Chevy Racing–IndyCar–Pocono Qualifying

IZOD INDYCAR SERIES
INDY POCONO 400
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES                                                      
JULY 6, 2013
 
MARCO ANDRETTI, NO. 25 RC COLA ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET – POLE WINNER: THERE ARE A LOT OF FANS HERE AT POCONO PULLING FOR YOU.  THAT WAS A HECK OF A QUALIFYING RUN DID IT FEEL AS GOOD AS IT LOOKED?  “It felt quick.  I’m pleased with it no matter where we end up.  I think it should be a very strong run.  Honestly, all I know is this team got the best out of it and that is all we can ask for. Hopefully, it holds up.  That is the only thing that is a bummer about an early draw is now we have to wait.”
 
YOU ARE THE POLE SITTER.  YOU TALKED ABOUT HOW TOUGH IT IS TO GO OUT EARLY AND SIT THERE AND WATCH EVERYBODY TAKE SHOTS AT YOU WHAT HAS THE LAST HOUR AND A HALF BEEN LIKE?  “Yeah, it’s been long.  First and foremost I hopefully (Alex) Tagliani is okay; other than that just an unbelievable team performance across the board.  E.J. (Viso) would have been right there so I feel for him as well.  I’m definitely happy for the RC Cola guys and really Andretti Autosport as a whole.  We have been making statement after statement so it’s a good feeling.”

RYAN HUNTER-REAY, NO. 1 DHL ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED SECOND: LOOKING AT THE FRONT OF THE GRID IT’S GOING TO BE ALL ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT ACROSS THAT FRONT ROW.  TELL US ABOUT THE RUN OUT THERE:  “Absolutely the entire Andretti Autosport team has done such a great job here.  We had a good test last week and Firestone came back with a great tire.  We are really happy with that.  We are just looking to make the race car better tonight, hopefully have a great race.  We are really happy with the way the car is balanced in race trim so; I think it’s going to be a great race and a great show tomorrow.”
 
YOU GUYS HAVE CLEARLY PUT A LOT OF EFFORT INTO QUALIFYING IS IT THAT IMPORTANT HERE AT THIS TRACK?  “I think it’s important for sure just to start up in the thick of it and really start off on the right foot.  It’s a long race.  400-miles around this place is going to be tough, it’s going to be grueling.  Hopefully, the No. 1 DHL Chevy will be up front at the end putting ourselves in a position to win this thing.”
 
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE, NO. 27 GODADDY ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED THIRD: HAPPY WITH THAT RUN? “Yeah, I mean the GoDaddy car ran pretty well.  We haven’t been the strongest I don’t think in practice.  Marco (Andretti) has been the class of the field.  We knew it was going to be tough to beat that.  We just wanted to try to stay in contention and he gave me some useful tips after his run, just teammates working together.  I had a little bit of a moment entering turn one the thing got a little loose on me.  I was battling it around the race track. The wind conditions when you are running this light on downforce don’t help.  Solid performance and hopefully that leaves us in the sharp end and hopefully a couple more Andretti Autosport cars can get up there too and we can start this show from the clean part of the track.”
 
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED FOURTH: ON HIS QUALIFYING:  “It was a good job by the Verizon team in qualifying. I think our set up was spot on and we were looking good on the first lap and I thought we had a chance at pole but then we had overboost going into Turn 1 on the second lap and the penalty for that was big and it cost us our chance. Still, qualifying in row two is a good place to be. I like this track here at Pocono – it’s pretty challenging. I think it’s going to be a good race tomorrow. It’s a very long race and you can definitely pass at this place so it should be really fun to watch.”

TONY KANAAN, NO. 11 SUNOCO “TURBO” KV RACING TECHNOLOGY – SH RACING CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED FIFTH: ON HIS QUALIFYING:  “I think I came up to speed too quickly. My fault. The Sunoco car is pretty good this weekend, so we’re going for the Triple Crown. I’m excited to be here at Pocono; it’s my first time.  It’s nice to see how many race car fans we have in this part of the world.  I’m glad you guys are here and we’ll go for it tomorrow for sure.”

HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED SIXTH: ON HIS QUALIFYING: “First of all, I have to say thanks to the fans for coming out and supporting us. It was great to see so many enthusiastic people here today and they’re really excited about IndyCar. Good job by the promoters and everyone here at Pocono Raceway. Now, qualifying sixth is pretty good for the Hitachi Team Penske car. Maybe we were a little too conservative in our qualifying set up, but that’s OK. I know the car has been very fast and very smooth all weekend and I think we will be strong for the race. This track is very interesting and it’s going to be pretty exciting starting three-wide on Sunday. We’re looking forward to a good race and hopefully a strong finish in the Hitachi Chevrolet.”

SIMONA DE SILVESTRO, NO. 78 NUCLEAR ENTERGY AREVA KV RACING TECHNOLOGY CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 10TH: ON QUALIFYING: “It was a really good qualifying effort for us. I think we might have had a little bit more, but we can be pretty happy, especially when I look at where we started this weekend. We’ve been struggling on the ovals, especially the last two races, but so far the car’s been awesome. I’m pretty happy; the Nuclear Clean Air Energy car has been pretty quick. It’s been a lot of hard work, but we took it step-by-step. Huge thanks to the team for that. We’ve really leaned on Tony and tried to learn as much as possible, because he’s really fast around here. I think we have a really strong race car, so hopefully we should be ok in the race. We’re toward the front, which is where we were hoping for; we should be able to go forward from there.”

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 7 MCAFEE DRAGON RACING CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 12TH:
ON QUALIFYING: “We are pretty happy on our qualifying after a bad morning practice session. We didn’t feel comfortable trimming the car out so we just stayed where we knew we would stay flat for the two qualifying laps. We knew it was not going to put us in the Top-5 but at least its a decent qualifying. Now we can try to make the car a little better for the race and we will see what we can get.”
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA/ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 15TH: ON HIS QUALIFYING: “It wasn’t a good day for us.  We have a lot better car than where we just qualified. We have a lot of work to do now.  And it will be hard.  That’s because it is hard to pass here.  I am disappointed to say the least.  It will be challenging for the race.  Just like Indianapolis, track position will be very important. We just didn’t have enough grip to get through the corners the way I wanted.  I will have to work on getting a good start to make up some spots early.  This place is tricky , just like the nickname says.  With three different turns, it takes a balancing act to get the car as good as possible.  We will analyze our data from today and get a good game plan for the race.”
SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA, NO. 6 TRUECAR DRAGON RACING CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 21ST: “Very disappointing qualifying session on my side. I’m pretty sure we could have done a lot better but we had a mechanical failure. The throttle sensor destroyed our run as soon as we left the pits. Now we need to focus putting together a fast race car and go from there. Tomorrow will be
a long race so we will see what we can do.”

E.J. VISO, NO. 5 TEAM VENEZUELA PDVSA CITGO CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 23RD: THAT WAS A HARD HIT. WALK US THROUGH WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED:
“I was heading into my second qualifying lap, and I just lost it in the middle of Turn 1 to the point I caught it for a second. I stepped out again and couldn’t do much. It (Pocono Raceway) is much trickier than we anticipated. The testing we had here a few weeks ago, and again two days ago, it really helped us. This accident is really unfortunate as I believed we could have been 1-2-3-4.”