IZOD INDYCAR SERIES
GRAND PRIX OF BALTIMORE
STREETS OF BALTIMORE
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
AUGUST 31, 2013
BALTIMORE (Aug. 31, 2013) – Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, qualified second for Sunday’s Grand Prix of Baltimore on the 12-turn/2.04-mile temporary street circuit in Baltimore’s (Maryland) Inner Harbor. It is his sixth front-row qualifying effort of the 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series season.
Current Series’ point standings leader Helio Castroneves, No. 3 PPG Automotive Finishes Team Penske Chevrolet, turned in the seventh quickest qualifying time of the 24 drivers who made a qualifying attempt.
2012 Series’ champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 1 DHL Andretti Autosport Chevrolet, set the eighth fastest time to give Team Chevy three of the top-10 qualifiers.
A total of 12 Chevrolet IndyCar V6 drivers will take the green flag tomorrow for race 16 of the 19-race season schedule.
Scott Dixon won the pole with Simon Pagenaud, Justin Wilson, Josef Newgarden and Tristan Vautier completing the Firestone Fast Six.
The 75 laps/153 mile race is scheduled to start Sunday at 2:30 p.m. with live TV coverage on NBC Sports Network. Additional live coverage will be provided by IMS Radio Network on XM and Sirius Channels 211 as well as on www.indycar.com live timing and scoring.
CHEVROLET IN THE IZOD INDYCAR SERIES – FROM THE DRIVER’S SEAT:
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 2ND: “It was a tough qualifying man, but we gave it everything we had in the Verizon Team Penske Chevy. Our chance to get pole really came the lap before our final lap but we just couldn’t get there. It should be a good race tomorrow. With the chicanes, especially, there could be a lot of action and I expect it will be another good battle.”
SELECTED QUOTES FROM FIRESTONE FAST SIX PRESS CONFERENCE: ON WHETHER FINAL LAP WOULD HAVE BEEN POLE BEFORE REAR-END STEPPED OUT: “No, I was five tenths down. It was not there.”
ON HIS PREVIOUS SUCCESS AT BALTIMORE: “It’s a cool track. It would obviously be nice if we didn’t have to use the chicane there, but these street courses are bumpy, and it is just a part of the game. I think it is good for racing, and there will be a lot of mayhem, hopefully behind me, tomorrow. (LAUGHS)”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 PPG AUTOMOTIVE FINISHES TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 7TH: “In qualifying today, it’s one of those deals where on the odds you’re thinking to wait a little bit and it might pay off because the track might be better. Unfortunately, it didn’t pay off for us as the red flag came out and ended the second qualifying a little early. The PPG Team Penske boys will keep working and move forward so we can get that Chevy to the front in tomorrow’s race.”
RYAN HUNTER-REAY, NO 1 DHL ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 8TH: “Same thing as last year – almost the same exact circumstances; (Graham) Rahal put it into the wall and we didn’t get a lap time in that was capable of carrying us onto the next round. It’s part of it – it’s part of street course racing. I think we could have advanced to the (Firestone) Fast Six had we nailed everything today, but we’re just off a little too much at the moment. We’re going to go back, work on it and hopefully get a good race car under us. We’re starting better than we did last year so you have to look at the positives… and maybe hope for rain.”
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE, NO. 27 GODADDY ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 11TH: “It’s obviously really tricky right now. The track here is always a challenge with the bumps and the chicane still catching a couple people out, myself included over the weekend. You know, I feel bad; the GoDaddy guys have done a good job. We had a much stronger car in place. I was on a lap, which, I’m sure, everyone was on a lap sorta thing. But we were four turns in and already a quarter of a second up… would it have been (Firestone) Fast Six? I don’t know. Obviously there are a lot of strong cars out there. Certainly we didn’t want to back on the sixth row, but the car’s good; we definitely improved it over the weekend. It’s consistent which will be important in the race tomorrow, so I think we can do some damage from here.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 11 HYDROXYCUT KV RACING TECHNOLOGY – SH RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 16TH: “We definitely are faster than we showed in qualifying. First we had a red flag and then I got held up by traffic and couldn’t get a clean lap when I needed it. No excuses. It is the same for everyone out there. It is just disappointing. We will start in the back half of the grid again, but I think we have a good race car. We just have to make up positions during the race like we did last weekend in Sonoma.”
ORIOL SERVIA, NO. 4 NATIONAL GUARD PANTHER RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 17TH: “I’m confident for tomorrow because we’ve got the best car that we’ve had all year. We’ve been near the top six nearly every session and we just didn’t have our best effort in qualifying unfortunately. We just missed it by a little. But the truth is we were in a tough group; the same lap time would have put me P4 in the other session. But qualifying is the first time you put on the red tires and that always changes the balance a little and if you’re able to do the first transfer you can always tweak it and be strong in the next round. The National Guard Chevy was good, but we just didn’t have enough. We can still have a great race starting in 17th, especially here where there are always a lot of things that happen during the race with yellow flags and restarts. I just wanted to qualify a little better for the National Guard and to show that we had the speed, but now we have to do that on race day – and we will.”
MARCO ANDRETTI, NO. 25 DR PEPPER ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 18TH: “I’m not going to blame anybody but me… I didn’t get the greatest gap – and that’s on me, ya know. I had to blow the first lap so we had one lap to do it and I didn’t do it. I hope we can get the right set up on the Dr Pepper car to be able to get through the field tomorrow. We have the warm up, but not a lot of practice so we’ll have to see. We have two teammates that advanced so that part of it is good, but it’s frustrating. It’s a double edge sword.”
SIMONA DE SILVESTRO, NO. 78 NUCLEAR ENTERGY AREVA KV RACING TECHNOLOGY CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 19TH: “I’m a bit frustrated with qualifying and where we ended up. I guess we’re going to have to make it up tomorrow. We haven’t been shiny all weekend; we’ve had some brake issues to deal with. I think we got that fixed for qualifying, so now we can start working on the car. Hopefully we’ll have a good car and be able to move forward during the race tomorrow.”
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA/ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 20TH: “We had a little improvement from our previous times. We closed the gap on the leaders which is good. We had some fortune today with guys making mistakes in our group. I think we made some good changes going into that session. I’m hopeful we are getting on to something for the race. There is definitely some potential for a lot of carnage in the race, especially the way things have gone in practice and qualifying. We need to keep working on getting a good race pace for here. We are just hoping for a clean race on Sunday. There are just so many places on this track that can create problems. The name of the game is to stay as clean if possible.”
SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA, NO. 6 TRUECAR DRAGON RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 21ST:
E.J. VISO, NO. 5 TEAM VENEZUELA PDVSA CITGO ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT HVM CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 22ND: “Well, qualifying wasn’t right from the beginning. I think just waitin
g until the very last minute to go out and put a lap down put a lot of risk and pressure on us. We couldn’t go through – I clipped the wall on the only qualifying lap I had and bent the pushrods in the back. I couldn’t continue qualifying so we’ll be starting from the back. Anyways, this is probably one of the tracks that you can make a different call on the strategy where you would be able to cycle back to the front; that’s what we’ll be looking for tomorrow.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 7 MCAFEE DRAGON RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 24TH:
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