CHEVROLET AERO KIT INDYCAR V6 2.2 LITER
INDY GRAND PRIX OF ALABAMA
BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK
TEAM CHEVY POST QUALIFYING QUOTES
APRIL 25, 2015
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 AAA INSURANCE TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, POLE SITTER: ON HIS QUALIFYING: “My boys from AAA Team Penke we worked it through and each session we were improving our time. The car was really good and certainly my teammates, Will (Power) and Simon (Pagenaud) and Juan (Pablo Montoya) as well but unfortunately he wasn’t in the top-six. But, it is so close guys. You have to push until the end. Our experience and quickness we put everything together. It is really exciting, especially for this place. It is very difficult pass. Starting in the front doesn’t mean anything, but I’m going to have the best seat in the house. I told the guys to check everybody’s times because I am going to go for it and I don’t want to cause a yellow. Then he said it doesn’t look like anyone is going quick, I pitted and that was it. The car was extremely good. We worked through the entire day and chipped away at it. It was awesome.”
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WILL POWER, NO. 1 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET , QUALIFIED 2ND: “We were very strong in qualifying, but unfortunately it rained before the end. I just kick myself because the two laps I did there in the Fast Six I didn’t go harder. But I’m very happy to be starting on the front row considering last week (at Long Beach). Starting up front is huge here – we can win from there. That’s definitely the plan tomorrow. It’s been a slow start to the season and I’m very determined to get that first win of the year. I’ve been knocking on the door so we’ll see if we can get the Verizon Chevrolet up there tomorrow.”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 PENSKE TRUCK RENTAL CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 3RD: “It’s interesting here with the aero kits with all the high-speed corners and the hairpin – so we get to see what the aero kits are doing at different speeds. It really helps the teams to understand the new bits and pieces as we try to optimize them. I love this track, but the only thing I would say is the level of commitment is beyond limits. You really have to push yourself before you get in the car and kind of turn off your brain a bit. But it’s fun and I look forward to trying to put the No. 22 Penske Truck Rental Chevrolet in Victory Lane tomorrow.”
SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 COKE CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET. QUALIFIED 4th: “The Coke car felt pretty good early in the day and we unloaded fast off of the truck. I think there is a little more pressure in getting up to speed quickly here as the weekend went from a traditional three-day format to a two-day format. Qualifying for us went well, and I understand they had to cut it just a bit short after the five minutes of guaranteed green-flag time had been satisfied. Helio put up a great lap when it counted and we’ll shoot at the top three Penske cars tomorrow.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 67 HARTMAN OIL CFH RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 5th: “We’re getting there. We definitely didn’t have enough for Helio Castroneves, Will Power, or Scott Dixon. We aren’t right up there in pole territory, but at least we are consistently in Fast 6 territory. That’s a good improvement for us and I am excited about that. We have a little work to do on our race car to make it consistently faster over a stint. Our team is strong, the Hartman Oil crew is full of good guys and good resources. We need to put it together and have a good, solid result tomorrow.
TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 6th: “Qualifying in the top six here at Barber Motorsports Park feels really good, especially after how close we were last weekend to moving on in Long Beach. We didn’t have the best first practice this morning, but we were able to make some changes and have a much better second practice. The car just felt really good the first two rounds of qualifying. Once it started raining and the track started getting wet I just didn’t feel like I was going to be able to advance much more and we didn’t want to waste the tires, so we decided to come in and take sixth. I think we have a lot of momentum as a team going in to tomorrow.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: NO. 11 TEAM MISTIC E-CIGS – KVSH RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 7TH: “The Mistic machine was in the top five in both the practice sessions, so we had hopes that we would stay there. We missed the Firestone Fast Six by just a couple hundredths of a second, so obviously we are a little disappointed. It can go either way in these conditions. It wasn’t my greatest lap and we just seem to be struggling a little bit on road courses when we put the red (alternate) tires on. We are getting better, but we still need to fine tune the thing. The Mistic guys did a good job today, now we just have to go get the car ready for race day.”
LUCA FILIPPI, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA CFH RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 9TH: “It has been a good team effort with both cars in the Top 10 and Josef Newgarden making it to the Fast 6. I thought we could have qualified a little higher than 9th, but it is a good place to start the race. I am sure we will have a strong pace tomorrow and be able to build on that. We are looking forward to a good result for both cars!”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 83 NOVOLOG FLEXPEN CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 11TH: Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing was excited to make it out of group 1 and advance into the top 12. The No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen Chevrolet is pretty quick and to have all four Ganassi cars in the top 12 is a solid result for the day. I’m excited to go racing tomorrow. We always have a pretty good race here and the guys have been really consistent on pit lane so far this season. We’ll just be smart tomorrow and hopefully have a good clean race.”
SAGE KARAM, NO. 8 COMFORT REVOLUTION/BIG MACHINE RECORDS CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 12TH: “I really just spent the morning getting comfortable in the car again and adjusting. My wrist is back to almost 100% and my confidence is back up from the last time we tested here. Qualifying was a big step in the right direction for us. It was the first time we got out of Q1 so that was huge. I’m happy with the way things are going and can’t wait to get the race started and see what the car can do.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 HAWK PERFORMANCETEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 15TH: “Nothing too terribly wrong with the No. 2 Hawk Performance Chevy in qualifying, we just struggled to put a good lap together. We did have a few issues with the balance of the car. It is what it is. It’s tough because on these tires you really only get one lap and I missed it on that lap. The Hawk Performance Chevy is good, though, and we’ll do our best to pick our way through the field and towards the front.”
STEFANO COLETTI, NO. 4 KV RACING TECHNOLOGY CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 16TH: “I am bit disappointed with how qualifying went today. We haven’t really found the grip that we need so I am sliding around and can’t put down a lap time. Unfortunately that is where we are right now but the team are working hard to try and solve it and hopefully we will have a better day tomorrow.”