NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SAVE MART 350
SONOMA RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 23, 2013
 
JEFF GORDON LEADS THE BOWTIE BRIGADE AT SONOMA
Five Team Chevy Drivers in the Top-10
 
SONOMA, Calif. (June 23, 2013) – Piloting the No. 24 Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet SS, Jeff Gordon led Team Chevy in the Save Mart 350 NASCAR Sprint Cup race on the tricky 10-turn road course at Sonoma Raceway with a runner-up finish.  Gordon overcame an early and untimely pit road penalty for pitting just as the caution flag waved, which left him mired in traffic for much for of the 110-lap race.  But solid pit strategy and a fast race car propelled him to the front of the field with just a few laps remaining.
 
Gordon, who owns five wins at Sonoma, and who also holds the record for the most all-time road course wins (9) in the Series, captured his fifth top-five finish this season.  He gained three positions in the point standings, and is now ranked 13th overall. 
 
Kurt Busch, behind the wheel of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing/Sealy Chevrolet SS, also overcame pit road misfortune and rebounded to a top-five finish.  Busch received two back-to-back pit road speeding penalties, placing him one lap down to the leaders a third of the way through the race.  The team persevered to earn a fourth-place finish.  This is his sixth top-five finish in 13 starts at Sonoma.
 
Gaining valuable driver points, Kasey Kahne in his No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet SS, earned a sixth-place finish; which moved him up to 11th in the standings.  Series point leader Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS, avoided mayhem to finish ninth, and now has a 25-point lead overall.  Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Rheem Chevrolet SS, continued his streak of Top-10 finishes for the six consecutive week by earning a 10th-place finish.
 
Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS finished 12th followed by Paul Menard, No. 27 Menards/MOEN Chevrolet SS in 14th and Ryan Newman driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS finished 15th overall. 
 
Martin Truex, Jr. (Toyota) was the race winner, Carl Edwards (Ford) was third, and Clint Bowyer (Toyota) was fifth to round out the top-five finishing order.
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
SAVE MART 350
SONOMA RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 23, 2013
 
JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SECOND
ON LAP 24, WHEN YOU PITTED TOO SOON AND YOU RESTARTED 37TH, WERE YOU THINKING THERE WAS ANY WAY YOU COULD COME BACK AND FINISH SECOND TODAY?
“This is one of those crazy types of races where pit strategy goes all over the place and you never know what might happen. We were on a three-stop strategy and that’s why we wanted to come in when we did. I hate it for (crew chief) Alan (Gustafson) because that’s the call the crew chief makes and I’m right there. And I couldn’t turn away. At the time I was thinking gosh, I don’t know who has the worst (luck) right now, me or him? The way things have been going on the track for me haven’t been great and the way things have been going with the calls haven’t been going his way either. But, wow, we finally had a race car that was fantastic with this Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet. And the pit crew and Alan the rest of the day were just spot-on. Great adjustments. We had a lot of fun out there. I knew that we could probably never get to that No. 56 (race winner, Martin Truex, Jr.), but boy, we were sure having fun coming up through there. I do want to say one thing about Drive to End Hunger. Go to Drivetoendhunger.org. We’ve got a really cool program where your name could be on our car and ride around the race with me on the hood for the race in Chicago later this year.
 
KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING/SEALY CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED FOURTH
YOU HAD NOT ONE, BUT TWO PIT ROAD SPEEDING ISSUES. YOU MADE AN IMPRESSIVE RECOVERY:
“Yeah, we were fast, even on pit road (laughs), twice. I messed-up, flat-out. I didn’t hit my tachometer right and I was speeding both times. It was one of those where I’m like how does that happen? I just put myself in a position that was poor trying to get too much on pit road. But man, this Furniture Row Chevy was fast. Congrats to Truex. When we were running a lap down with him, I was trying to pace myself. I wanted to get back on the lead lap. We did get back on the lead lap when he pitted, but we had to battle hard. We came back up through there. You’ve got to rub guys and move guys and we gave guys room and just made one mistake. I think we could have gotten all the way up to second, but we never would have caught Truex. I just have to thank the Furniture Row guys. We have Simmons, Serta, and Sealy as our mattress sponsors. But I got busted speeding on pit road. My bad.”
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED SIXTH
TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY AND ALL THAT PIT STRATEGY GOING ON:
“We had a good day.  We came a long ways from Friday.  The guys, Kenny (Francis, crew chief), Keith (Rodden, engineer) did a really nice job.  That was one of the better cars I’ve had here late in the race.  I was really happy with it.  I don’t know we played the right strategy I thought.  Maybe we could have stayed out with Martin (Truex) and ran second to him.  Martin was the class of the field for sure.  I think what we did and got back to sixth was probably better.  Because of what we did last year it really bit us.  That was our plan.  We need the points.  We have been struggling to get points.  We have been pretty good, but we have been struggling to get points.  The Farmers Insurance guys did that today.”
 
WHAT WAS THE TOUGHEST THING OUT THERE ALL DAY TODAY?
“Grip – just forward drive off the corner.  I felt pretty good everywhere expect driving forward.  It was real easy to spin the tires.  It was for everybody.  I felt like my car was probably better than most, but it was a long race.  I think we got a little better as it went.”
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 12TH
TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY:
“It was pretty good.  We really didn’t have a lot of great speed.  We just had good strategy on pit road.  Just come home with a decent finish.  We will take it.  This is definitely my worst race track, my least favorite track.  We will take whatever, we will take a top-15 here any week.”
 
WHAT WAS THE TOUGHEST THING OUT THERE?
“Well just trying to get the car to turn in turns seven and 11.  I just couldn’t turn.  At the end of the race you couldn’t get turned through there.  Just really hard all day long.  This tire is not very good.  The track is a good track.  I think they just need to get a little bit better tire.  I don’t know, it’s hard to say.  These things are a handful around here.  It really brings out the worst in guys like me.  We feel good about running 12th.”
 
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 34TH – SCORED AS THE FINAL CAR ON THE LEAD LAP AFTER FUNNING OUT OF FUEL ON THE LAST LAP.

YOU REALLY LOOKED LIKE YOU HAD THE FASTEST CAR A LOT OF TIMES TODAY, BUT EVERYTHING REALLY FELL APART IN THE END
“Our Target Chevy was really good today. The guys did an amazing job; it’s just heartbreak. It’s heartbreak for me and everybody on the Target team. You’ve got to defend them in the way that when they do the fuel calculations based on the other runs; and the other runs, when you’re stuck in traffic, you can’t run that hard. Then you get in clean air and they’re asking me to run as hard as I can, and I’m doing that, you’re going to use a little more fuel. It should have been a little smarter. With five (laps) to go you start saving a little bit, just in case. We’ve got tools to prevent things like that from happening.”
 

James Hinchcliffe Wins at Iowa Speedway to Lead All-Chevrolet Podium in Race 10 of the 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series Season
 
Helio Castroneves Maintains Lead in Point Standings
 
NEWTON, IOWA – (June 23, 2013) – For the third time this season, James Hinchcliffe drove his way from the green flag to victory lane. Starting on the outside of the front row for the Iowa Corn Indy 250, the pilot of the No. 27 GoDaddy Andretti Autosport Chevrolet took the lead for the final time on lap 217 of the 250-lap race to capture his career-first victory on an oval track, his third career IZOD IndyCar Series victory, his third win of the 2013 season and the fourth consecutive race at Iowa Speedway won by an Andretti Autosport driver.
 
Hinchcliffe, who led for a total of 226 laps around the 0.875-mile oval track, beat his Andretti Autosport teammate, defending Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, to the finish by 1.5009 seconds. Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan, No. 11 Sunoco “Turbo” KV Racing Technology – SH Racing Chevrolet, finished third to make it an all-Chevrolet IndyCar V6 driver podium for the third consecutive race.
 
A total of eight Team Chevy drivers scored top-10 finishes today: Ed Carpenter finished fourth; Oriol Servia was seventh at the checkered flag; Helio Castroneves finished eighth; Marco Andretti was ninth and EJ Viso finished in 10th position.
 
“Team Chevy continues to carry the winning momentum and depth with another strong result securing eight of the top 10 finishing positions at Iowa Speedway today,” said Chris Berube, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager, IZOD IndyCar Series. “Congratulations to James Hinchcliffe and Andretti Autosport for netting the 3rd win of the season for James and the GoDaddy crew.  Leading the majority of the race, James showed he had the setup for the day and the skills to drive it to the checker.  Sweeping the podium for the third race weekend in a row, and the fifth of the season, is a great accomplishment and propels our Team Chevy drivers to accumulate points in the driver’s championship.  We look forward to bringing IndyCar racing back to Pocono in two weeks after a well-deserved weekend off.”
 
With nine races remaining in the season, Chevrolet continues to lead the IZOD IndyCar Series Manufacturers’ Point Standings. Through the first 10 races, Chevrolet drivers have scored seven poles and seven victories.
 
Team Chevy drivers hold the top-five in the championship standings: Helio Castroneves leads with 332 points followed by Hunter-Reay with 323 points; Andretti sits third in the standings with 277 markers; Hinchcliffe jumped to a fourth place total of 266 points and Kanaan in fifth with 253 points.
 
Next on the schedule is the Pocono INDYCAR 400 Fueled by Sunoco on Sunday, July 7th at famed Pocono Raceway. Live coverage will be on ABC TV starting at Noon ET.
 
 
AN INTERVIEW WITH JAMES HINCHCLIFFE, MICHAEL ANDRETTI,
RYAN HUNTER-REAY AND TONY KANAAN
Sunday, June 23, 2013 – Iowa Speedway
 
THE MODERATOR:  We are pleased to be joined by our race winner, James Hinchcliffe.  This is the third win of the 2013 season for James, his first at Iowa.
            James, before today, you had led 99 laps total; today, 226.  Talk about today’s race and the win.
            JAMES HINCHCLIFFE:  Yeah, I mean, it’s pretty incredible.  In St. Pete, I led the last 20; in Brazil, like the last hundred feet, and here, today, to do what we did, we got Will on lap one there and really never looked back.  The car was solid.
            Yesterday, we knew we didn’t have the car to win yesterday in the heat races, so I sat with Craig and the engineers and we decided to kind of take a swing at it and put a little aggressive setup on it.
            There was obviously a lot of unknowns with the weather.  It was cooler than we thought it was going to be.  Obviously the rain throws a wrench into it, but when we needed it, the car was awesome.  We were fast out front by ourselves.  We were good in traffic.  We didn’t have a whole lot of yellows to contend with, which I think was really good for us.
            Obviously we had the one restart with Graham, which was the biggest moment of the race but had fun racing with him there and just so proud of these guys.  They have got such a good track record here, Marco in ’11 and Ryan and ’12, and me now; and its Go Daddy’s hometown, where they started so to get a win here is extra special and it’s just nice to keep our season getting back on track.
 
            Q.  What is it specifically about the short oval package that has allowed four different Andretti Autosport drivers in four straight years to win here?
            JAMES HINCHCLIFFE:  Well, I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you, and none of us want that; there’s too much paperwork.
            It’s funny, because obviously the team was good here before the new car came out, before the W12, and to be able to continue that kind of success with a new car; and a lot of the success the team had at night and track conditions are very, very different at night.
            So to come here during a day race and still be able to have a strong showing.  I mean, look at Ryan.  That’s probably the more impressive drive of the race was from where he started to finish second.  There’s clearly a philosophy on the team that works well, and having four guys that work so well together makes races like this where we have so little practice time, just one session before qualifying, it makes it a huge advantage for us.  And the chemistry between us and the ability to work well together, it shows on track on Sunday.
 
            Q.  Describe what that dynamic is going to be like, not only are you battling for the championship, but you’re going to be doing it with your teammates.
            JAMES HINCHCLIFFE:  Yeah, I mean, that’s obviously going to be a more complicated question in five or six races.  We still have nine to go, and there’s still a lot to play for.
            But certainly, when you’re coming to the home stretch of the season and you have teammates running together, you know, I would like to think that we are all going to run each other fair and we are going to continue to work as well together as we can, because what you have to remember, it’s not just us in this championship.
            And if we start battling each other internally off track, then the other guys are going to catch up and pass us, and then we are fighting over second, third and fourth.  That’s not what we want to do.  We want to back up Ryan’s championship last year and bring another one home for Andretti Autosport, and I think we all know that the team is greater than one guy and we all have to work together to try and achieve that.
 
            THE MODERATOR:  No rest for you, I believe you’re off testing?
            JAMES HINCHCLIFFE:  Yeah, I have to catch a plane now and head to Pennsylvania.  We are testing at Pocono which everybody is excited for.  Yeah, we are excited for a weekend off.
  It’s been about two straight months on the road between Brazil, Indy and this five race stretch.
            So to go you say we have a break now, but we are straight testing on Tuesday and then we finally get a weekend off.  New track for us, obviously everybody is very excited about that.  We had strong cars at Indy and this is another Super Speedway and hopefully that translates, but there’s a lot to learn there.
            So I’m glad we are getting the chance to go somewhere new.  We always like a new challenge.
 
            Q.  You entered the season trying to get your first career victory and now you have three; is it a matter of kicking the door in and you just come charging through.
            JAMES HINCHCLIFFE:  Well, it’s funny, you know because people, all last year and the off season, people say things like:  Oh, you know, once you get your first one, they all just kind of come; it becomes way easier after that.  And they clearly haven’t tried running an IndyCar race, because it’s not easy under any circumstances, no matter how many you’ve won.
            I remember after St. Pete people were saying:  Oh, yeah, they will just come now.  And I’m thinking, race two at Barber, we completed all three laps and watched the rest of it from the side of the track.  I’m like, well, that didn’t quite go as everybody says it was gonna.
            It was incredible to be here now, three wins in and that first one is so hard to get.  But if you look at the record books, there are a lot of guys that have one win, and a pretty big factor, smaller that have won, two, smaller factor again that have won three, then it kind of goes up exponentially from there of guys that have had more than that.  It’s nice to be chalking a few up.
            But at the same time, these races are so hard to win.  You’ve got to be with a good crew, good car, good put pits, call it right, drive smart and have some luck.  That’s all part of it.  And you can’t take anything to are granted.  You can’t assume you’re in a good position, because there are legitimately 12 guys any weekend that can win a race, and you just never know if you’ll ever win another one.
            Will used to tell me that and I used to laugh at him, because that’s when he was winning six races a year; it’s just so true, and in an environment this competitive, you just never know.
            We are enjoying what we have got now and the success we’ve had, but we have got to keep our heads down and work harder than ever if we want to get back up here.
 
            Q.  After having won three races, nobody else having performed that well this season but still running fourth in the points, how does that set up your plan for the remainder of the season?
            JAMES HINCHCLIFFE:  We obviously kick it off with a bang, had two DNFs and another win and then had a couple bad races in Indy and Detroit.  After Detroit, we really just said, all right, look, guys, we have to get our momentum back and we have to get that MoJo going again.  At Texas, solid top 10; Milwaukee, solid top 5 and obviously here back at the top step.  I think that’s just the momentum shift that we needed.
            We are not going to be in a position to win every race, we know that but I think that we have found our way into finishing where we have to on the day you’ve got a ninth place car, finish ninth.  It’s a lot better than wrecking and going for eight.
            I think the team has got a lot of confidence in each other and themselves and now we can just try and rip off some consistent results because you look at Marco and you look at Helio, I’ve got more wins than anybody, but those guys are ahead of me because they have been more consistent.
 
            Q.  You said at St. Pete trying for that first victory, you were dreaming up scenario, how am I going to lose this; how is it different today after you’ve had a couple wins and you’re out in front for so much of the race?
            JAMES HINCHCLIFFE:  It was even worse because that much longer in the lead and more time to think of things that would go wrong.
            Obviously the first stint went pretty well for us and getting the lead early I think was important for us, because clean air is king, and we were able to get through traffic.  When we first came up on traffic, that was going to be the first big test, the first 20, 30 laps, whatever it was, didn’t really mean much, because anybody running by themselves up front was going to be good.  It’s when we got into lap traffic that was going to make a difference.
            And every time I came up on a lap car that was going to be the car that was going to screw it up for us.  Luckily we didn’t have many cautions.  When you are leading and have a good pace, you don’t want to see those, but every time we did, it was, oh, well, this is the restart that’s going to do us in; or every pit stop, I’m going to spit coming off turn two, get back up to speed or something.
            We did have a couple close calls.  Like I said we went aggressive with the setup and the car was very loose at certain parts of that race, and then the last ten laps picked up this freak understeer, I thought the tire was going down and I was on the radio asking if the pressure was all right    how far is Ryan, and I’m thinking, ten to go, really?  You’re going to let me lead 200 laps to take it away now.
            But luckily the gap was enough and I made sure I just controlled the lap at the end.  I didn’t want to catch that group because as soon as you’re in dirty air with old tires, the car falls apart a little bit, and luckily we had the gas to run we needed.
 
            Q.  In all your years of racing, have you ever dominated as well as you have today?
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE:  I mean, I can’t think of a race.  A few races of Lights that I led from pole but either a third of the distance or there’s no pit stops, restarts are a much different deal, they were not double file back then.
            So, no, I watched guy win races like this on TV and my whole career, I thought, I just don’t get it, like how do they do that.  I’ve never been in that position.  And now, I know:  You have to have a hell of a good car, a hell of a good crew and just hit your marks all afternoon long.
            I’m just so pleased that we are able to do    everybody performed.  If it was the guys in the pits, the setup, me and my spotter making good decisions out on the racetrack, and, man, it feels good to do it like that.
 
THE MODERATOR:  We are pleased to be joined by Michael Andretti of Andretti Autosport, our winn
ing team owner, this is the consecutive one, two finish for Andretti Autosport at Iowa.  Just talk about the great season your team is having.
 
            MICHAEL ANDRETTI:  Yeah, it’s just been a great year.  We work really hard, and all that hard work is paying off.  We are working great as a team.  All four cars are communicating very well and all four drivers and engineers and everything, and you know, it’s like I’ve been saying and preaching all year.  That’s where we are getting our results and it’s been awesome.
            As for coming here to Iowa, hope they never take this race off the schedule.  You know, it’s just been such a great race since the moment it made the schedule.  It’s a great racetrack.  We have great fans that come out and support it, and I hope it stays on the schedule for a long time.
 
            Q.  Ryan said that he thinks that your guys have particularly figured out the short ovals, but it’s not the only place that your cars seem to do really well.  I asked you at the beginning of the season what the dynamic is rolling behind the team.  What would you say is the great strength of the program right now?  Where is the really great focus?
            MICHAEL ANDRETTI:  Well, I think just what I just said before; I think the focus is on team and team work.  IndyCar Racing is very tough, because you get very little track time.  You don’t get the test.  You barely get any practice on a race weekend.
            So, you know, getting information is very important, and you need to get good, accurate information, and you need to have information that you can trust, and that’s what we have with all four cars that are out there running all the time.  We are getting four cars of data, and the four drivers and four engineers all work together and trust each other, and so we are getting four times the work done than if you had one car out there.
            I think that’s the biggest thing.  I don’t think it’s anything else than that.  I don’t think we have any tricks or anything like that.  Just good, hard work and good team work.
 
            Q.  Next race is Pocono and that’s really when the championship gets even tighter.  Can you foresee, you’re looking at two, three guys battling for the championship.
            MICHAEL ANDRETTI:  Boy, I hope you’re right.  Or three that they are battling    that one pain in the butt out there, that Penske car    (laughter).
 
            Q.  But forecast what these races are going to be like in terms of one of your drivers trying to break away in the championship.
            MICHAEL ANDRETTI:  Well, I mean, hopefully all the ones that are in the championship now, especially the three with James and Marco and Ryan, that they just continue to finish races and continue to get points; and races like today where Marco didn’t have a great car but he still came home ninth and got some important points and that’s what it’s going to take.
            We just have to hope we finish the year without any problems with the cars and all three of them, if we do that, I think one of them has a chance at winning the championship.
            Having said that, guys like Helio, with his experience and everything, it’s going to be really difficult and he’s going to make it go right down to the wire, I can assure you.  But it’s always nice to have more than one bullet in the gun, and right now we have three real legitimate shots at winning the championship.
 
            Q.  James didn’t have a win coming into the season, and now has three in ten starts.  Can you talk a little about how he’s grown as a driver here in 2013?
            MICHAEL ANDRETTI:  Yeah, it’s just really come together.  You know, just a matter of time for James.  He showed great brilliance last year in a lot of races and even races before and other teams that he’s been with.
            We all knew he had potential.  It’s always one of those deals, you get that first one and it seems like the next one comes a little bit easier because you have that confidence to know that you can do it, and I think that’s where James is right now.
            He’s had a weird year, for sure, where he’s been feast or famine; he either wins or he has problems.  But he knows he’s capable of winning, and you know, if he can just hopefully get through all his problems and continue to do what he’s doing, I think he has a good shot at the championship.
 
            Q.  With races back to back, I know everybody is tired but does it help to come from a one mile oval like Milwaukee to come here?
            MICHAEL ANDRETTI:  Honestly, I don’t think it really matters.  I don’t think it really does, because it’s the same amount of work between getting the cars ready for each event that really, it’s not a big thing.  I think maybe for your thought process; you can continue thinking the same way as you did the week before, that makes it a little nicer.  But in the end, it’s not a big difference.
 
THE MODERATOR:  We are now joined by Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport, you finished second.  This is the second consecutive podium finish for Ryan at Iowa.
            Ryan, the race today, obviously a little issue that brought you all the way back to 21, 22, to be able to bounce back to second, especially with the lap traffic out there, talk about today’s race.
 
            RYAN HUNTER-REAY:  Yeah, it was so challenging out there today.  Just had a lot of imbalance in the first stint.  I just had a lot of understeer and really had to push to get by Graham (Rahal), and I just kept my foot in it trying to pop right out of the corner, and when I did I was right under his gear box.  I just had no downforce on the front wing and when I turned it, there goes the front wing.  It’s that easy to make a mistake.
            Had great day, had a lot of fun, got angry a few times because of some lap cars that were just racing a little too hard.  But it was a really good day, good points, to finish second after being dead last.  And yesterday we had a nightmare of a day as well.  So really happy that we were able to bring the No. 1 DHL Chevy home in second.  Would have liked the repeat but once again, the Andretti cars were the cars to beat here at Iowa.
 
            Q.  You passed more cars today than anybody else on the track, so just how difficult was that and how much did you have to pace yourself to be able to systematically get your way backup?
            RYAN HUNTER-REAY:  Yeah, d
efinitely had to pace myself, because it was difficult.  Like Tony said, with these cars, the underlying characteristic is that they want to understeer quite a bit right in the run, right.  So half    inaudible    tires to the end, it’s very difficult, if somebody is running an optimum line that you’re working with, and somebody that you’re trying to pass is running that line, it can take you 20, 25 laps to even get a shot at them.
            It was a difficult day, I had to be patient at times and overly aggressive at others.  I had a really good day and I had really good car.  It’s a bummer when you have that good of a car and you come home second, but considering we came from the back of the pack to finish second in such a tight field, I have to be happy about that, or pleased about it, I should say.
 
            Q.  Big picture, what do you think this looks like to people who are watching it?  You have a few that’s different than we have, but what do you think it looks like to us?
            RYAN HUNTER-REAY:  What?
 
            Q.  All the mixing and exchanging of positions and dive bombs.
            RYAN HUNTER-REAY:  We look like a bunch of nuts out there, quite a few    anyway.
            I’m sure with an action packed race    it was so busy.  I think I had a clear track twice, and during that time, it felt like I was on vacation, it was so nice, and then you get back into the rough stuff and just dicing it you have and lap cars coming and then you have a guy for position or behind you while you have two cars in front of you for lap traffic, it was just nuts.  That’s what’s great about this race.  I really enjoy I think the night race is really great here.  I think we put on a great show during the day, but I think in the end, more people come out at night for this race.
 
            Q.  First and second today; what is it about the Andretti cars that they run so strong here?
            RYAN HUNTER-REAY:  We just figured out the short oval package, you know.  Unfortunately the 28 team, or the No. 1 team that you’re talking about, the No. 1, 28, we’ve won five I think of the last short ovals, dating back to New Hampshire, Milwaukee, Iowa, Milwaukee.  So we came close to doing it again here, but they gave the drivers a great short oval car.
            This track, you can see that everybody is very evenly matched when you’re on new tires, because the imbalances in the car are not showing and when everybody starts sliding around, that’s when the Andretti cars go to the front.  We just have great set up and definitely have to credit the engineering staff and the crew at Andretti for giving us those cars.
 
THE MODERATOR:  We are pleased to be joined by Tony Kanaan.  This is Tony’s fourth consecutive podium finish here at Iowa.  Talk about that great race.  There were tons of battles going on for position all day.
            THE MODERATOR:  This is Tony’s fourth consecutive podium finish Iowa.  Talk about that great race.  There was tons of battles going on for position all day.
            TONY KANAAN:  I wonder why people think, why do I love Iowa so much.  Yeah, it was an interesting race.  I think in the beginning, we had some temperature issue on the car, so on the first stop, we took a little bit of extra time.  Some debris got into the side, so we kind of had to take one piece off the oil heater that we had it on to cool the engine, so we lost five positions there.  And track position was so important today, that it cost us the entire race to go back to where we were.
            So on the last yellow, when I asked Jimmy where we were, we were only like 11th and there was only like three cars behind me on the same lap.  I said:  Why don’t we pit, put new tires on, we are going to have an advantage.  I think I can make it up, because a lot of people, because of the nature of the track and the downforce that we have, better tires were always going to help.  And then we went off sequence and that’s what helped us at the end of the race.
            I’m excited.  It’s funny, every time we have the Sunoco car this year, I finish on the podium, so going to have convince them to have a full car every race.  But it was a great race for us.
 
            Q.  That battle you had with Graham Rahal looked pretty good there, it was pretty close.  How fierce and intense was that?
            TONY KANAAN:  It was intense.  Obviously he has not had a great year, so he was fighting for the podium position.  And he fought a little bit too hard in my opinion, but I take it, I think this is racing.  It’s not    he gave me room; at times he didn’t, but we managed to pass him.  So it was a hard race.  He’s a good driver.  He made his car extremely wide.  So it was a good battle.
 
            Q.  Traffic is always tough here but talk about the traffic here in this race today.
            TONY KANAAN:  I mean, it’s the shortest track we go.  We are going to have traffic every lap.  People are going to get mad.  People are going to get    you know, say, oh, you should let me by, you should do this.  But you know what, at the end of the race, we are racing.  And even the lap cars are racing some lap cars, as well.
            So it was tough.  There were people there that were hanging in there for their life so they could only run one lane and sometimes it happened to be your lane, as well.  So it is what it is.
            And it’s such a short track; if you start letting people by every lap, after ten laps, you’re going to have to let the same people by again.  It’s tough.  But I think it’s part of what makes this race here very exciting.  So it is what it is.
            I’m not a big fan of complaining about traffic, because, you know, it is what it is.
 
            Q.  Do you particularly like    you must like going into turn three and just taking whoever is on the outside and just making him go further outside; you really dive down low, much lower than most people.  Is that one of your favorite parts of the corner?
            TONY KANAAN:  It is, and then funny that you picked on that, because I think my best move on the race was when I passed Marco there, you know.
            I think because of the nature of the cars today, a lot of people don’t go down low like that because you actually have a tendency to understeer.  My car was actually pretty good there.&nb
sp; And once you dive in that early, the barking kind of help you in the middle of the corner and a lot of people didn’t realize that, and I think in the race, that helped me a lot.
            I made a lot of passes, because a lot of the guys were choosing to run high going into that corner, and you know, running low, I had the grip and I had the clear air.  So it was definitely a good place to be.
            THE MODERATOR:  Just looking ahead to our next race, is obviously Pocono, you’re in the Sunoco car, it’s a new track and you’re going for the Triple Crown.  Any thoughts about that as we head there?
            TONY KANAAN:  I haven’t been there.  I’m going to test there on Tuesday.
            So I’m excited.  I’ve always heard good things about Pocono.  Obviously when I drove for Michael Andretti, it was a track that they had a lot of success, it was close to their house and I even heard that Michael had a helicopter crash on the way there once.  So I’ve heard about the track a lot.
            I’m excited.  Obviously I’m the only one that has a chance to win the Triple Crown, so the pressure is on us, but I’m excited.  I can’t wait to go there on Tuesday and check the track out and see how it looks like.

IZOD INDYCAR SERIES
IOWA CORN INDY 250
IOWA SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 23, 2013
 
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE, NO. 27 GODADDY ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER: We just had to go off of experience and all goes to the team.  We have a great track record here but this year with so many different things and a day race, everything was different.  We took a bit of risk.  We wanted to make sure the car wouldn’t get understeer because that kills you in traffic.  I can’t believe we led that whole thing.   The guys were awesome in the pits.
 
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU LED 226 LAPS TODAY. WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THAT?
“It’s Andretti Autosport. These guys have such a good track record here and we knew it was going to be different racing here in the day. We took a couple gambles with the set-up and we really wanted to make sure it was going to be good in traffic and turn, and man, that car was hooked-up from the get-go. We pulled away from everybody and had a good race with Graham (Rahal) there on one of those restarts. I lost one of my head pads halfway through the race and I thought it was either going to get stuck in the pedal box, or fly out and get in the air box and those last 20 laps were really long just trying to hold onto it. But, the GoDaddy guys were great in the pits. It’s great to win in Iowa; it’s where GoDaddy started. I’m just so stoked. Thanks to the fans who held out through the rain and stayed with us. And Andretti Autosport, I’m so stoked.”
 
YOU MADE IT LOOK EASY GETTING THROUGH THAT LAPPED TRAFFIC, BUT HOW HARD WAS IT?
“It’s so hard. You know, this place is so physical. You’re going straight for all of like four seconds in the lap and you’re working the rest of the time. And some guys are really well-behaved and consistent, but at the same time those guys are racing and if they’re in front of you two-wide, there’s nothing you can do. We’re trying to manage the gaps of the guys behind us and trying to take care of the tires. But at the end of the day, the car was solid. Everybody on the No. 27 crew, in the pits, they were awesome. Guys on the stand called it perfect. Man, I just can’t thank these guys enough.”
 
HOW DOES BEING 4TH IN THE STANDINGS, JUST 66 POINTS BACK SOUND?
“It sounds a whole lot better that ninth coming in, man!”
 
RYAN HUNTER-REAY, NO 1 DHL ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND: It was so hard to catch back up to James (Hinchcliffe) and then lapped traffic.  It’s one thing if you’re a lap down but if you’re five laps down or six laps down just making it tough on the leaders was uncalled for.  But hey, we can back from 22nd or whatever we were to finish second.  Definitely had the car to win today but just made a mistake there trying to get by Graham (Rahal), keeping my foot in it. The front just had no grip on it when I turned to pop out and pass him.  Easy mistake.  We had a tough weekend.  To come second out of this thing, I’m pretty please with that.  Good job to James (Hinchcliffe).  It was a good day in the point for the No. 1 DHL Chevy. Definitely have to be happy about that.
 
YOU HAD THE INCIDENT WHEN YOU HAD TO COME IN AND GET A NEW NOSE AND GO BACK OUT, AND WENT FROM LAST ALL THE WAY BACK UP TO FINISH SECOND. BOY, A LOT HAPPENED IN BETWEEN THEN
“A lot happened. It was a busy day. I as pushing so hard to catch James (Hinchcliff) there and then a bunch of lapped traffic just held us up racing. I don’t know why so hard when they are five laps down. But it was a great show today. A great race. Good job to James and the GoDaddy team. We had a good recovery on points today in the No. 1 DHL Chevy. Thanks to all the fans for coming out. We always appreciate it and thank you for making this such a great event.”
 
TONY KANAAN, NO. 11 SUNOCO “TURBO” KV RACING TECHNOLOGY – SH RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 3RD: “First I have to thank the entire Sunoco – KV Racing Technology – SH Racing team. They did a great job today. We had some issues early in the race with the car, but we were able to work around them.  The pit stops and strategy were great and we fought hard to earn this podium finish. I also want to thank Chevrolet and Firestone for their work. It was a great effort by everyone and a great race.  This is my second race in the Sunoco car and a second podium for us. I want to keep that momentum going into Pocono, which we will have the Sunoco car again and will be the second leg of the triple- crown.”
 
A FANTASTIC RUN FOR YOU! GETTING AROUND LAPPED TRAFFIC WAS A WHOLE DIFFERENT STORY
“Yeah, it’s a short track and you’re always going to have lapped cars and they are fighting for positions as well. Some other races, I’ve been there. It’s just the nature of the track. I want to thank the fans for coming. I know the weather didn’t look good this morning, but hopefully charging back through the field toward the end there I made it exciting for them.”
 
YOU HAD SOME EARLY ISSUES WITH TEMPERATURES, BUT IT WAS A GOOD RACE FOR YOU TODAY
“It was. We’ll take it.  We had the temperature issue where we lost five positions in the pits. And then track position was so crucial today. After that, all we did was we tried to get off sequence to have better tires. So we did it in the yellow because it was only three positions to lose from the back of the field and we put new tires on and that gave us a big advantage in the end.”
 
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA/ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 4TH: “It was a good run for the Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevy team.  We moved up to the front early and, then on the second stint, we had a understeer condition that sent us back in the field a little.  It was a long slow fight to the front again after that.  The Fuzzy’s guys gave me a great car today and we probably weren’t as aggressive enough early in the race on our changes.  But we made all of the right changes late and we were fast at the end.  I think we had a car fast enough to win today.  Our last green flag pit stop didn’t go as we wanted, but we came back and nearly got a podium today.  Overall, we still got a top-five finish today so it wasn’t a bad day for us.  This is a really fun place to race.  There were multiple lanes today and I ran both the low and the high groove.  Seemed like others were only good in one lane.  I just wish the race was a little longer for us because we were closing fast on the leaders.  But we’ll move on and go to Pocono.  I’m really looking forward to that race.”  
 
THAT WAS A HARDER-FOUGHT FOURTH PLACE FINISH THAN IT LOOKED LIKE, WASN’T IT?
“Yeah, we were at the front and then dropped back pretty far and raced our way to the front in the end and just ran out of laps. I think we would have kept catching people. It was a good day for the Fuzzy Vodka car. We didn’t execute perfectly, but I still got a Top 5 so I can’t complain about that.”
 
TALK ABOUT HOW KEY THAT LAST PIT STOP WAS TO HELP YOU WORK YOUR WAY BACK UP
“We were off sequence to Hinch and those guys so we got clear track on old tires after they had pitted. We did a pretty good job of holding them off for most of the time and we were in pretty good shape. We didn’t have a great pit stop on the last stop, but that’s the way it goes sometimes and we’ve got to be happy about the result anyway.”
 
HOW GOOD WAS YOUR CAR AT THE END TODAY?
“Other than the second stint, we were one of the fastest cars on track. We lost a lot of position the second stint. We had a bad stop at the end. That’s the way it goes sometimes. I’ve made plenty of mistakes this year and it’s going to happen at some point in time where you can’t be perfect in the pits all the time. So, it was a little bit of a bummer because we could have had more. I think we had a shot at the wi
n, but you can’t be mad about fourth. So, I’m happy to get out of here with a good run.”
 
ORIOL SERVIA, NO. 4 NATIONAL GUARD PANTHER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 7TH: “The National Guard Chevy was great all day. This is the first time I can remember that I didn’t ask for a single change to the car for an entire race. It was the restarts today that cost us; the best restart I had the No. 55 car almost spun in front of me and I had to check up. But I felt like we were faster than a lot of the guys around us all day today. To be honest, seeing that I was seventh at the end was a surprise because I felt like we were much higher than that, but a big thanks to the team and the National Guard for such a great car today.”
 
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 8TH:  “It was a good job today by the Hitachi team. We drove as hard as we could today. When they told me I came in 8th, I was like ‘What?’ I certainly felt we had a better car than that. I guess in traffic we got held up coming in and out of the pits which cost us some positions. The Hitachi car really came alive with about 50 laps to go and it felt great. Maybe it was a little too late for us. But, we still have the points lead and we will look for a better result in Pocono.”
 
MARCO ANDRETTI, NO. 25 RC COLA ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET, FINISHED 9TH: “It was a total handful when it came to traffic. I’m disappointed we couldn’t get the RC Cola car up there with the teammates but congrats to those two (James Hinchcliffe and Ryan Hunter-Reay).”
 
E.J. VISO, NO. 5 TEAM VENEZUELA PDVSA CITGO ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT HVM CHEVROLET, FINISHED 10TH: 
“It was a pretty up and down race for me. I think at some points, especially at the beginning of the race, we showed tremendous speed, and I thought at that point we were going to make it to the front.  Unfortunately in the second and third stint, we didn’t have the similar speed and I went to the back. I recovered again to finish in the top-10. It was not the best weekend for us, even from the beginning. But I am happy for my two teammates James (Hinchcliffe) and Ryan (Hunter-Reay) for finishing first and second.”
 
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 7 MCAFEE DRAGON RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 14TH: “It was a decent day starting from where we were it was not easy. Every time you start at the back you have some restarts that play your way and some that do not. I had a really good one halfway through the race but then on one restart I got caught behind Viso because he was running my line and couldn’t get going so that put us in the back. After going a lap down I tried to be as less of a factor for the leaders but then you have to start to let people by and you can’t run your race anymore. We were able to make a lot of progress with the car from the heat race to the feature race. When you have to drive from the back and don’t have a rocket ship its pretty tough to make it up to the front.”
 
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 17TH: “Tough day for the Verizon team. The rear handling of the car was an issue pretty much from the start of the race. It was frustrating because we tried everything we could to make it better but we just couldn’t get it to where we wanted it. It was a good job in the pits by the Verizon guys and we look forward to testing this week to make sure we feel good heading into Pocono.”
 
SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA, NO.  6 TRUECAR DRAGON RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 19TH: “It was a very disappointing weekend for us. I am very frustrated after coming to Iowa with a lot of momentum and we were just not able to create a reliable car for the race. With having this little of practice time before the race, if you do not come with a well balanced car it’s very hard to catch up to the front. The race for us was just a matter of keeping it a clean race. We made a bad call when we could have gained our one lap back in the beginning and the really finished the day early for us.”

SIMONA DE SILVESTRO, NO. 78 NUCLEAR ENTERGY AREVA KV RACING TECHNOLOGY CHEVROLET, FINISHED 21ST: “The car was better today than yesterday, but it’s still not quite there yet. It feels like we’re in damage control mode right now. We rolled off the truck not so good and didn’t have a ton of track time to get it fixed, so we got in kind of a pickle there. For the race we tried a few different things which got us closer, but it was still a long race for us.  I’m excited to go testing and hopefully we can turn all of this around. We’ve struggled the last two races, so we’ll just have to keep working on it.”

 
CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: Corvettes Complete 24 Hours
Fourth, seventh place in final Le Mans for C6.R with new car looming for ‘14
 
LE MANS, France (June 23, 2013) – Corvette Racing and its two Compuware Corvette C6.Rs completed the most demanding auto race in the world today by finishing in the top seven of the GTE Pro class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Jordan Taylor brought home the No. 73 Compuware Corvette in fourth place after starting seventh. It was a remarkable comeback that saw the trio pick up three spots in the final six hours. The No. 74 Compuware Corvette finished seventh with Oliver Gavin, Jan Magnussen and Richard Westbrook driving.
 
All six drivers and the two crews weathered constantly changing conditions and 10 safety car periods – most of which required long runs behind the safety cars. No one in either garage could remember such a volatile event.
 
“Chevrolet was truly honored to compete in the 90th anniversary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. Vice President, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “While it certainly was a challenging 24-hour event, I am proud that the entire Corvette Racing team exhibited a ‘never give up’ approach all race long. We look forward to returning next year for the 15th time at Le Mans and our first with the next-generation Corvette race car.”
 
Typical Le Mans attrition began to enter the equation in the last quarter of the race. After running seventh and eighth for much of the first 18 hours, the Corvettes crept up the standings as other entries began to fall off. By the 23-hour mark, both cars ranked among the top five in the class thanks to an aggressive wet tire strategy when rain began to pelt the circuit again.
 
Taylor outpaced ex-F1 pilot Giancarlo Fisichella to hold on to the fourth position over the final 20 minutes. Unfortunately, Oliver Gavin had to pit the No. 74 Corvette due to an exhaust issue. Rather than risk near-certain damage, the team elected to pit and send Gavin back out for the final lap.

CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: 18-Hour Report
Both Compuware Corvettes persevering through safety car periods
 
LE MANS, France (June 23, 2012) – Through three-quarters of the world’s greatest road racing, Corvette Racing’s two Compuware Corvette C6.Rs continued to persevere through the night and into the daytime. At the end of 18 hours, Tommy Milner ran seventh in GTE Pro and Jan Magnussen was eighth in the class.
 
The race likely will be remembered for the number of safety car periods – nine so far, to be exact. Both Jordan Taylor in the No. 73 Compuware Corvette and Oliver Gavin in the No. 74 spent most of their night driving in more changing conditions with a mix of dry and wet track to go along with cool temperatures and wind.
 
Things weren’t much different for Richard Westbrook during his night-time stint in the No. 74 and Antonio Garcia in the No. 73. Adding to the disrupted flow of the race was the duration of the safety car periods due to repairs to safety barriers and walls throughout the first 18 hours.
 
The next Corvette Racing update will be following the race at 3 p.m. local time/9 a.m. ET.
 
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 73 COMPUWARE CORVETTE C6.R
“This was probably one of the trickiest stints in my life, because when I got in it was raining on the first third of the track and the rest of the track was dry, so we went on the dry-and-wet tires. That was just super difficult, trying to keep heat in the tires in one section and overheating them in the next. We then put on slicks and tried to figure out how fast we could go on those. Once we got into a rhythm the car was good and quick, and we just tried to maintain our pace without making any mistakes.”
 
RICHARD WESTBROOK, NO. 74 COMPUWARE CORVETTE C6.R
“It’s definitely not been a typical Le Mans, that’s for sure. I’m not sure what the deal is with the safety barriers … it seems that if anyone touches them we have a long safety car period. It’s disrupting the flow of the race – stop, start, stop, start. The tires get cold and take awhile to warm up and sometimes you don’t really get going on the rest of your stint after a safety car. Sure it’s frustrating but it’s the same for everyone. Our plan is the same – to keep going and see how things are at the end. I don’t know the history books, but I’d guess (the number of safety cars) would be a record. And they’ve all been long ones as well. I was in for three hours during the night and it felt like two hours were behind the safety car. I think it was 45 minutes but you’re bored and you want to go. But there is a reason for them and the organizers do have our safety in mind.”

Helio Castroneves and Will Power Finish One-Two in Pole-Qualifying Heat Race at Iowa Speedway
Chevrolet IndyCar V6 Drivers Claim Top-Four Finishing Positions in Unique Format to Set Line-up for Iowa Corn Indy 250
                                                                                                                                                                                          
Newton, Iowa – (June 22, 2013) Helio Castroneves earned the number one starting position for the Iowa Corn Indy 250 by turning the fastest time in single-lap qualifying, which put him on the pole of Qualifying Heat Race No. 3. The driver of the No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet led from green flag to checkered flag in the final of the three 50-lap “Heat”, races which set the field for tomorrow’s race at Iowa Speedway.
 
Will Power brought the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet to the checkered in second behind his teammate in Race No. 3.  However, the result of an unapproved engine change for Castroneves’ car, Power will slide over to the pole position for the start of the race. Castroneves will start 11th with the 10-grid position penalty.
 
“Team Chevy continued to demonstrate some depth of strength tonight during qualifying at Iowa Speedway, carrying some momentum from Milwaukee,” said Chris Berube, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager, IZOD IndyCar Series.  “The heat race format used to set the grid is unique to Iowa and this year added driver’s championship points to the qualifying process.  We are very proud of the five different Chevrolet teams that secured spots in the top ten to start the race tomorrow afternoon.  Based on the 50 lap heat races tonight, it looks like setup, great pit stops and tire management will be keys to success tomorrow. “
 
Andretti Autosport teammates James Hinchcliffe, No. 27 GoDaddy Chevrolet, and Marco Andretti, No. 25 RC Cola Chevrolet finished third and fourth respectively in the 50-lap run for the pole.
 
Also earning top-10 starting positions for Team Chevy are Ed Carpenter, Tony Kanaan and Oriol Servia.
Sunday’s 250 lap/218.75-mile race will be televised live at beginning at 2:30 p.m. (ET) on ABC TV.  It will also be broadcast live by the IMS Radio Network, including on Sirius and XM Channels 211, www.indycar.com and the INDYCAR 13 App for most smartphones and tablets.
 
 
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, POLE WINNER: ON WINNING THE POLE:
“It’s really welcome, to be honest. I’m very excited for what we achieved. The car is really good. We were watching the other ones in the first heat and second heat so we can learn something. It’s the toughest one because you want to make some change, but you don’t know what. And, but it was in the end, the right decision what we did, again. So this weekend seems that we’re making the right choice on the changing of the car.”
 
ARE YOU NOT 100% HAPPY WITH YOUR CAR?
“You guys (the media) are going to find out very soon what’s going on. Hopefully; yeah, you guys are going to find out very soon.
 
“I might be overpowered. That’s what I’m saying. I’m going to try to make sure I get my voice heard.”
 
 WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 2ND: ON HIS QUALIFYING LAP AND RACE: “Practice, really came on there during the race so, yeah, happy with second. I had a moment when I crossed the bottom line there in (Turns 1 and 2) and had a big moment, and then I just decided to settle for second. But the car was very solid. Obviously we have to go back and work on this. Hopefully we’ll have a good car tomorrow and another good result because we keep chipping away on the points.”
 
YOU ARE MAKING GREAT PROGRESS ON THE OVALS. TALK ABOUT THAT: “Yeah, the ovals have been my best results this year. And I haven’t been slow on the ovals, I’ve just had rotten luck you could say. There’s always a reason for some sort of mistake. But in the past years, that’s been the case. But, definitely I’m having fun on ovals this year and enjoying them and hopefully I can bring a good result for the team.”
 
DID THOSE LAPS HELP YOU MORE ABOUT WHAT THE CAR CAN DO FOR TOMORROW, EVEN THOUGH THE CONDITIONS MAY BE DIFFERENT? “Yeah, they did. Definitely. It definitely gives you a bit of a heads-up of what your problems are or where your car is strong and where you can run in traffic, and so on. I don’t think the conditions will be much different tomorrow. I hope it doesn’t cool down any because the cars are just stuck. I mean, they’re just stuck. So, if you ever had a moment or you went in the wall it’s just going to be so hard. I just think that the downforce is too much. Although, it’s helping me. I’m enjoying it.”
 
THIS IS SIX TRIPS FOR TEAM PENSKE TO IOWA. YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN STRONG. THIS IS AS GOOD A TIME AS ANY FOR PENKSE TO GET THAT FIRST WIN “Yeah, you can never tell in these races. There are so many competitive people. But, hopefully; I really need to gain some points on those guys, Helio and Hunter-Reay, and everyone in front of me. There are a lot of people in front of me. But at some point, the championship is going to become out of reach. But, I’m not racing with a head like that. I’m just racing smart and getting a solid result each weekend.”
 
DO YOU LIKE THE WAY INDYCAR HAS SET UP THE POLICY TO BRING YOUR PIT LOCATION FROM THE PREVIOUS QUALIFYING? HOW DOES THAT AFFECT YOU? “It’s a method. It’s good for me, I think. Solid qualifying results, I’m always up the front. But yeah, I’ve had my fair share of pit lane incidents in the past and it’s usually due to the fact that you’re back there around people you’re not used to being around.”
 
ANY THOUGHTS ON YOUR TEAMMATE A.J. ALMINDINGER CELEBRATING HIS NATIONWIDE VICTORY? “We’re real happy for him. I know how seriously he takes racing and how down he gets when he doesn’t do well. He puts everything into it. So, I’m really happy for him. It’s actually his first NASCAR win. So, everything that he’s gone through it’s just brilliant to see him win a race and Roger too, who is enjoying his vacation with a win in the heat race and a NASCAR win. So hopefully I can do us another one tomorrow, too; and we can do it here.”
 
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE, NO. 27 GODADDY ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 3RD: “The GoDaddy car was great. Huge credit to the Andretti (Autosport) guys because they gave us a car we could move up. We didn’t see a lot of guys making passes today, and we were able to move up from where we started. It’s a shame we lost that position to Will (Power) there with about 20 (laps) to go – I would have liked an outside starting spot (for tomorrow’s race)… We’re certainly in the ballpark. Helio (Castroneves) has been quick all weekend, and we know where we are relative to him so we just have to keep our heads down, make a couple changes for tomorrow and hopefully we can be there.”
 
MARCO ANDRETTI, NO. 25 RC
COLA ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 4TH: “I think we were a little conservative in the Heat Race with the RC (Cola) car. We ran a little more of a (race day) car and we could have been more aggressive – that kind of hurt us. In the end of the stint we would have started moving forward but it was too late. Starting fourth isn’t all bad though… we’ve done it (won) here from 17th.”
 
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA/ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 6TH: “We missed the balance a little bit in qualifying.  We had a little too much understeer.  It’s too bad it’s not a night race because it helps with the grip in the race. It will be a little more slick in the day and will probably be more of a one-groove track.  It’s easier for a second groove to open up at night.  I think more people will run the second grove in the race because there is more banking.  Then the low grove won’t be as good in the race.  You are drafting all of the time here.  It’s non-stop drafting.  This is one of the most physical tracks that we run. Iowa is a little less physical that it used to be because the grip level isn’t as high.  But it is still a very tough race.   We were not too good in our first heat race tonight.  We tried something different.  It wasn’t very good and I felt fortunate to transfer to the final heat.   But the Fuzzy’s Vodka crew busted their butts to make some quick changes in between the heats and the car was much better in the final heat.  We ran 100 laps today and I think we learned some things for Sunday’s race.  Unfortunately, it will be in the heat of the day.  So I’m hoping our changes in the final heat will help us on Sunday.  I definitely feel better about our Fuzzy’s Chevy now.”

ORIOL SERVIA, NO. 4 NATIONAL GUARD PANTHER RACING CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 10TH:  “Tenth is definitely good for us, and you’ve seen the way things can go here with people going back and forth, so it’s not a bad place to start. Today we really accomplished what we wanted in the NationalGuard Chevy with a little bit of a race sim to see where the car is going to go. I felt very good in qualifying and in practice, we were just a little bit off (in the heat race) but that’s what this is good for; it gives us a chance to get it better for tomorrow. Honestly, the car felt good it just had a little too much understeer, which is the better evil to have and to solve. So I feel pretty good about tomorrow.”

TONY KANAAN, NO. 11 SUNOCO “TURBO” KV RACING TECHNOLOGY – SH RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 8TH: “The car was good in the beginning of the race, but we developed some understeer as the laps came in. The good thing is that we found out about the problem tonight, so we have some time to work on the situation and I am confident we will be ready to race tomorrow.”
 
RYAN HUNTER-REAY, NO 1 DHL ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 14TH: “You know, it was way off the mark.  We’ve been sitting on our own thumbs all day today.  We just missed it today.  No. 1 DHL team will have to regroup and come back tomorrow because we’re starting buried in the pack.  We gave up points today.  An important day and we just missed it a bit.  It’s to fight another day and that’s tomorrow.”

E.J. VISO, NO. 5 TEAM VENEZUELA PDVSA CITGO ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT HVM CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 19TH: “Very difficult day for me today. I believe we didn’t get all of our factors together. Qualifying was really not the best, and then in the Heat we were lacking plenty of grip so we lost some positions. That is not a huge issue – I started from the same place in the back and have made it all the way to the front in the past, and that could also happen tomorrow.”

SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA, NO.  6 TRUECAR DRAGON RACING CHEVROLET,

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 7 MCAFEE DRAGON RACING CHEVROLET,

SIMONA DE SILVESTRO, NO. 78 NUCLEAR ENTERGY AREVA KV RACING TECHNOLOGY CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 23RD: “I’m really disappointed. The team’s been working really hard, but we’ve been fighting with the car since the second practice in Milwaukee. The car was great in the first practice there, but since then we haven’t been able to get it back to where we need it to be. It’s really frustrating. I know it’s there, because it was awesome in Texas as well. We’ll make some changes again tonight and hopefully get a good car for tomorrow’s race. We really want to go out and put on a good show for the Nuclear Clean Air Energy sponsors that are here this weekend. Hopefully we’ll be able to do that.”

CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: Halfway Report
Compuware Corvette fighting the good fight through 12 hours
 
LE MANS, France (June 22, 2013) – The halfway point of the 24 Hours of Le Mans has come and gone, and Corvette Racing remains in the GTE Pro fight after 12 Hours. The No. 74 Compuware Corvette C6.R with Richard Westbrook at the wheel ran seventh at the race’s midpoint. In the No. 73, Antonio Garcia was completing a triple-stint just before the 12-hour mark and sat eighth.
 
Garcia took over for Jan Magnussen, who had a double-stint to open his second round of the event. Jordan Taylor began the run from hour seven through 12 with a triple-stint as well. Luck didn’t appear to be with Magnussen, Taylor and Antonio Garcia. The trio found itself beset by being separated from its other GT competitors by the safety car on three consecutive yellow-flag periods.
 
Bad fortune also followed the No. 74 Corvette at the half-way point. It ran seventh in class despite having to pit twice for suspected tire issues and once for what Westbrook and Oliver Gavin said felt like a fuel pressure issue. The crew uploaded a fix to the ECU to help manage the engine under acceleration, which corrected the problem.
 
Tommy Milner ran a double-stint into darkness with a different tire compound on his Michelin tires, which helped him keep pace with the rest of the field.
 
The next Corvette Racing update will be an 18-hour report at 9 a.m. local time/3 a.m. ET.
 
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 74 COMPUWARE CORVETTE C6.R
“I had a good two-and-a-half stints with a caution in the middle, which we used to change the brake pads. We tried some different tIre compounds, which went well. Right now we’re just trying to keep it within one lap (of the leaders) and on the track without making any mistakes, and see where we are when the sun comes back.”
 
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 73 COMPUWARE CORVETTE C6.R
“I just spent four hours in the car, mainly because of the lengthy safety car period which allowed me to stay in longer. The car feels better. I had the class leader in front me in my first stint, and then the second- and third-place cars in my second stint and in both cases I could easily follow them. We don’t have the pace to catch and pass them, but we can follow them and put in some decent laps. Now it starts raining again, and I know what it’s like at this point in the race for it reminds of 2008, but I must say I’m happy I can have a rest now instead.”
 
RICHARD WESTBROOK, NO. 74 COMPUWARE CORVETTE C6.R
“Those were pretty small problems that haven’t hurt us too much. We have a great crew and they turned it around quickly. We highlighted the problem with what felt like a fuel pressure issue, and they got that fixed really quickly. We also had a rear tire issue, which happens at Le Mans. There is a lot of debris. Our plan is to keep going around. We will see where that takes us.”
 
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 74 COMPUWARE CORVETTE C6.R
“We went to a different compound tire and the car feels better in the nighttime than in the daytime. The track is fully dry, and that plays a part in it. The car felt better and was more competitive so we won’t lose as much time as before. Antonio was doing a (3):57 and I was doing (3):58s. Right now that is comparable to what everyone else is doing. That’s encouraging but we are still quite a ways down. If we can run with some of the faster GT cars, at least we can keep up with them. If nothing else, we can use their speed to make us go faster.”
 

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
TOYOTA/SAVE MART 350
SONOMA RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
JUNE 22, 2013
 
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER
CONGRATULATIONS YOU GET TO START UP FRONT ARE YOU SURPRISED?
“A little bit.  We were second and fifth in practice so consistently we have had a really good car this weekend.  The No. 42 has been really good all weekend.  So you know you have a chance, but the deal is Juan (Pablo Montoya) and Marcos (Ambrose) are able to pull these crazy laps out when they need to.  We were just able to put it all together today.  That is really cool.  This is a really fun event.  The race is really fun, it’s just that this place can get a little bit frustrating at the end of the race if they have a late-race restart.  It’s always wild in turn four and turn seven.  I have been on the good end of it and I’ve been on the bad end of it.  Hopefully, we just put it all together tomorrow.”

KURT BUSCH, NO. 78 FURNITURE ROW RACING/SEALY CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED SEVENTH
“We’ll take it, seventh is a good starting spot,” said Busch.  “We had a good weekend so far with two strong practice sessions yesterday in our Furniture Row Chevrolet.  We need to go out there tomorrow, have some fun, avoid trouble, stay clean and get the finish our performance deserves. Fuel mileage will be critical as it always is here.”   

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 10TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“I think that track conditions are fairly similar to yesterday.  It is getting a little bit warmer, but when we made our qualifying run it was in the afternoon yesterday so it might have been similar.  All in all a good run for the Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet.  On a road course there is always places where you can gain time and lose time.  I feel like the lap overall was a good lap except for turn 11.  I just got in there and got real tight. That costs us a little bit of time, but hopefully we end up 10th, 11th, or something like that.”
 
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR PACKAGE FOR SUNDAY?
“We have raced really well here in the past.  I’m certainly optimistic and looking forward to the challenges.  This car is a little bit different than what we had.  Trying to figure out what this car needs balance wise for the race is still going to be determined throughout the race tomorrow.”

TONY STEWART, NO. 14 MOBIL 1/BASS PRO SHOPS CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 11TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“We’re definitely getting better. We’ve made gains each time we’ve been on the racetrack. And compared to where we’ve started in years past, we’re actually ahead of the game this year. Steve (Addington, crew chief) and the guys have worked really hard — here and at the shop — to bring a Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevy that’ll we’ll be able to work with on Sunday.”
 
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 RHEEM CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 12TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING LAP:
“It was a decent lap.  I definitely left a couple of tenths out on the race track in a few corners, but all in all our goal was to run faster than what we did in practice.  We were able to pick up half a second and wound up with a decent lap.  We just didn’t want to dig ourselves a hole.  Driver definitely left some out there.  The car is running good.”
 
KASEY KAHNE, NO. 5 FARMERS INSURANCE CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 15TH
HOW WAS YOUR LAP?
“It felt pretty good, especially on that first lap. I was just a little bit tight. But it felt all right. We had a little pick-up from yesterday, so that was good. I think we’re going to have a better car in race trim Sunday than what it’s shown so far this weekend. We made some good progress yesterday and I’m looking forward to the race. I don’t know. Hopefully the longer it runs, the better we are.”
 
PAUL MENARD, NO. 27 MENARDS/MOEN CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 16TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“We made some gains from yesterday’s practice sessions. We fought a loose-off condition, but we’ve improved on it. We just need to take it another step further. We’ve tried a lot of different setups on our Moen/Menards Chevrolet, but we still have some tricks up our sleeve for tomorrow.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 19TH
ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN:
“This is not going to be the pole. It’s just nice to get this interview right now and talk about my Lowe’s Chevrolet. But we’ll do what we can to manage what we can and try to find some more speed in this Lowe’s Chevy.”
 
WAS THAT ABOUT AS PERFECT A LAP AS YOU CAN EXPECT?
“Looking at the speed we are not in the 15’s yet and I think the pole is going to be the mid to low 15’s.  I think we are missing a big chunk of pace there.  We out ran everybody that went out ahead of us, which we should.  We will just see where we stack up.  I don’t think it’s going to be… we will be lucky if it’s top-10.  I think there are some real fast laps getting ready to come down out there.”
 
HOW ABOUT THE CAR IN RACE TRIM?
“We are fair.  We don’t have a ton of pace for whatever reason.  I think all four of us in the Hendrick cars are wanting a little bit more.  We picked a good direction to go here with our race car for qualifying.  I think we will be able to build on that and take it into tomorrow’s race.  We are not off to the start we wanted here in Sonoma, but there is still an evening to think things through and get ready for a race.”

JACQUES VILLENEUVE, NO. 51 TAG HEUER AVANT-GARDE EYEWEAR CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 22ND
“It just wasn’t quick enough. It was a lot better than yesterday. We improved the car overnight and I was discovering it and I just didn’t drive aggressive enough on the first lap so there was still a little bit of time, but at least my car was a lot better today. They worked hard. I was discovering everything yesterday and so far, it’s been run.”
 
WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO TO BE FASTER FOR SUNDAY?
“Well, tomorrow is a whole different ballgame because it’s race trim and we have to have the car survive for a lot of laps and we don’t know. We have to talk about it.”
 
WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THE COMMENTS THAT DRIVERS DON’T WANT YOU BEHIND THEM BECAUSE YOU ARE SO AGGRESSIVE?
“Well, that’s a good thing because then maybe people would open the door. Their outlook on me is a little bit biased. I’m not as aggressive as they think. So I think it’s just an image that has happened and was built and it got out of control and I’m not sure why.”
 
SO YOU’RE NOT LOOKING TO DRIVE THAT WAY?
“No, no. If you can fight for the win, you drive more aggressively; mostly if you get taken off during that race then you have to make your way back through the field and that’s what happened in the last couple of years. I got taken out from the lead on the last lap and everybody thought that was great. So, I didn’t drive any more aggressively than anybody else out there but the image I got out of it was quite extreme.”
 
DID YOU SEE THE CRASH AT LE MANS TODAY?
“No, I just saw the sad news when I got here at the track and I wasn’t following it. Racing is still dangerous and I think people tend to forget about it. Mostly the younger drivers, the new generation that come into racing, they don’t realize that it’s still dangerous. And it is. But we don’t expect it. I think that all those races where you change drivers during the race; you don’t have a proper seat. You’re not sitting properly in the belts and it makes it that little bit more dangerous.”
 
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 NATIONAL GUARD CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 26TH
HOW DO YOU LIKE THE NEW QUALIFYING FORMAT?
“This is the way they should have done it for years. It’s a lot easier to get everyth
ing done and get everything accomplished and it gives us a little bit more exciting session to watch. So, I’m all for it.”
 
HOW WAS YOUR LAP? DID YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS?
“Oh, just that the car is a little bit on the tight side, but we had great speed. We’ll just have to try to take care of our car and do the best we can in the race. We should be okay if we can just do everything right.”
 
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 HAAS AUTOMATION 30TH ANNIVERSARY CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 30TH
ON THE NEW QUALIFYING FORMAT:
“The format didn’t change anything for us. You used to get an opportunity to get a second lap, which worked sometimes and sometimes it doesn’t. So everybody’s got an equal shot to make the best of it.”
 
HOW IS YOUR CAR?
“It’s always been loose. We rarely have it tight here. The tire is a challenge, but everybody’s got the same challenge and we’ll keep working on it.”
 
DANICA PATRICK, NO. 10 GODADDY CHEVROLET SS – QUALIFIED 31ST
ON HER QUALIFYING RUN:
“We picked up from practice. It was loose, especially in the faster part of the course. But we improved from yesterday and the GoDaddy guys have worked really hard this weekend. Hopefully we have a good day on Sunday.”

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
TOYOTA/SAVE MART 350
SONOMA RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 22, 2013
 
 
MCMURRAY CAPTURES POLE FOR SUNDAY’S ROAD COURSE RACE AT SONOMA
SEVEN TEAM CHEVY DRIVERS WILL START IN TOP 15
 
SONOMA, CA – June 22, 2013 – Jamie McMurray took advantage of the new qualifying format at Sonoma Raceway to put his No. 1 Cessna Chevrolet SS on the pole with a fast speed of 94.986 mph for Sunday’s Save Mart 350 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. It was McMurray’s ninth Cup career pole, and the first of the 2013 season. He was also the pole winner at Sonoma in 2007.
 
The new qualifying format for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, used previously in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, featured eight groups of five or six cars each; and the drivers had five minutes to post their best lap around the 1.99-mile road course. McMurray was in the eighth group.
 
“It was all-around really good and our car has been good,” said McMurray. “Speed for this team really hasn’t been an issue. We’ve had plenty of speed; it’s just been about the last ten percent of the races and getting that finish. But hopefully we can get our bad luck out of the way and have a really good result this weekend. The truth is, I don’t really care if I lead the first lap tomorrow. I want to be there at the end. And this race, a lot of times comes down to the last restart and not getting in trouble. So, we’ll just dig and fight all day and I think our car will have enough speed. It will just be about not making any mistakes.”
 
Starting behind McMurray on Sunday will be six Team Chevy drivers in the Top-15 positions of the 43-car field.  Kurt Busch, No. 78 Furniture Row Racing/Sealy Chevrolet SS – 7th, Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevy SS – 10th, Tony Stewart, No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet SS – 11th, Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Rheem Chevy SS – 12th, Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS – 13th, and Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevy SS will start 15th.
 
Rounding out the top five starters, Marcos Ambrose (Ford) qualified second; Carl Edwards (Ford) qualified third, Greg Biffle (Ford) will start fourth, and Clint Bowyer (Toyota) qualified fifth.
 
The Save-Mart 350 will take the green flag on Sunday, June 23rd at 3:00 p.m. ET (12:00 noon, PT) and will be aired live on TNT.
 
 
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA CHEVROLET SS – POLE WINNER

TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE NEW QUALIFYING FORMAT AND YOUR THOUGHTS OUT THERE ON HOW TODAY WENT:
“I thought the qualifying format was really good.  Sonoma has always been a place that you would go down the drag strip and then come out half way down the backstretch.  Whatever they put on the drag strip everybody would always talk about it.  It seemed like it made the tires greasy for the first couple of corners.  I thought it was good that we got to pull out just like we do in practice.  You gap yourself with the guys in front of you, take it pretty easy and it was very similar to practice which I thought was good.  Sitting down there as a fan listening to the commentator getting to have five cars on the track, six cars on the track, I thought it was good.  It made it a little more interesting.  It wasn’t just one guy and the guy trying to commentate about one person on the track.  I thought it was good.  It was cool how people would bump each other off.  It was a good format.”
 
BACK AT RICHMOND YOU MENTIONED THIS TRACK IS ONE OF THE ONES THAT YOU WERE REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO IN TALKING ABOUT HOW THE SEASON HAS BEEN IMPROVING.  BY STATS ON I THINK YOUR FINISHING AVERAGE IS 17.1, BUT YOU DID FINISH SECOND ONCE.  WHY WERE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO COMING HERE?
“Well, this has always been performance wise a really good track for me in qualifying.  I’ve qualified well here a lot.  I feel like I’ve raced really well here.  For me the last restarts have always got me.  Whether it is someone dive bombing you in turn seven and wiping you out.  I’ve made a mistake on the last lap here and lost a lot of spots.  When they have a restart at this track guys go from the top-five to 30th in a matter of about 20 seconds.  It can be a track that if they have a caution at the end you can lose a lot.  I just have always looked forward to Sonoma.  It’s one of the funnier tracks that we come to.  I don’t know that the road racers like this as much as they do Watkins Glen.  I really enjoy coming here.”
 
TALK ABOUT THE GEN-6 CAR AND THE FIRST TIME AT THIS TRACK, WHAT ARE YOU FEELING ARE THE DIFFERENCES ARE, WHAT IS BETTER, WHAT IS NOT?
“I expected the times to be quite a bit quicker coming here.  The tire that we are on this year when we did our testing this tire was a fait bit faster than the tire we ran last year.  This car is quite a bit quicker than the car from last year.  It feels better here.  The slow corners aren’t much different, but the faster high speed esses.  The car has a lot more grip, feels a lot more balanced.  I don’t know why the times aren’t any quicker.  Overall I think if we didn’t do lap times everyone would tell you that we are going quite a bit quicker.  Just the track must be worn out quite a bit more than last year.  The car is really good.  When we did our testing at VIR (Virginia International Raceway) we ran significantly faster than we did with last year’s car testing.  The car is really good.  The car has been good at every track we have been to so far.”
 
WHAT WEAR DO YOU THINK ARE ON THE TIRES WITH THIS CAR AND HOW DO YOU THINK THE STRATEGY IS GOING TO BE FOR NUMBER OF PIT STOPS?
“I remember sitting on the pole here last time and not sleeping the whole night worried about pit strategy and what we were going to do.  I got to turn one and I ran off the track and I came out about 35th or 40th and it didn’t matter.  Honestly, my answer to you would be that I don’t know and I’m not going to worry about it.  I’m going to let everyone else worry about it and I’m just going to do what they tell me.”
 
CARL (EDWARDS) TALKED ABOUT MISSING A FEW POINTS DURING HIS LAP.  MARCOS (AMBROSE) CAME IN AND SAID HIS ENGINE STALLED.  WAS THAT LAP THE BEST YOU COULD HAVE POSSIBLY DONE?
“No, when you go to oval tracks there are a lot of times you come in and you say ‘that is just it that is all I had.’  Here every corner there is a little bit that you can improve. When I sat on the pole here in 2009 I think, 2010, I remember when the lap was over thinking ‘I didn’t drive hard enough.  I should have driven harder.’  It ended up being the pole.  So when my lap started today as I was waiting on the No. 56, had an oil leak or something.  As that car was sitting there, you run through, especially at a road course for me, I run through the lap and my shifting points and what I needed to do. It’s a little bit harder this year because we didn’t just end practice and then get to do qualifying.  You haven’t been in the car until your lap starts.  I was like I remember that and I’m just going to go out and take whatever this car will give me.  I’m not going to push it to the very edge, because the trying to gain the every little bit can cost you a half second if you drop a tire off or if you get loose.  I drove at about 95 percent and I just kept it on the track.  I just had it all put together.”
 
EIGHT WINNERS THE LAST EIGHT YEARS OUT HERE, DOES THAT INSPIRE YOU AT ALL?  ARE YOU THINKING MAYBE THIS COULD BE YOUR YEAR?
“Yeah, when you look at this race it seems like every year out here somebody wins that you didn’t feel like was a good road racer.  All of a sudden you are like that guy is a good road racer because he has won.&
nbsp; This track has produced a lot of guys that I think historically haven’t run well on road courses.  Tomorrow it will be about the No. 9 and No. 42.  I think the No. 15 was really good in practice, but the race is long enough and there is usually a little bit of drama at this track.  It’s really about kind of being in position and if it is your day it will work out.  If it’s not, there is not a lot you can do about it.  Yeah, I feel really good about our car for tomorrow.  I think our pace was a fourth to eighth place car.  I think that is all you really have to have in order to put yourself in a position to win.”
 
DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF UNDER RATED AS A ROAD RACER?  WHAT DOES THIS SAY ABOUT THE PROGRESS THAT EARNHARDT GANASSI RACING IS MAKING THIS YEAR?
“Yeah, I don’t consider anything with my ability versus someone else’s. It just is what it is.  Certainly that is just someone’s opinion.  What I will tell you about our race team is I remember sitting in here a year ago with Juan (Pablo Montoya) when we made the announcement we were going to run the Indy GRAND-AM race.  We talked about everything that was going on with making our cars better. They have just done an amazing job.  Juan and I were talking about it yesterday between practices about the cars don’t necessarily feel better on the track, but the times are better in relation to everybody.  Coming out here I was really confident because every track we have been to we have had really good speed and we have run really well.  We haven’t been able to necessarily get the finishes in the last 10 percent of the race, but it hasn’t really been anything that we have done wrong.  Feel really good about our cars and really just about any track that we go to now.”
 
LAST TIME YOU WERE ON THE POLE YOU FINISHED 37TH.  WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO TO AVOID A SIMILAR FATE THIS TIME?
“The last time I was on the pole I remember not only worrying about pit strategy, but staying up all night wanting to lead the first lap.  I think Robby Gordon was second.  Robby would be really aggressive on the start.  I believe I ran off in the first corner and came off the first corner in last.  Then when I got to turn seven they had a wreck and I ripped the fenders off my car.  You know what I’m not worried about it.  It’s just about getting through that last pit stop hoping that your fuel mileage is good enough.  This is a fuel mileage race always.  I’m not really thinking back to the last time we were on the pole.  It’s really just about the last few races and kind of the way it’s played out.”
 
DO YOU STILL FEEL LIKE THE ORGANIZATION IS MAKING FORWARD PROGRESS AS WE GET DEEPER AND DEEPER INTO THE SEASON?
“Yeah, absolutely, when we went to Richmond and I think that is what you are referring to the conversations we had there.  We were running 10th with two laps to go and felt really good about that because that historically hasn’t been a good track for us.  A top 10 would have been great.  Cautions came out because of where I was pitted we elected to stay out on the race track which ended up being a horrible decision.  We went from 10th with a couple of laps to go to being second on the green-white-checkered to finishing 25th.  Charlotte we were running 10th and had a radiator break and it ripped a hole in the oil line which is I don’t know 40 laps to go. I think we ended up finishing 18th out of that, just because of the other cars that had broken.  At Dover we were running in the top-10 had something fall off another car go through the radiator.  Last week we were running I don’t know eighth or ninth and blew a right-front tire with a few laps to go.  So since Richmond I’ve run better than I did before Richmond, I just haven’t finished.  I told my wife after Dover.  We got on the airplane to come home I said ‘Christy, I don’t believe in luck, I believe you make your own luck, but when something falls off someone else’s car and it goes through your radiator, that is bad luck’.   When you blow a right-front tire and you don’t feel like you did anything wrong that is just bad luck.  I feel like we have been really unlucky, but our cars have been really good.  I tell you that because the morale on our team, not just the No. 1 team, but the No. 42 team, everybody is very excited about what we have going on right now.  We feel like performance wise we are really good.  I think we are better than we were in 2010 when we were able to win all the races. If we are able to put it all together we will win more races this year.” 
 
INAUDIBLE:
“We are definitely better than what we were at Richmond.  The thing that is so good about us this year is that we have been good on superspeedways, we’ve been good on short-tracks, we’ve been good at road courses, and we’ve been good at every kind of race track that we have been to.  Slick tracks, tracks with a lot of grip.  That is what we didn’t have in 2010 was we were good at certain tracks.  We performed extremely well at those, but I think it was the short tracks in 2010 we were terrible at them.  So this year it just all around our performance has been better.”
 
WITH THIS DIFFERENT QUALIFYING FORMAT DID YOU SEE THE CAR IN FRONT OF YOU OR THE CAR BEHIND YOU AT ALL?
“I was fairly fortunate because I was the last car to go out in my group and when I left the pits I asked them where Marcos (Ambrose) was he was the first car.  They said he was just now in turn seven.  So, I rode around, I don’t know, 20 seconds off the pace just take it easy.  When I got to turn seven they said Marcos was just now to the start/finish line, so no I never saw a car the whole time.  I think the qualifying format was a huge success.  I don’t know about the perspective on TV, but from the drivers perspective that was a huge success.” 

JOHN FORCE HOLDS ONTO FUNNY CAR TOP SPOT AT EPPING

EPPING, NH – John Force was not content to just run quick when conditions were ideal at the Inaugural Auto Plus NHRA New England Nationals. On Friday night Force posted the quickest run of the evening session a 4.051 second pass that electrified the crowd and gave him the provisional pole. Today Force was the quickest of both sessions grabbing six more qualifying bonus points and jumping from 9th to 7th in the Mello Yello Funny Car points. In both sessions on Saturday he was the only driver to run in the 4.0s running 4.089 and 4.094 seconds.

Today John Force’s Castrol GTX Ford Mustang was the best car in the category but Force is not taking anything for granted going into the first round against rookie Dave Richards.

“We will be racing earlier tomorrow so we will have cloud cover. I think we can win with a 4.05 or 4.08. I don’t race the guy in the lane next to me. Every time I tried to do that it screwed me up. You run the race car the way you always have. Try to do everything the same for consistency. You don’t have to run the quickest times now unless it is crusher conditions,” said Force, who grabbed the top qualifier spot for a record 142nd time in the Funny Car class. “Now you have to race smart and win rounds. If you run the national record you can get 20 points that way but only if it is out there. We won’t know until tomorrow. You go up there with your mind right and anyone can beat you on any given Sunday.”

So far this season Force has raced two other drivers for the first time. In Houston he beat Blake Alexander in the first round and in Atlanta he outran the son of veteran driver Jim Head, Chad. Force continues to bring out the best of himself against the rising stars of the NHRA.

“I raced a kid last week that about whipped me Blake Alexander. I don’t know Dave Richards but I bet he is a young guy and that is the future. As long as he loves it as much as I did he will never quit,” said an energized Force.

“I just wish I was younger so I could be here forever. I love these cars and I love NHRA. These fans are crazy and awesome. We are going to give them a great show here and great TV on ESPN. If anything is my downfall in life is that I love things too much. You give it your whole life and your life goes by you. You wake up one day and ask what happened. The good thing is I have never woken up yet. I wake up and say another race bitchin. I am out here with my kids and I want to drive to show them.”

Richards will be the 136th different driver Force has faced in competition over his career. He is not taking anything for granted and knows that he will get Richards’ best shot. At the top end the winningest driver in NHRA history will accept whatever race outcome awaits him.

“I am just going to say, ‘Kid I wish you luck and I wish I was your age.’ I’ll be right there on the tree with you and may the best man win. If he beats me I will walk right over there and shake his hand. That is what it is all about,” said Force.

“Losing fuels me more than winning. I have to keep my energy up when I am winning but losing makes me a tiger. I go back to the pits and look at my race cars, talk to my people and I fight my way out of that hole. I have had fans come up and say this ain’t the John Force we knew. I was a leaker. That was the good ole days when we would sleep five guys in a hotel room.”

Force is joined in the top five in qualifying by daughter Courtney Force, No. 3 and son-in-law Robert Hight, No. 5.

Courtney Force wrapped up qualifying in her Traxxas Ford Mustang today and is sitting solidly in the No. 3 spot going into Sunday’s eliminations. She will go up against fellow female driver and No. 14 qualifier Alexis DeJoria in the opening round.

In the first session of qualifying today, Force smoked the tires at 330 feet and shut down early on a track nearing 125 degrees, but came out for the second session and drove her Traxxas Ford Mustang to a 4.287 ET at over 228 mph.

“We got qualified in the No. 3 spot on Friday night so we went out there today to see how quick we could get the car to go down in the heat for tomorrow. We were on a good pass in the second session, but it was moving around on me so it spun the tires and we couldn’t quite get it down there,” said Force.

Force did not improve from her 4.083 she posted on Friday evening at New England Dragway, but made a good, important run in the heat of the day.

“When we ran that 4.28 today we were actually on a run better than Friday night’s session. We were actually really excited about Q4 it just couldn’t get all the way down there. We’re hoping for some good weather tomorrow and we’ll just have to see what this Traxxas Ford Mustang can do,” said Force.

Force is 2-1 to DeJoria in previous match-ups.

Robert Hight is excited to get to the track tomorrow even if he has to race his friendly rival Del Worsham. Last weekend it was Del who had the better qualified Funny Car when the pair matched up and Worsham outran Hight. Tomorrow Hight will bring an improved AAA Ford Mustang to the starting line. His No. 5 qualifying time of 4.088 seconds at 313.80 mph gives him some confidence. In the final qualifying session Hight posted the third quickest time picking up a qualifying bonus points and some momentum going into Sunday.

“We are racing Del (Worsham) again in the first round. He will be a tough car for sure but I like our chances. Last night we made a good run and we were right there on the edge today. It rattled pretty hard in the first session. Jimmy and Danny will look at the data and all the crew chiefs will get together. This track has been great and the fans have been unbelievable. I am looking forward to going rounds for AAA Northern New England,” said Hight.

The Castrol EDGE Top Fuel dragster had the most trouble adjusting to the new track at New England Dragway. The three JFR Funny Cars were getting three times as much information as session as the lone JFR Top Fuel team. Data is critical and as a one dragster team Force and her Dean Antonelli/Eric Lane tuned dragster had a much steeper learning curve. Only Steve Torrence and his Capco team, also a one car team, out qualified Force and the Castrol EDGE dragster. Of the sixteen dragsters that qualified the bottom four were one car teams.

“We got two runs in today. The first one we got down the track and ran a 3.91, so we were happy about that. The Castrol EDGE dragster ended up 13th at the end of the day and I’ll be running Tony Schumacher for first round of eliminations. I’ve ran him before in Las Vegas. I’m excited to be running him again. I’ve been watching him race for years so it’s pretty exciting to be running up against a champion like him. I’m excited and hopefully we kick some butt tomorrow,” said Force.

“I’m happy to be out here. It draws a whole different crowd and the fans just have so much energy. We’ve been out there signing autographs and we did a question and answer session at the AAA display and I couldn’t believe how many people were out there watching and cheering us on. It’s pretty exciting to see how many people are coming out to this event and I think they’re excited we’re here.”

CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: Six-Hour Report
Compuware Corvettes keeping up fight in opening hours
 
LE MANS, France (June 22, 2013) – The two Compuware Corvette C6.Rs from Corvette Racing ran fifth and ninth in GTE Pro after six hours at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Changing track conditions throughout the opening of the race kept teams throughout the class on their toes.
 
Richard Westbrook ran fifth in the No. 74 Compuware Corvette C6.R one-quarter of the way through the world’s greatest endurance race. All three of drivers in the car – Westbrook, Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner – drove double-stints, and the car picked up two spots in class from the start of the race. Gavin and Milner weathered changing conditions in the opening four hours that saw intermittent showers mixed with dry but cool periods as well.
 
The No. 73 Compuware Corvette had Jordan Taylor at the wheel for his opening triple-stint at the six-hour mark. A scheduled brake change under one of three safety car periods also left the car a lap down from the class leader but well within striking distance with Taylor chasing down the sixth-place car at the rate of four to five seconds per lap. Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia each ran double-stints in the challenging conditions to open the race.
 
The next Corvette Racing update will be a halfway report at 3 a.m. local time/9 p.m. ET.
 
JAN MAGNUSSEN, NO. 73 COMPUWARE CORVETTE C6.R
“The start obviously wasn’t great because of the accident, so the first stint I spent mostly behind the safety car. When we got going again the car was pretty decent, but after the pitstop I didn’t like the balance of the car so much. Toward the end, in the rain, it felt good but everyone was super-cautious so I managed to make up some time. There is still some work to on the car as we need to make it a bit more comfortable on the second stint on the same tires.”
 
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 73 COMPUWARE CORVETTE C6.R
“The stints worked out OK, but of course I have mixed feelings. Richard (Westbrook) was the first one I spoke when I got out of the car and he told me straight away about Allan (Simonsen). Everything about the stint I just forgot, those two hours behind the wheel. I feel sad and sorry for the family and friends of Allan. Other than that we’re just doing our race, trying to make the best of it. In the tricky conditions we seem to be able to reduce the deficit to the others quite a bit. We didn’t make any mistakes, which allowed us to gain a few places. At the end I was satisfied with the stint. Maybe the track can come more and more to us during the night.”
 
OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 74 COMPUWARE CORVETTE C6.R
“Those were very difficult conditions. It is one of those situations that you kind of dread. Here you are driving a fast car with very low downforce on slick tires with the rain coming, and it’s one of the most challenge parts of the Le Mans track. Trying to find a tire that suits the entire track when it starts to rain in one spot is impossible. You have to roll your sleeves up and get on with it. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Right at the very start, (the weather) was doing it. I had the dreadful situation of witnessing Allan Simonsen’s crash first-hand. He was right in front of me. I didn’t see the car go into the guardrail but I just knew from the way he went off that it was going to be a huge accident. I sort of saw in the mirror what happened, and it was sickening. But then it was a case of keeping your head back in the game and working through the situation with the restart and changing conditions. The last five to six laps were very difficult and tricky. I always seemed to catch people just as they were coming out of the pits or behind other people who were having problems. It’s all part of the race. We have to keep on going through this and work our way through these situations.”
 
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 74 COMPUWARE CORVETTE C6.R
“The track changed every single lap for my first 14 laps. It was very hard to push. You want to go and push hard but you have to take into consideration the conditions. I had a situation where I went into Turn 1 at 75 percent and should have gone 45 percent. The 2011 race was tough with changing conditions at the end. It was similar to what we have today but there was nowhere as much rain and as much change. It was something like only three or four laps in my stint in 2011 were like that. But this year all 14 felt like they were in dramatically different conditions.”