of hard work at Penske, but we just missed it a little bit. We’ll be OK. We’ll get that speed eventually. We know our race car is good and that’s what pays at the end of the day.”WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO YOUNG DRIVERS ASPIRING TO THEIR DREAMS? “I think New Zealand punches above its weight with how good our series is bringing up young talent. We have a great pool of talent. You can learn a ton with the tracks down south before you go overseas, so don’t rush that process and then hopefully bigger and better things will come in your career.”ARE THERE THINGS YOU HAD FIVE YEARS AGO THAT CHANGED AS YOU’VE GOTTEN OLDER? “I think I’m just a different driver. I think I’m at the peak of my career. I’ve had to learn a whole different discipline as far as where I’m at with my driving and learning aerodynamics and how to race a very powerful car. Yes, I am a better driver but I’m a bit of a more diverse driver. I’m racing on ovals now, street courses. I think that’s what is cool about INDYCAR is that it allows you to grow as a driver and have a huge amount of different tracks that you have to be good at to win the championship. I’m really enjoying that challenge.”SUNDAY IS GOING TO BE HOT, WHICH SEEMS TO SUIT YOUR AGGRESSIVE STYLE TO MOVE FORWARD. “I actually wanted it to be hotter. I think it suits us from the perspective of that we can follow closer than a lot of other cars and I feel like our tire degradation is pretty good. I’m fully expecting a solid race. I just need to be smart. You know, 26th is a long way back, but at the end of the day it’s a long race and things can change. For me, it’s just trying to get through the first stint. If I can pick my risks, I will, or if I have to risk a bit more early, I will. I have no doubt we can win this race and we have the speed to. One thing that has been really good for me this month is that once we get to the front and battle with (Alex) Palou or Pato (O’Ward), in practice we hold our own. I feel if we get to the front, we’ll be able to stay there and fight.”DO YOU HAVE MARKERS OF WHERE YOU WANT TO BE AT CERTAIN PARTS OF THE RACE? “We have strategy goals that we’re still working on, where we’re going to be. If we need to move forward a bit quicker and be more daring with the car setup and the downforce levels, we can definitely trim out if we need to.”ARE YOU CONFIDENT YOU CAN RETURN TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP HUNT? “This is a massive race for the championship. It’s early days to really worry about it, but this is an important deal to at least get some points on the board. I want a solid race, and this could really set up your championship as it did for (Alex) Palou last year.”
DALTON KELLETT, NO. 4 K-LINE INSULATORS CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING “Everything has been going alright and going smoothly so far today. Monday obviously was a tough day for the No. 4 K-Line crew, but we’ve got the car back together. Our mechanics and engineers have been working hard to get everything sorted if we get to go out tomorrow and then Sunday.”THIS IS YOUR THIRD 500. WHAT YOUR ROUTINE? IS IT GOOD TO GET AWAY FROM THE TRACK OR DO YOU WANT TO STAY IN RACE MODE THE WHOLE TIME? “I think it was nice to get out and disconnect a little bit. It’s important to find those brief moments throughout the month that you read a book, go for a walk with the dog or whatever where you can just get away. It’s easy to get locked in and be tense moving forward with the race ahead.”INAUDIBLE: “It’s hard at Indy because there’s so much before. At some point before we go out for the driver intros, I like to get dressed early, do a warmup with all that on and get my body loose and ready. Throughout the day, I try to get a couple of brief moments to take a couple of breaths, close my eyes and just make sure I’m in the right mindset for the race.”
PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 McLAREN CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN SP“We’re in the Indy 500. If you’re not here to win, then what are you doing here? I think we’re starting in a great position. I’m happy with my race car. I think the team has given all three of us a great shot at having a great race. That’s what we want to do; we want to do a great race, we want to be there at the end and fight for the win and just have a great, clean race for all of us.”WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT A GOOD RESULT SUNDAY BEING A GATE FOR YOU FOR THE FUTURE? “It’s a huge race, the most important race for all of us in our calendar. I try not to think about that. It’s obviously a race that everybody in the paddock wants to win. It’s a wish that everybody in the paddock wants to accomplish in their career, in their life. It’s something that always crosses your mind because you want it so bad. You have to treat it like another race and execute when the opportunities come and make sure you’re there at the end to take advantage of all the work that you’re going to be doing all race to position yourself for a good result.”WITH ALL THE CRAZY WEATHER WE’VE HAD, DO YOU THINK YOU NEEDED MORE TIME FOR PRACTICE? “No, I’m ready to go to the race. Even if we do get some running in on Friday or Saturday it’s going to be useless because it’s going to be 30 degrees colder than what it is going to be on race day. You’re going to learn nothing. You’re going to be ‘Oh, my car’s great,’ and you get to the race and say, ‘What happened to it?’ Well, the sun did. It would have been great to have another day with temperature similar to race day, but we really haven’t had that chance until race day. So, I think everybody’s got what they got and I’m really happy with my race car.”HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR STARTING SPOT? “I feel great; it’s my best starting spot in the Indy 500. I think we’re in a great spot to do a really good race. It’s such a long race where it’s all about doing your pit stops correctly, hitting your marks. The guys have to be making the right calls on the strategy, but it’s crazy to think that you know what the strategy is going to be like on a 500-mile race. I think it’s all about keeping it clean, taking care of your car, being aware of your surroundings, and once the closing stages of it start and you see what strategies are going on, then I think you can be a bit more aggressive on certain things. But as soon as you start the race, it’s all about keeping it clean, being smart with your position with your car and making sure you get your car into a window where it’s drivable and you’re comfortable with it.”IS IT REASSURING TO HAVE YOUR TEAMMATE BESIDE YOU? “I think it’s really good that we have both cars in the same row. I think the biggest thing there is being aware of who’s around you and don’t get too excited on certain things because it is 200 laps. I remember last year I lost two positions on the start, but if you get the first pit stop sequence right you can move up 10, 12 positions in track position. So, I think we came out fourth. I have no idea how. We were right where we wanted to be for the rest of the race. I think there’s a huge emphasis on how smooth you can do those pit stop sequences. I really think that’s where you make or break your race. As good as your car may be, if you’re in a train of 10 you aren’t passing anybody until somebody has a moment or somebody doesn’t time a tow correctly and has a mistake. But if no one is making a mistake, you aren’t getting by anybody. If you’re in the first three or four, yes. Other than that, you just need to wait for someone to make a mistake or get them on the pit stop sequence.”HOW TO YOU FEEL ABOUT CHEVY’S FUEL MILEAGE? “We’ve been running in the pack and going through mixtures. I’m really happy with where we stand. It’s hard to know where people are when you’re fuel saving and they are full power. I think we’re in a really good place and we’re trying to get the balance of the car as strong as possible to make sure we can attack the last few laps.”HOW DO YOU SEE THE GRID WITH PEOPLE STARTING IN THE FRONT WITHOUT A LOT OF EXPERIENCE AND OTHERS WHO IT DIDN’T WORK OUT FOR STARTING AT THE BACK? “I think that’s what makes the 500 such a different race than everything else. It’s great to be starting up front and you don’t have all that dirty air and it makes your life easier. But just because you’re starting halfway in the pack, you have a good race car you’re going to be in the front halfway through the race. That’s the point when the race starts to pace out, when the passing becomes easier just because you don’t have dirty air from 15 different cars. Obviously, yellows have a lot to say where strategies go. There are so many factors that you can’t control. But what you can is make sure you have the opportunity take it and if you don’t be patient with it.”IS STAYING PATIENT TOUGH TO DO? “It’s tough to do, but I think at the end of the race there’s one thing on your mind if you’re up there and that’s you need to be aggressive because other people are going to be really aggressive. But at the start of the race, you have to be aware of who’s around you. I think it’s important not to treat the start of the race not like a practice, but you also can use start of the race in trying to make your car better for the end. There are certain things you can move around in the car, the team can help you with front or rear wing. There are things you can do to try to position yourself even better for the end of the race and I think that’s the most important thing.”IS IT TOUGH TO HAVE A MENTAL PICTURE OF WHERE YOU ARE IN THE RACE? “I usually let the team deal with it. But if you’re running up front you know. I’m usually pretty aware of where we stand, but I just drive.”HOW DIFFICULT IS IT FOR YOU TO KEEP FOCUS AND CALM BEHIND ANOTHER CAR? “You just need to make sure you’re in a position to get the position or be aggressive with it if someone makes a mistake. When will they make the mistake? Will they make a mistake? You never know. You get to a point where as much as you’d love to be passing people when you’re in a train of six or seven cars, you’re not going to. You dial down, save fuel and open windows for the team and just be ready for an opportunity.”IN PAST YEARS THERE HAS BEEN A FAVORITE. IS THAT THE CASE THIS YEAR OR ARE THERE TOO MANY PEOPLE WHO COULD WIN? “I think there are so many cars that could win the race and with it being such a long race, you never know who takes the risk on strategy. There are going to be cars that are off-strategy, and they can get lucky and it works out for them. I just think it’s a race that you can’t guess who’s going to win.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 6 McLAREN CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN SP“Things are really good. We have a good car. Compared to last year, we have good pace. I’m pretty excited. We have a great potential. It’s going to be a tough race starting from where we’re starting, but it’s not impossible. I’m up for the challenge. With the way the car is driving and handling, I feel like have a shot. Of course, things need to go your way. You can normally get away with one mistake early in the race, and I think we made our mistake already in qualifying. For sure we have to have a good race and good execution all day to give ourselves a chance.”DID YOU COME AWAY FROM MONDAY WITH CONFIDENCE IN THE CAR RUNNING TRAFFIC? “I think Monday a lot of people fooled themselves in running a lot of downforce for a cool racetrack. If you look at the forecast for Sunday, it’s going to be a hot race. So everyone who ran high downforce on Monday will have a lot less downforce Sunday. I feel like we did the homework we needed to do and executed the way we needed to execute, so I’m pretty happy.”WORKING WITH FELIX ROSENQVIST AND PATO O’WARD: “It’s been a lot of fun. We always have a good laugh, we always tease each other and push a lot of buttons.”HOW EUROPEANS VIEW THE INDY 500: “A lot of race fans in Europe to pay attention. They enjoy watching. If you go on Sunday night at Monaco around the boats, 90 percent of the boats have the Indy 500 on. So people do pay a lot of attention. It’s exciting and a fun race. It’s a cool day of motorsports, to be honest.”YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN THREE INDY 500s WITH THREE DIFFERENT TEAMS: “I don’t think about it too much. I just want to give myself a shot at winning the race. It’s not because it’s the first win or the third win. I don’t feel you should come to a race if you don’t want to try to win it. I’m not going to say yes to come and do an event if I’m not willing to put everything on the line to win it.”ON THE INDIANAPOLIS 500 BEING SPECIAL: “It’s one of the cool races you want to do. It’s an event you want to do like going to Le Mans or being able to do Monaco. To be able to it as a one-off is really cool. For Monaco you have to be in F1 to do it. For Le Mans, you pretty much have to run the WEC to do it. This is one of the cool things about Indianapolis that you can do it as a one-off event.”PROGRESSION OF PATO O’WARD: “I think everyone saw that Pato was a little emotional at the beginning of the year, and right now he’s in an up-cycle. So I think mentally he’s in a very good place right now. I think it’s important for him to understand instead of being up or down to be more level. That would really help. When he’s up, he’s very fast and hard to beat.”
FELIX ROSENQVIST, NO. 7 VUSE McLAREN CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN RACING SP“It just feels like I’m way more prepared this year. Second year with my team and second year with my same teammates at IMS with Pato (O’Ward) and Juan Pablo (Montoya). I think we make for a good combo.”DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE THIRD WHEEL IN THE PATO AND JUAN PABLO BROMANCE? “I feel like I’m the dad between those two, especially Juan. He’s like an 18-year-old. I’m looking after him, making sure he’s on time for all his appointments and engineering debriefs and all that. It’s good.”WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR SUNDAY STARING P8? “I think there are a lot of people who can win this race. Some of it comes down to luck and circumstances, but I definitely feel we’re ready to have a really good race. We’re starting eighth, which I think is right where you want to be. You want to be in the top-10 for this race, especially in the beginning when all the crazy stuff is happening to settle into the race. If we can be better than that at the beginning, then I think we’ll be really solid. We felt good in traffic. I think that’s the main thing we’ll be focusing on is our race car in traffic. I think we’ve been able to follow cars a little bit closer than most. There are some cars out there that look strong and maybe a little stronger than us, but we have one more practice to try to figure something out. I can’t promise that I’m going to win, but I feel a lot more ready than any other year I’ve been here.”IS THERE ANY WAY YOU AND PATO CAN HELP JUAN GET A BETTER RACE CAR GOING INTO SUNDAY? “Qualifying and race are very different things. Qualifying didn’t work out well for Juan. I think there was some stuff behind that happened. I don’t think he was really that slow. I think he’ll be good in the race. He’ll be up there in race trim. He has some cars to pass. We work well together, and we try to help each other. We have long meetings after each session where the three of us talk about our cars – what was good and not good. I feel at this point we know each other so well we can really implement that at an engineering level and understand what each of us wants from our cars. Even when someone else is testing something we know it’s going to work on our car. He’s got the best help he can have, and we do also. We’re ready to go.”HOW DOES JUAN’S EXPERIENCE HELP YOU PARTICULARLY THIS YEAR? “Whenever Juan is talking in a debrief or something, you always listen carefully. Obviously, he’s known for being honest and he doesn’t really care if he hurts someone’s feelings saying what he thinks – which is good. I think I’m the other way; I tend to be too nice, and I don’t want to upset anyone. I think that’s taught me a few lessons as well. Pato is probably somewhere in the middle. The three of us really get along well. Even if we tend to have fun outside the car, once we’re working we’re switched on and we get somewhere with the car setup once we’re out on the track for all three of us to benefit.”HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU WITH THE CAR AND TEAM AFTER SUNDAY’S QUALIFYING? “Our qualifying position is probably around where we are in race trim. We’re in the upper field but we’re not in the best yet. We still have some time to figure out how to make the car a little bit quicker in traffic. We have a solid top-10 car right now and I think if you can survive the first couple of stints in the race, being top-10 you have as good a shot as anyone to win the race. That’s what we’re aiming for. I feel well-prepared this year. I feel a bit more calm than normal. Somehow, it’s felt a bit easier this year and I’m ready for the task in a different way. And I think it’s because I’m with the same team, same car, same teammates. Everything is sort of an extension of last year. I think we have a good shot. We have to execute and not have mistakes like I did last year in the race when I had a speeding penalty that kind of put us on an off-strategy. We’ll try to stay on the winning strategy this year.” JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 11 HOME FOR OUR TROOPS CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING“Frankly, it’s been a little bit challenging for us. The weather and the conditions changing as much as they have hasn’t given us as much time as we would have liked on track. And I’m sure everybody could say the same. Speaking for us, we could have used more time earlier to get ahead of some of the things that we felt after last year that we needed to address, so by losing some of the time that we did we were kind of pushed into and through qualifying to continue to work through a bit of a program experimenting and learning some of the things on the car that we felt like we needed to understand a little better to try to get ourselves where we think we need to be on race day. We’ve continued making progress and that’s kind of the name of the game. We’re looking forward to getting a little more practice time. As always, just looking forward to the race. It’s going to be warm; it’s going to be tough. I’m always ready for it to be a tough day out there and persevering through it, and hopefully we’ll have something that we can challenge at the front with.”YOU HAVE TWO TEAMMATES IN DALTON (KELLETT) AND KYLE (KIRKWOOD). DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’VE TAKEN ON A TEAM LEADER ROLE? “At a place like this, for sure. I’m the one bringing the most experience. I think what that amounts to in these kinds of situations is to provide a little perspective with what we’re dealing with. Kyle, in his rookie year, he got one day on track and then a rainout and then crazy wind while trying to get prepared for qualifying, so basically, he didn’t get any legit qualifying feel from the car before you have to stick a run on Saturday. That’s not an easy situation to get through. So, just trying to do what I can to provide context and perspective to what we’re working with on the car and where I think it is relative to where it can be and a basis for how hard you can push this right now and what should you be tolerating with handling in certain conditions. Those guys have been pros this month and we have Ryan Briscoe in the Foyt garage working with Dalton, so that’s been helpful for me having another driver that’s got his eyes on track and watching the cars go round and providing his own perspective. Altogether, it’s a pretty good group.”GETTING A CHANCE TO RACE AT TEXAS THIS YEAR, HOW HAVE THE NUANCES BEEN DIFFERENT FOR YOU THIS YEAR? “Just having a little more continuity with the group has been helpful. I’ve been lucky the last bunch of years that even one-off programs I’ve been able to create a little gravity around my programs and have a group that’s worked together in the past. This year is different from that perspective working with a more full-time crew. Some new faces for me, but they definitely have had more time to work together and that we’ve been able to get a race under our belts before coming to the 500 has helped a lot. The same thing with the engineering staff. It definitely feels like when we showed up here there’s less familiarization going on. We’re just getting in the car and getting rolling. My program last year with this squad came together pretty late, so just having a year working with the same guys – Larry (Foyt) and Scott Harner – helps. Everybody knows more of what to expect. I think it gives us more confidence that we can roll into race day not being a half a step behind.”ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR RACE CAR AFTER MONDAY’S RUNNING OR DO YOU STILL HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO? “If you were going to race in conditions like it was on Monday, everybody would feel OK with how the conditions were, where the track temps were. Like a lot of teams, we were trying to trim and expose the car a little bit more to try to figure out if it’s hot how the car is going to feel. A bit of an unknown. We felt OK on Monday. There have been some general handling characteristics in our package that we’ve been working on, and we know we still have a ways to go, and the temps will just expose those thigs more. We’ll be making use of whatever practice remains.”WHAT DO YOU EXPECT WITH THE HIGH TEMPS ON RACE DAY? “Outside of getting the handling of the car for those conditions, which I think is going to be super important come race day because the track temps are going to be up and that’s just going to be a defining factor for cars that end up being at the front toward the end of the race, those are going to be some of the best cars over the stint more when the conditions are lousy when they are not. From a driving perspective, it’s going to be finding that right balance between patience and assertiveness given situations throughout the race. That’s always what it takes to be in the mix for the win at Indianapolis from any starting position on the grid, any scenario during the race. It’s rare that you have a winner that hasn’t been among the best doing that on that day. That’s something we’ll try to work on.”
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE“I’m really looking forward to the race. I think we have good race cars. I think we have to have a good day with no mistakes and good pit stops. That’s what we’ve done all year – been very consistent and not really made mistakes. We haven’t necessarily been the quickest every time on the track or even in pit lane, but we have been is consistent. Let’s see what that brings us Sunday.”TALK ABOUT YOUR MONTH OF MAY: “It’s definitely in a way better position than I was last year, especially our starting position. I feel like the racecar has been really good. It’ll be interesting Sunday with the temperature. It’ll show who are the good and bad cars. We’ll have to wait and see how that all plays out. In tough conditions the other day, I felt my car was pretty good.”ENTERING THE INDY 500 LEADING IN INDYCAR POINTS: “Strategy-wise, you may not take bigger risks early on in the race. But if you have a chance to win, you’re going to take that chance. I keep forgetting I’m the points leader, to be honest! It’s just not something I’m thinking about.”YOU SEEM MORE RELAXED THIS YEAR. IS THERE SOMETHING YOU CHANGED IN THE OFFSEASON? “No, I wouldn’t say so. I’ve had so much experience now. You know what wins championships. I feel like I was that way last year; we just had some big points losses with a brake failure here. The car wouldn’t start and we kind of gave away a win at Detroit. Toward the end of the year, we just had a bad run. I think what changes is that if you’re in a good points position earlier in the season, it takes away that feeling of having to do something exceptional to dig yourself out of a hole. So the mentality changes a little. You preserve a bit more. When you’re 100 points out, you’re more willing to take a risk on strategy and more willing to take a risk on track, which can lead to even worse results. That hasn’t been the case with me, to be honest. Everything is clicking well with the team. We had a bad year last year. We went away to do a lot of development and are executing.”STARTING 11TH IS AT THE UPPER HALF OF THE GRID, SO DO YOU GO INTO THE RACE WITH A COUPLE OF PLANS OR GO BY THE SEAT OF YOUR PANTS? “We’ll have a strategy meeting Saturday and have a pretty loose plan to start. It never, ever goes as planned. I think there will be many analysts looking at how this thing can play out, just depending on where the yellows fall. It seems like it should be a pretty clean race considering the level of teams and drivers know. But it also can go the other way where no one has sort of witnessed bad crashes so they aren’t being a little bit conservatives in making some certain moves. I think if you see a few nasty crashes in the month you’re like, ‘Whew… man, I don’t want to do that.’ You can never predict a race. I’ve got enough experience to understand how these things go and what to do in certain situations.”DOES THE CAR CHANGE A LOT FROM WHEN YOU START ON FRESH TIRES AND WHEN YOU’RE AT THE END OF A FUEL STINT? “It does. On an 80-degree day, there will be degradation. It will be tougher and you’ll definitely get slower. You can run out of adjustments, and that’s a bad feeling to end up loose. When you come in, you have to reset everything. You’ll have a bit of history in understanding which way it goes so you can be more ahead of it.”
KYLE KIRKWOOD, NO. 14 ROKIT CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING“It’s amazing. The car just seems like it is built for this place with the stagger in the tires and how well INDYCAR has done in honing this car for driving it around this track is so cool. I never thought that any kind of car in this world could be this stable around a track doing 230 or 240 mph. It’s been a lot of fun this entire month. It’s gone by very fast even though we’ve been here for three weeks with the Grand Prix and even before that when we came here to test in April. It’s gone by super-fast and it’s been a lot of fun. There are only two more days of driving left, which is bittersweet.”ON WORKING WITH JR HILDEBRAND AND DALTON KELLETT AHEAD OF FIRST INDY 500: “Both JR and Dalton are very knowledgeable. They’re both engineers. They both understand the car super-well. What’s been interesting the entire month is that whenever we make a change together, we always have the same comments. So we always together want the same exact car, which has been really nice. JR is the one who has the most experience out of all the team members here, so he’s been a huge help with the driving side and what I want from the car. I’ve been fortunate to be teamed up with him.”DRIVING FOR A.J. FOYT AT THE INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY: “He gets excited for this race. When he comes here, he’s a much different person than I’ve seen him the entire rest of the year. He came to Texas and our test at Sebring, and this is the event he cares about. He sees all his fans here. He’s 87 years old and he still wants to win this race as much as I would or he would want to back in the ‘60s. It’s cool to be around him. I’m seeing how big of a legend he is and was back when he raced through all his fans and being here the whole month.”FINALLY RACING AT INDIANALPOLIS FOR THE FIRST TIME: “Finally I’m here! The Freedom 100 was supposed to happen the year I was (in Indy Lights) in 2020 and everything got pushed back. We didn’t got to the Freedom 100 in 2021. April was the first time I had ever been around the Speedway in any sort of car – or even walked it! – was in an IndyCar. That’s the way Roger (Penske) wants it, right? I understand that. The IndyCar is built for this place. I understand that this should be the only thing going around this place. It’s not cool to watch NASCAR go into Turn One and brake, but it’s cool to see IndyCars do 240 mph through Turn One flat-out. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s made this opportunity and time even more sweet with that time that I’ve had to wait.”WHAT WILL YOU BE HAPPY WITH AT THE END OF SUNDAY? “That’s situational. It just depends on how the race goes and how cautions play and everything like that. Being far back where we are, we’re likely to go off-strategy pretty early. But it’s going to be situational. If we feel like we have a fast racecar and we can make passes happen, then obviously I’m going to make passes happen. If we don’t feel like we can make passes happen, then I’ll go into the mindset of saving as much as possible and beating everyone on strategy. That’s kind of the name of the game when you’re that far back in the field. As you saw in testing, once you get six of seven cars back or even four cars back, it gets tough to pass people. It’ll be a tough position to be back there but hopefully the guys in the pits will make me look good!”ABLE TO GET HELP FROM RYAN BRISCOE? “He’s been here the entire year with us, which is awesome. He’s still a driver and could still get in one of these cars and show his stuff. Having JR, Dalton, Ryan and even Stefan Wilson – who is now sitting in our engineering room – we have a wealth of knowledge. I’m the true rookie here and I’m trying to get everything I can from them. It’s been a lot of fun working with them. We all have similar comments on what we want from a car and what setup changes we do. We all went in separate directions with cars and we’ve all came back to exactly the same car, which has been cool during the seven or eight days we’ve been on track.”DRIVING THE NO. 14 AT INDIANAPOLIS: “Driving anywhere around this place in the 14 is special. It’s a legendary number and A.J. has done so much with that number. I’ve come to realize how special it is as the month has gone on. When I started watching INDYCAR, I was probably five, six or seven years old… the 14 wasn’t a really big deal when I first started watching it. But know that I know the history of the team and the history of the number, coming to such a historic event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has really opened my eyes as to how special it is. I’m honored to drive it.”
CONOR DALY, NO. 20 BITNILE CHEVROLET, ED CARPENTER RACING“We have the greatest event in the world coming up! I am very excited for it, our car is fantastic. We’ve done what we needed to do, we’ve got the right car. I feel very confident we’ll be able to move forward. We’re going to have a long day ahead of us, coming from mid-pack, but a lot of other really quick drivers are coming from mid-pack as well. Excited to get this No. 20 BitNile Chevy towards the front and join my teammates! Hopefully, we’re looking at an Ed Carpenter Racing 1-2-3 finish at the Indy 500. Who’s going to win? We don’t know, but I hope it’s me!” HOW’S THE MONTH OF MAY GOING FOR THE 20 CAR? “Fantastic. It’s going great. We’ve had a strong month. Qualifying went a bit awry for us, which is fine. A similar thing happened to us last year. I also am probably not the strongest qualifier here, clearly. I think much better racer here at this track and we have a fantastic racecar yet again. Honestly, I think some of the changes that we made for qualifying going back on those really helped us for the race setup. It was a good road to go down. I think I would much rather be happier in race trim than qualifying trim, because we have to do 200 of those laps rather than four for qualifying.”HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU IN YOUR CAR AFTER MONDAY’S PRACTICE? “I feel really good, honestly. I think we go into this race at maximum confidence. The team has built some fast racecars, clearly. I think we have done a smart job in not trying to get ourselves outside the box, because we know that when we come here that we have a good setup, we have a good car. Obviously, the conditions have been probably the most challenging that I’ve ever experienced here at an Indy 500. The wind is doing more to the car, the temperatures did more to the car because of the track surface. It’s very, very interesting. We kind of have a lot of decisions to make if we don’t get Carb Day tomorrow. Who’s going to be the bravest? Who’s going to run the least downforce and who’s going to run the most? Who is it going to work out for? So, we will see.ALL THE BAMBOOZELMENT THAT HAS HAPPENED IN THE BUS LOT DURING THE MONTH, DO YOU HAVE PRIME SUSPECTS? “At this point, I don’t even care anymore. We’re focused on the race and all those idiots who decided to mess with my life better be on their guard. We’ll see what happens.”OBVIOUSLY, IT’S A LONG RACE. WHAT DO YOU DO TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU DON’T MAKE EITHER A MISTAKE OR YOU DON’T LOSE TRACK OF SOMETHING? “For sure. I think there’s a couple parts of this race… you know, the track gripping up as the race goes on. It’s easy to get ahead of yourself on how much front wing are you going to have to take out. Last year, we were adding front wing because I was deep in the pack. Then we ended up leading and the thing was really loose. We know that we are going to go to the front. That’s our plan. When we get there, how’s the car going to be set up? Have we over-adjusted for ourselves? Have we not? Obviously, the car is going to be very different if you’re running 16th, 17th compared to the lead. You do mention cruising. There was a lot of cruising around when I was leading the race and we were just driving around like no one was passing me. I was dying to get passed. I was hoping someone was going to pass me, just so we could kind of keep the pace of the race up and get a better fuel strategy position. These things happen. We can see that again this year or we can see a lot more changes for position, depends on who’s out front. There’s a lot that I’ve learned over the years at this race, and we’re prepared to use all those lessons this year for sure.”
RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 BITCOIN RACING TEAM WITH BITNILE CHEVROLET, ED CARPENTER RACING“I am very, very excited for the Indy 500. It’s going to be a great race! I’m starting from the front row again, second year in a row. It’s pretty cool! I think we have a race-winning car. It’s going to be a long race and many things can happen, but we’ve done everything we can to be prepared. The ECR car is great and my Chevy power is amazing!”ON STARTING ON THE FRONT ROW FOR SECOND STRAIGHT YEAR: “I’m very happy with the car. Ed Carpenter Racing and Chevy put down a very fast car for qualifying. I think we’re even better in race mode compared to qualifying so I’m very excited. It should be a very good race. Hopefully we get the luck we need.”EXPECTATIONS FOR YOUR THIRD INDY 500? “It’s going to be a hard race. Everyone is very, very matched. The Ganassi cars are very fast but I think we have a fair chance of winning the race. I’m very excited. It’s going to be a nice battle and of course people need to be lucky with strategy and everything going your way. Our team really knows what we’re doing. We can stay out front all race and then maybe turn it up a notch at the end.”PROGRESSION AS A DRIVER OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS: “When I was a rookie, I drove as a rookie sometimes. But now I think I’ve proven to be very consistent, at least in Indy 500 qualifying. I had a good race last year but at the end it didn’t work out and we had a little bit of bad luck. I think this year I have the experience to do what I need to do at the end of the race. We should be seen as a contender to win the race not just on pace but with experience.”DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE HONED IN ON FINDING YOUR OWN SETUPS? “When we really started practicing at Indy, I like to let Ed go out first because he has so much experience. Really this whole month, I’ve focused more on myself with my engineer. On Monday at pit out, I told Ed I tried something with my tools in the car, and he told me that was actually pretty smart! Maybe I’ve given him a tip for the first time in the 500!”ARE YOU COMFORTABLE WITH A POTENTIALLY HOT RACE? “I’m very comfortable. We’ve had some hot practices in the last week. I feel very good with the car. I feel I can pass, and I’m comfortable with experimenting and trying different stuff. I’ve never felt this good with the car.”
SANTINO FERRUCCI, NO. 23 PALERMO’S CHEVROLET, DREYER & REINBOLD RACINGHOW HAS YOUR MONTH OF MAY BEEN GOING? “The Month of May has been good, so far. It’s treated us well; can’t complain.”SAGE KARAM WAS HERE EARLIER AND HE WAS TALKING ABOUT HOW YOU GUYS GO BACK TO GO-KART RACING; HOW YOUR FAMILY BOUGHT A TRACK AND HOW YOU GUYS USED TO RACE TOGETHER AS KIDS. BUT YOU’VE NEVER REALLY RACED TOGETHER IN THE SAME CLASS UNTIL YOU GUYS GOT TO INDYCAR. NOW, YOU GUYS ARE TEAMMATES. WHAT’S THE MONTH BEEN LIKE WORKING WITH A GUY YOU KNEW WHEN YOU WERE SIX YEARS OLD? “Yeah, honestly it’s been pretty easy working with Sage. We’ve always driven somewhat similar cars… INAUDIBLE… It’s been fun. It kind of takes us back to the old days when we were kids running together across the country. I’m pretty ecstatic about it. I can’t wait to get going. Hopefully we run some practice tomorrow and get the pit stop competition in. I’m a little nervous with the weather.”TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE PIT STOP CHALLENGE. DRYER & REINBOLD RACING HAS BEEN A TEAM THAT’S USUALLY IN THE PIT STOP CONTEST AND THEY’RE USUALLY A TEAM THAT GETS TO THE FINALS. IS THAT SOMETHING YOU’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO; BEING A PART OF THE PIT STOP COMPETITION? “Yeah, I’m super excited. I love drag racing. I love the fact that we get to drag race into the box. I know the guys have been practicing on the pit stops. I’m excited to let those guys have a little competition for themselves. I just have to do my job, which is launch the car, stop the car and launch the car again. I have the easy part of the day. They are the ones that are hopefully going to win us the challenge. I think our first team we go up against is actually Felix (Rosenqvist), so it will definitely be a good challenge.”OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS, YOU’VE SHOWN UP IN SEVERAL PART-TIME, ONE-OFF ROLES IN INDYCAR AND HAVE BEEN SUPER FAST AND STRONG. WHAT WOULD IT TAKE TO GET YOU BACK INTO A FULL-TIME RIDE; AND IS THAT SOMETHING YOU’RE INTERESTED IN? “Yeah, we’ll see. I’d like to be back full-time in INDYCAR. Obviously, I’ve been running some stock car stuff, as well. But sponsorship is a big part of it here. There are a lot of drivers that have a lot of sponsorship behind them. To be honest with you – I thought, like everybody else, I was going to be in the No. 45 car for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. But like I said, things just didn’t fall our way. I think this year, there will be a lot of changes and people we will be moving around. So, hopefully a good opportunity will come from that.”HOW MUCH HAS YOUR PREPARATION FOR THIS RACE CHANGED? TO GO FROM THE DALE COYNE YEARS, TO THE RAHAL SITUATION, AND NOW YOU’RE HERE WITH DREYER & REINBOLD RACING – HOW DO YOU FEEL YOUR PREPARATION HAS BEEN DIFFERENT THIS TIME AROUND? “The biggest thing for me this year is actually running Texas (Motor Speedway). I haven’t been able to get an INDYCAR race under my belt before the 500 because last year, I just did the (Indianapolis) 500; and then I did Mid-Ohio, Detroit, Nashville and I don’t remember if there was one more or not. Not having ran anything else on ovals other than the 500 here definitely kept my mind busy with road courses. But coming here, it’s been super relaxed, honestly. Having Buddy (Rice) has been the greatest thing; just having a former winner in your ear. It was just like having JB in my ear back when I was driving for Dale (Coyne); and it was just very relaxing and very easy to deal with in that respect. We’re just going to take it one day at a time. The goal is to get into the top-10 and ride it until end.”IT ALMOST FEELS LIKE THIS GROUP KIND OF FITS YOUR PERSONALITY A LITTLE BIT BECAUSE YOU’VE SEEM TO HAVE GOTTEN ACCLIMATED TO THEM VERY QUICKLY. “Yeah – it’s different being in a high-stress environment needing to perform because as a driver, I know I need to perform. But I think the team knows that the car is good. We’ve put on a great show already. We’ve already had a ton of press around it. The icing on the cake is that Dennis (Reinbold) just wants to win the race. He doesn’t really care about finishing second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth. It’s ‘win the race at all costs’ for us. And as a driver to hear that – we can go out and do whatever we want, as long as we win the race and Dennis is happy; where most car owners are ‘take care of this, take care of that. Don’t do this, don’t do that’. Dennis only cares about winning this thing. He doesn’t care about all the little things. And that’s why I think the car has run so well, in my opinion. I think they’re some of the best-built race cars I’ve seen here. It’s definitely one of the best race cars I’ve had here; and hopefully with Sage and I in the cars this year, we can do some damage.” SAGE KARAM, NO. 24 AES INDIANA CHEVROLET, DREYER & REINBOLD RACING“It feels good to not start 31st, but also, I was like kind of bummed because I feel like we had more in it. We’re starting 22nd and I feel like we could have done better than that. I just kind of missed it on the first run there, was too late on downforce. When I did get to go back out after the rain, the wind changed, and I think that kind of slowed the track down as you saw with Scott’s run. Scott McLaughlin that is, not Dixon. Dixon is by no means slowed down this month (laughing).”WORKING WITH SANTINO (FERRUCCI), I KNOW YOU GUYS GO WAY BACK TO THE KART TRACK BACK WHEN YOU WERE PROBABLY FIVE OR SIX YEARS OLD. WHAT’S IT BEEN LIKE WORKING WITH HIM AS A TEAMMATE THIS MONTH? “Santino’s family ended up buying Oakland Valley Race Park in New York, which is where I grew up racing go-karts. I grew up racing there every weekend with Marco (Andretti) for many years before I actually met Santino. Then when his family took over the track, I was still continuing to go up there. We ended up traveling the country together racing in Stars of Karting and WK. We both had some success in go-karts, and he was always a bit younger than me, so when he was running like junior sportsman I was running junior. This was kind of toward the end of our karting careers. I went the old American route and did the Mazda Road to Indy at the time and he did the European route. We ended up kind of going our separate ways and weren’t ever really on track again with each other until he came back to America to do some INDYCAR stuff with Dale Coyne. Now we’re teammates at the 500, which is pretty cool. Just two kids growing up racing at a go kart track in New York end up being teammates at the Indy 500 and having Marco up there as well. So now we have three people in the Indy 500 that came from that go-kart track. You know, I’m starting next to Marco. Marco is a good friend of mine, but yeah Santino has been a good teammate for me. We push each other. We definitely want to get the best and the most out of the car. I think what’s good with Santino is that we have a very similar style in what we want in the car. So, we’re constantly searching for those things that I know if I like it he’s going to like it. He’s doing some things out there that if there’s something he finds that I’m probably going to like, so it makes the whole process and program go a lot smoother through the month.”OBVIOUSLY, YOU HAVE SHOWN IN THE PAST THE ABILITY TO START FROM THE BACK AND WORK YOUR WAY THROUGH TRAFFIC AND GET INTO THE TOP-10, GET TO THE FRONT. WHAT WAS YOUR CAR LIKE MONDAY? “I saw this pretty cool Tweet the other day that was in the Aero Screen era at the Indy 500. Me and Santino had passed the most cars and you know, being on the same team and everything I think we’re going to be a pretty exciting duo to watch on Sunday. I think our cars are very good. Basically, we rolled off the trailer with what I left off with last May and it was back in that ballpark that I really, really enjoy driving. We just kind of started fine-tweaking that and I’d say going into this 500 is probably the best shot I’ve ever had at this race. Is it going to be hard to pass? Absolutely. You know, there’s other things you can do: pit strategy, in and out laps and pit stops and stuff that I have a lot of confidence in my team that we can make up the spots we need to make up early in the race to put me in a position that by halfway or the last quarter of the race it becomes a lot easier. The more you move up, the easier it becomes to follow in traffic. You mentioned Monday… Monday was really good for us. I think I was eighth on the charts and the car had really good speed on its own, which people might think, ‘Why does that matter now that qualifying is already done with?’ You’re going to see a lot of guys that will pit early, or pit late and those out laps and sucking up to the group is going to be pretty ginormous. You need a car that can still do a pretty decent time on its own. Our car was good with that and then obviously the traffic, I think our car gets better as the run goes on and it seems like a lot of other cars started to kind of fade away a little bit as the run went on. That was our strong point last year and that was one thing I really wanted to have in the racecar this year, was a car that was good on Lap 30 not necessarily good on Lap 3. I think the team’s nailed that. Looking forward to it.” STEFAN WILSON, NO. 25 DRAGONSPEED/CUSICK CHEVROLET, DRAGONSPEED/CUSICK MOTORSPORTS“It’s so great to be back at Indianapolis and competing in the biggest race in the world once again. I’m back with Team Chevy, and it’s symbolic for me, the Wilsons share something in common with the Chevrolets: we both are among the four pairs of brothers to have led laps here at Indianapolis. The Chevrolet engine has been perfect all month for me, and we made some big gains with the setup of the car in Monday’s practice, so starting 33rd I’ll be looking to move forward early on Sunday.”BEING HERE AND RACING IN THIS EVENT, IS IT MORE REWARDING NOW GIVEN WHAT YOU’VE GONE THROUGH THAN MAYBE THE FIRST OR SECOND TIME? “Yes and no. I think it’s so challenging and every year, I think it gets harder to make it back here. There are so many quality drivers out there. The field is so big already that the opportunities are so few and far between. I just don’t take it for granted that I’ll be able to come back. Each one feels like it could potentially be my last.“At the same time, it motivates me. I’ve got to make the most of the opportunity that I have right ahead of me. It might not be the best opportunity. It might not be the best situation, but I have to make the most of it and try and build my resume up so I can increase my chances of coming back here.”DID YOU THINK THAT WAY THE FIRST TIME? “When I did it the first time, I was just taking it all in. I still had that same gratitude to be in this race, but I had not experienced the trials and tribulations that I’ve experienced the last couple of years of trying to make it back here. So now, like I said, I just don’t take it for granted because I’m here this year; and I know that on Monday, it’s another year of work to get back here. I’m focused on this year, but in the back of my head, it’s a big task and big challenge ahead to make it back here for the future.”HOW LONG BEFORE THE ANNOUCEMENT THAT YOU GUYS MADE THAT YOU WERE DOING THIS RACE DID YOU ACTUALLY KNOW YOU WERE DOING IT? “A week if that. We essentially got our deal squared away probably either the last day of April or May 1st; somewhere around there that it was solidified and set that we knew we were coming.”YOU TWEETED AT SOME POINT THAT – ‘IF YOU KNEW ALL THE CRAZINESS..’. DID YOU KNOW AT THAT POINT? “Oh, I was trying. But at that point, no I still thought it was probably unlikely that it was going to happen. All the stuff I had heard that was going on behind the scenes – everyone is talking and there were probably eight guys that didn’t make it. There were probably eight other guys that had backers and were trying to put something together and had parts of the puzzle, as well. And we were just amongst that group. I felt like we were maybe ahead of them and I felt like we were always kind of ahead of him. But you never know because it’s almost a competition just to be in the seat. They’re working on stuff. They’re constantly trying to improve their chances of getting the ride. So, you just don’t know where they’re at. “Stuff that I had heard was going on and some of these other deals that were being done – it’s just like, ‘Wow, you could really make a reality TV show about this’ (laughs). It was entertaining just to be a part of it. I was like ‘Wow, you have to be kidding me. I cannot believe this is going on’. I’m like the general public would eat this up because it’s that entertaining. You might hurt some feelings with all the stuff going on, but it sure would be an entertaining docuseries or show for people to see all that’s going on.I try to work and operate with honor. That’s my MO – I’m very honest. I’m going to always shoot people straight, but that’s not always the case around here. It was definitely entertaining to hear all of the stuff that was going on.”IS IT THE EXISTING TEAMS NOT WANTING TO EXPAND ANYMORE TO EITHER NOT DISTRACT OR NOT POTENTIALLY BUMP OUT THEIR OWN ENTRIES? “I’m not sure it was the concern of bumping out their own entries. There are really five elements to the (Indianapolis) 500 program. You have to have the budget. You have to have the car, equipment, engine and the crew. And it’s just trying to assemble all five of those pieces together that was so difficult this year because a lot of the teams had already stretched themselves to add full-time entries and there was just no crew available. “You look other series around the United States and they’re all expanding their grid size. They’ve all got a massive car count and each one of those cars is being operated by crew people that otherwise would be available for any team to go hire. So, that was just a big stumbling block. Teams were just unable to add cars. I was kind of ahead of the curve. I was doing the numbers back in November or December, being like ‘I didn’t get to 33 here. I feel like we’re missing one’. I was talking to everyone – I was talking to Roger (Penske) and I was talking to Jay (Penske). I was like ‘Hey, all I need is an engine and we’re good.’ Andretti has the crew that we ran last year. That was the goal for me; but at that time, Honda wasn’t able to release an extra engine. So, that sent me the Chevrolet route and I’m really thankful. Chevrolet has been a really good home for me. They’ve been so accommodating and really welcomed me into their family.”DID YOU GET THE FEELING THAT THERE WAS GOING TO BE ONE ENGINE AND WHOEVER GOT EVERYTHING TOGETHER FIRST WOULD GET IT? “It was just a case of getting those five elements together, like we talked about. It was all about that. Whoever was able to get to those five first became the 33rd. We knew we had the budget. We knew with DragonSpeed, that gave us the crew. We had the Chevrolet engine. And then it was the case of just getting the final bits of equipment and the car.Again, there was sort of a shortage on the car front, as well. So, we’re thankful for A.J. Foyt Racing for offering up their road course car for Tatiana to let us use that. It’s not ideal. You would love to have a speedway car that’s prepared for running here at Indianapolis, but it’s what we’ve got and we’re making the best of it.”IS THE CREW ABLE TO TRY TO MODIFY IT TO MAKE IT MORE OF AN OVAL CAR? “Yeah, it’s an oval car; it’s just missing some of that massaging that makes it super slick through the air and super low drag that a lot of these teams spent many, many months and lots and lots of dollars in resources on getting it that way.”IF IT’S HOT ON SUNDAY, MAYBE THAT WON’T BE SUCH A BIG DEAL? “Yeah, on Sunday I think it’s going to come more down to the handling of the car and the setup. When it gets hot, we’ve already seen it – it becomes so slick here. The tarmac with the sealant on it has made it a dark color, and it heats up quicker than it did in the past. So, if you see temperatures in the 80s or hotter than that, it’s going to be a really difficult and really challenging race I think.”
ED CARPENTER, NO. 33 ALZAMEND NEURO CHEVROLET, ED CARPENTER RACING“It is Indy 500 time! It has been a great week and a half of preparation for ECR. I know that myself and the No. 33 Alzamend Chevrolet group are feeling very confident. We’ve done all the work needed to go out and have a great shot at this on Sunday. Hopefully, we can execute and be drinking milk at the end of the day!”ON THE MONTH OF MAY: “I’m feeling pretty good about how the month has gone as a whole. I think we’ve had really good preparation coming in. Things have gone pretty smooth throughout in prepping for all things race and qualifying and running in different conditions. We’re feeling quite prepared.”AS AN OWNER, ARE YOU DISAPPOINTED NOT TO BE ON THE FRONT ROW BUT HAPPY THAT YOU DO HAVE ONE WITH RINUS VEEKAY? “When you make it to that point, you’re always hoping for the best whether it’s a pole or front row. We moved past it pretty quick. Everyone was a little disappointed when we got back to our engineering room. It was like, ‘Look guys… this is great. We can have 15 minutes to be upset about could have, would have, should haves. After that, let’s get focused on the race again.’ We’re in a great position being third and fourth to go out and do what we’re here to do, which is to win the Indy 500.”DEVELOPMENT AND PROGRESSION OF RINUS VEEKAY: “It’s interesting. I think people still view him as a guy is going to be fast but not be a factor. That’s pretty hilarious because if he’s been anything around here, he’s been consistent. He’s had things happen that have kept him from being in the fight at the end. Day-to-day, in the conditions, year, qualifying or race, he’s been strong in everything that we do here at Indianapolis. He’s definitely matured and isn’t just relying on us anymore. He’s showing more and more leadership skills and confidence all the time in what he needs and how he prepares. When I evaluate what it’s going to take to win this race and the short list of guys you’re going to have to beat, he’s on that list without a doubt.”WHERE DOES THIS OPPORTUNITY TO WIN THE RACE RANK COMPARED TO YEARS PAST? “We won’t truly know that until we get on track Sunday because there are still decisions to be made and a race to execute. From a preparation standpoint and what I’ve been feeling out of the car on all the different practice days, I feel like we have a great opportunity in front of us for not only myself but also for Rinus and Conor. With Rinus and I starting in the front, hopefully we’ll have a little bit of an easier path to stay there and make the execution plan a little more simple than what it’s going to take for Conor to get up front and join us. But I think all three of our cars have the ability to have what it takes to win this race.”IS IT EASIER TO MANAGE ED CARPENTER THE DRIVER OR ED CARPENTER THE TEAM OWNER? “All I’m doing right now is driving. I’ve pretty well disconnected from all my other responsibilities for this whole month really or at least the last two-and-a-half weeks. So that’s enjoyable to be able to focus on one thing. I’ll get back involved in things come June, but they both have their own challenges and rewards. At the end of the day, I would say the ownership side of things is harder because you’re responsible and there are more people that are looking to you and reliant on you to accomplish things and get things done. It’s harder and more complicated than driving a car. It’s more of a simplified process and focus.”SIGNIFICANCE OF RUNNING THE 33 – SIZE OF THE FIELD AND MAX VERSTAPPEN’S NUMBER FOR DUTCH FANS: “I’m not a superstitious guy but since we’ve announced that I’d be running 33, there have been a lot of coincidences I’d say. It’s been 33 years since I started racing. It’s the 33rd wedding anniversary for my parents. I guess we’ll see if that has any luck to it come Sunday night.”
CALLUM ILOTT, NO. 77 DYNAMIC EDGE CHEVROLET, JUNCOS HOLLINGER RACINGYOUR FIRST INDY 500, SECOND OVAL RACE EVER. HOW’S THE EXPERIENCE BEEN THIS MONTH? “Very intense. In a way is such a long two weeks, but in another way it just goes by so quickly and you’re thinking, ‘Oh we missed a bit of time there, we missed a bit of time there.’ Overall, it’s an incredible experience. So many dedicated fans from the beginning. So much fine-tuning in the car. It’s been really special.”COMING OFF YOUR FIRST TOP-10 FINISH IN THE GRAND PRIX, WHAT KIND OF MOMENTUM DID THAT GIVE? “Definitely a lot. I think it’s really nice to be able to start ticking off some of the things that I wanted to do this season. The top-10 being one of them and then the justified top-10. We definitely have the pace for it and a little bit more. The month of May is a special one and the oval’s definitely very different, but it’s great and all the guys are really excited. They are really motivated. We are bringing some spirit with us.”HOW ARE YOU LIKING THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE OF THE INDY 500 AND IS IT LIKE ANYTHING YOU’VE EVER PARTICIPATED IN BEFORE? “There’s not much that compares to this. The little bits that I can take from various places, but the big word I’m going to use is tradition. Lots of tradition everywhere. I’ve learned that any (inaudible) on why we’re doing this or (inaudible) is that word tradition. So, no that’s really special because when you know the history behind it and everything that’s involved with it you really interesting to be there. Coming from Europe, I love that big guys, the heroes here like A.J., Rick Mears. I never really knew about them before, so it was like a whole discovery process to learn and understand why they’re so special and what this race means. From my side, yeah it has been a discovery process and it’s been really interesting.”WHEN YOU’RE IN EUROPE AND YOU’RE GOING THROUGH THOSE RANKS AND YOU HEAR ABOUT THE INDY 500, WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE RACE? “My first watching of it live, not at the track, but live on TV was 2016 with Alex Rossi. That was quite special for me because I’ve watched him in Europe in GP2 and F1. I didn’t really… I still couldn’t contemplate what it was as a race. I was like, ‘Wow that’s super special. What a strange race this is in the way it unfolds.’ Coming here and having done the ovals and understanding how the racing works and all the complexities to it and then the kind of luxury that you get on the day, it’s makes it really interesting and something so special. I think I would be able to answer that a bit better afterwards.”YOUR BACKGROUND IS NOT OVAL SO I ASSUME TEXAS IS YOUR ONLY OVAL YOU’VE RACED SO FAR. HOW DO YOU EVEN GET READY FOR THIS? “Just by studying, learning, driving, trying things, failing at things. Taking everything as it comes. Every session is a learning session, good or bad. Texas, I finished the race; we weren’t quick at all but I finished the race. I had some good moments and bad moments, but at the end of the day I got the experience from that. Yeah, there’s nothing from Europe that prepares me for this at all. It’s super exciting and I’ve got a real appreciation for it now. I still need to get a bit more used to it. I find the testing sometimes a bit tedious because of the risk versus reward in some ways. Especially for me, from Europe. The racing is fun, it’s good fun.” |
For many American race fans, the enduring images of Memorial Day weekend are the checkered flags at marquee events across the globe and of cemeteries full of white crosses marking the graves of American service members who made the ultimate sacrifice for the country they loved.
“Vehicle advancements used in other forms of motorsports, such as, diffusers, independent rear suspension, the sequential gearbox, and other more common components, have resulted in a platform much less reliant on intimate proprietary stock car knowledge, which has historically made any transition to NASCAR difficult.