Juan Pablo Montoya Wins Indianapolis 500
Team Chevy drivers score top four and nine of top 11 finishing positions in The Greatest Spectacle in Racing – Race seven of the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season

INDIANAPOLIS (May 24, 2015) – Juan Pablo Montoya, driver of the No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, overcame a couple of early obstacles and rallied from near the back of the field to win the 99th running of the Indianapolis 500 and lead a 1-2-3-4 Chevrolet finish at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday.

“Our Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet was good all day. These guys at Team Penske did an amazing job. said Montoya, who also won The Greatest Spectacle in Racing in 2000. “When I came through the field, I knew I had a good car. That fight there at the end… that was awesome.”

Montoya’s No. 2 Chevrolet was hit from behind under an early caution which led to a replaced rear wing and then he slid through his pit stall on a subsequent pit stop to fall to 30th place a quarter of the way through the race before he, Will Power (No. 1 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet) and Scott Dixon (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet) traded the lead multiple times over the final 16 laps.

“After a challenging start to the race, Juan Pablo Montoya and his team showed an incredible ability to come back to win the 99th running of the Indy 500,” said Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “They demonstrated a never-give-up approach every lap and every pit stop. Juan simply drove a great race.”

Power finished second, 0.1046 seconds off the pace, to give Team Penske a 1-2 finish. Charlie Kimball (No. 83 Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet) ended up third. Dixon, who led a race-high 84 laps, was fourth.

“In addition to Juan Pablo Montoya’s win, it was great to see Will Power, Charlie Kimball and Scott Dixon deliver a 1-2-3-4 Team Chevy finish,” Campbell said. “I’m proud of all four of our major teams, each having at least one driver in the top 11.”

Montoya’s victory in the second time the Chevrolet IndyCar 2.2 liter V6 twin turbo direct injected engine has won the Indianapolis 500 (Tony Kanaan, 2013). Chevrolet has now won the Greatest Spectacle in Racing nine times.

Sunday’s victory by Montoya is team owner Roger Penske’s 16th win in the Indianapolis 500. His previous wins came with a driver line-up that includes Helio Castroneves, Gil de Ferran, Emerson Fittapaldi, Al Unser, Sr., Al Unser, Jr., Bobby Unser, Danny Sullivan, Rick Mears, Sam Hornish and the late Mark Donohue

“Everybody dreams of winning the Indianapolis 500,” Campbell said. “It takes incredible preparation, practice and great teams and drivers to have an opportunity to win this race. Congratulations to Roger Penske on winning his 16th Indy 500.”

The victory is the second of the season for Montoya who won the season opening race at St. Petersburg. Chevrolet has won six of the first seven races on the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series schedule.

“Congratulations to Juan Pablo Montoya and his Team Penske crew for winning the 99th Indy 500,” said Chris Berube, Chevrolet Racing Program Manager Verizion IndyCar Series. “What a demonstration of the never give up attitude! Juan drove from the back to the front and battled for the win like the true expert he is. So proud of all the efforts our teams and technical paetners have put in to enable a result like today for Chevrolet.

Next up for Team Chevy in the Verizon IndyCar Series is the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit, the only doubleheader this season, on Saturday and Sunday, May 30 -31, 2015.

An interview with:

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA
ROGER PENSKE
TIM CINDRIC
WILL POWER
CHARLIE KIMBALL

THE MODERATOR: Happy occasion when you run 1-2. The first practical matter is you’re going to have to change your license plate again, Mr. Penske.
ROGER PENSKE: I am. Some race when you think about how we started the month, all the issues, the negative things that came out about the racecars, what have you.
I’ve never been here where I saw 15 laps at the end there where it could have been anybody’s race. They raced clean, they passed, so there’s something working.
Just to see Juan, during the race, coming up, I knew he had a good car. If you know him, he’s a fighter. I thought Will had it there. But Ganassi, the 9, seemed to be so easy, it could go by us from time to time. I was waiting for him to stripe us there at the end. He didn’t have it at the end because our guys were there together, that helped us. We had two against one. That helped us with the 9.
I think it was our day. Last year we missed it by half a car length. That’s a credit to the guys. The engines ran well, the aero kits. It was a safe race. The world saw a race that we wanted to see come out of Indianapolis. The greatest spectacle in racing.
THE MODERATOR: Tim, every Indianapolis 500 win, some never get it, are special. Some I would expect are a little bit more special than others. The way the team fought back would be something you’d be particularly proud of.
TIM CINDRIC: Without a doubt. These guys, it’s a little more difficult being in Charlotte. They’ve been here since the open test. No days off since May 1st or May 2nd. Everybody is dragging. They showed up to the pit stop contest. They were fast all month. To be prepared there to change the rear wing, put it back in the show, was a testament to the group we have.
Hats off to Montoya and Will. Those two guys battled it out. They battled it safe. Obviously I stand in one pit, but as long as one of you guys brings it back, I’m good with it.
I feel bad for Will, but somebody’s got to be second. This guy did it all.
THE MODERATOR: We’re joined Juan Pablo Montoya. You won your first Indianapolis 500.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: That was an easy race. But this was a lot of work today. I mean, with Simona in back of me, that’s what happens when you qualify bad. You find yourself with the wrong crowd.
We kept adding downforce and adjusting the car. It was fun because after the caution, when I was running like eighth, I could barely keep up with them. I’m like, We don’t have anything. As we kept adjusting the car, Oh, that’s a little better, that’s a little better.
That’s what you got to do, stay on top of the track. What really matters is the last 15 laps. That was fun racing. Probably the best racing. Between Will and Dixon, we have a lot of respect for each other. We understand the risk and we understand when they got you. So it makes it fun.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. Could you talk about the end of the race. The three very best that are in the field when you think about it, Dixon, Montoya, Power, you could throw Helio’s name in there. It really was a battle of the titans. How do you all view how important that is for this race to have the titans slugging it out at the end?
ROGER PENSKE: I was watching the leaderboard from the beginning. You could see the top seven or eight cars, our cars along with Chip’s, I knew he was going to be tough. He’s so good here. You could see that Kanaan jumped in right away. He wasn’t going to worry about the 9 car. Dixon, he’s such a master around here.
I knew as this thing went on, things would change, the track would change because of the heat and the rubber. I think Rick Mears said to Juan, You got to keep changing your car. They kept dialing it in. In fact, we went the wrong way probably with Helio at one point.
But to me, we’re here for racing. It’s such a great place to run. Just to race everybody, I mean, I just think for me it’s a place I’ve been since ’51 with my dad, and then just to see what takes place here every year. You forget it till you walk out there on race day, look up and down the straightaway, think, Geez, what am I doing here?
Rahal was right up there. Michael. I think our Chevy package was outstanding this month. To me, we’ll take it when we can get it.
TIM CINDRIC: From my perspective, seeing those guys battle, it’s a shame. As one of you guys said, I felt like the best cars were battling it out at the end. I think the only guy missing from that pack was Pagenaud. He drove a great race up until that time.
The one thought that did occur to me as those guys were battling it out, I thought to myself, Whoever wins this race, gets their face on the 100th running of this race. To have his mug smiling. To have Roger’s group and team on that ticket after all he’s done here.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: It was huge. On the restart, Dixon passed us, Oh, my God, where did that come from? He has an extra wing, how the hell? It was surprising because he passed us pretty easy. I mean, to be honest with you, at that point with eight laps to go, you have no idea I had a shot at the winning. We looked so equal. My car started coming in better, coming in better, got better and better and better at the end.
It was good. I got a hell of a run. I think Will had a bit of understeer in the car and I think that really played into our hands because he couldn’t get close to me out of turn two.
We got to turn two, he was like right on me. Oh, my God, please. I looked in the mirror, where are you? I’ll follow you, follow you, take over your ass. I did, have to.
To be honest with you, I want to thank Tim and Roger, they give me this opportunity a little over a year ago to come and join them. I’m glad I’m proving them right, that they made the right choice. I’m loving racing right now, so it’s great.
Q. To get to Will, you had to get past Dixon. What was the key to catching and passing Dixon?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: My car was well-balanced. You wouldn’t believe how much front wing we put in that car today. It was a lot. Every stop. It just got to a point that I could actually run behind him pretty easy, run wide open behind him.
Once I did that, it was a matter of Dixon not getting a good run. When you’re 30, the second guy is always in the draft. You want to make the move before he blocks you so you can get the draft of the leading car so you can complete the pass.
Myron had a lot to do with that. He made great calls. He’s the guy that keeps me calm. I don’t know how he does it. He’s probably wondering the same thing (laughter).
Q. 40-some years ago you won your first race here. Some win two or three, they’re ecstatic. You have 16 now. What is the feeling now all these years later?
ROGER PENSKE: Every year we’re here. We got a commitment to all our guys at the shop. We want to win. You can’t look in your rearview mirror. I said that. We got with our guys yesterday, did our strategy. I said, We got to execute.
I think we saw that today. They executed on the 2 car when he had a problem on the restart. The pit stops were terrific.
I think that momentum in the pit stop contest, quite honestly, it added a little bit of buzz in our shop that maybe we didn’t have after we got knocked off on the pole. We were confident we could be competitive, and we really weren’t.
For me, I come here for one reason, and that’s to win. I want to come back as long as I can stand and be part of this group, have these kind of people work for us, be teammates.
To me, it’s just a great place to say, Hey, this is where we tee it up.
Q. Juan, that last 15, 20 laps, obviously very intense. Top six or eight guys on top of each other. Talk about the challenge and strategy of not only trying everything you can to get in front of you, but defending guys behind you that are just as determined as you are?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: The hard thing there, I think I made a mistake, I ran behind Dixon, right behind him, I had to lift out of four, and 83, Kimball, nearly passed me.
That’s the key thing, is you got to figure out how to make your move without hurting yourself. If you know you’re not going to make it, you have to bail early enough. You still screw up. You don’t want to screw up, but you do. The question is how big you screw up.
I told my guys, too, when we did the team meeting, there’s a hundred ways to throw this away and there’s only one way of winning it. The guy that makes the least mistakes is going to have the best shot at winning it.
We executed today beautifully. Made a couple small mistakes early, but then we got our composure back and came back.
Q. Roger and Tim, how do you judge the race of Simon today and his season so far?
ROGER PENSKE: Simon early on had the best car I think of all four of them. He ran out there well. On the restart I think he got back into one of the cars, got into it. He did a great job. I think it would have been something if he was up there because I think he had the car to run up with Will and certainly Juan there at the end.
What really worked in our favor was when the 10 car had a problem, that really opened it up because we had at least two strong cars working against the 9 car, then the 83 kind of got in there at the end. I thought Simon did a terrific job. He’s been a great asset to the team.
TIM CINDRIC: I felt like he had the best car. In the beginning, it was he and Dixon’s race as far as I felt. I felt terrible for him after the race. I went up to him and he said, That’s the best car I ever had in my life. I just bumped a little bit too hard, had to go to the back.
You could see the fact he went all the way to the back, drove back to 10th, with 15 laps to go, you don’t do that here very easily. I think it shows how strong he was. I think it shows there’s a lot more to come from him.
Q. Juan, a personal question. After the first win here 15 years ago, you left IndyCar racing or American racing, went to Formula One. Will you do the same again now?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: I’ll be here. I told Roger, As long as you want me, I’ll be here.
Something that Roger has is Roger loves racing. He has a passion of winning and being the best out of everything he does. When you can be part of that, it’s exciting. You know what I mean? I’m very blessed to be able to be a Penske driver and to have success with him. It’s huge.
It’s cool when you’re here, you don’t have success, it’s your own fault. They give you all the tools to win, give you great people to work with. I mean, for me I’ve been over the moon here.
It’s hard because it’s four cars. To be honest with you, Simon had the best car today. When I was running third, he was running behind Dixon, I was like, How the hell is he that close? He was comfortable right there. I couldn’t believe how good he was.
You know what I mean, it’s racing. If you’re going to make a mistake, make it early. Late is hard. But it is what it is. We all make mistakes. He’s young and I’m sure he’ll win a couple.
Q. Could you give a little historical perspective. I think 15 years apart, Juan, can you believe how bookend this career is? If you guys could talk about how he’s the best driver.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: For me, I think ’99, 2000 was the start of my career. I was really young. It was just the start of it. We came here, had a really good car, we dominated.
I’ll tell you the truth, this one, when you have to work for it that hard, it’s exciting. When you come on top of races like this…
I know Will is probably disappointed right now he finished second, but in a couple months he’s going to look back and say, Man, that was fun. That was a hell of a race.
Q. I don’t know what generation he is, because he’s two generations, but is he the best driver of this generation?
TIM CINDRIC: We were watching the highlights the other day. They showed the 2000 race. We were sitting there in the garage. I said to him, I was your biggest fan that day, the whole CART, IRL thing. He looked like a little kid. I think he smiled more today than he did that day.
I think he’s come to appreciate it. The cool thing is to see his kids, a lot of people, like Sebastian hasn’t seen him as an open-wheel winner. To see his kids here I think was really what brought the whole thing full circle for him. Now he’s dad as well, so it’s pretty cool.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: I just got to do it again (laughter).
Q. The Grand Prix of Monaco was run this morning. You are the second person in history to win the Grand Prix of Monaco and Indianapolis 500.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: I did that before. Like 2003, I done that already. I’ve won twice here. Ain’t going to win two Monacos, ain’t going back (laughter). I could, but I wouldn’t want to.
Q. Juan, you said all month that you were focusing on the race, not on qualifying. Talk a little bit about that. The other thing is there were so many outside passes. Talk a little bit about making the outside passes here, what that sensation is all about.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: I mean, we do focus on qualifying, as well. I mean, the race is won on Sunday. You win the race today. It’s important qualifying. I mean, to be honest with you, we were kind of surprised because we were not that different than the other cars. Looking at it, it looked like the wind really screwed with us. That’s what it is.
We probably need to learn from that and see what the other guys did different from us. We need to learn from that. I think I did have the best racecar on a oval since I came back. It wasn’t good at the start because the temperature was hot. We had to adjust for it. But it was good, just keep adjusting it, keep changing it, see what happens.
Q. (No microphone.)
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: The first one I did was Servia. He wanted to stay with me. Scared the hell out of me. I was half a car of ahead of him. I was like, Where are you going? You know I have a lot faster car than him. He was 15 or so. Give me a break.
Same thing with Simona. Simona didn’t do it on purpose. She wants to prove she’s that good. She has a lot of speed. But when you’re racing for a job, it’s a lot harder. You know what I mean? We all race for jobs because we got to perform. But you got to understand the big picture, how do you get the win?
I think I’ve got a lot of experience. NASCAR helped me understand 500-mile races, how they need to run and everything. It is what it is.
Q. You are the only driver now in the Indy 500 history who won in two centuries. The 15 years between the two wins is a new record. Can you compare the two Juan Pablo Montoyas?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: It’s just experience. I mean, you know what I mean, you made a lot of moves back then that worked. And you played it on the cards. You’re like, Oh, I think I can pull it. You’re older, you’re wiser, you understand where the races are won, where they’re lost. You know what I mean? You make less mistakes. The biggest difference is just experience.
Q. Roger, was there more emphasis going into this race than in years past?
ROGER PENSKE: I think the fact we committed to run more than two cars. Last year, of course, we added a car with Juan, then with Pagenaud being available, it was obviously an opportunity for us to bring him on the team. But it also put pressure on us.
Sometimes we’ve watched teams run multiple cars. You don’t get the speed. You don’t get the execution.
You know, we’ve been competitive a lot of years. It’s like today, I mean, we might have been sitting in the garage right now, not here, based on a couple different laps.
I felt we were very competitive last year. Obviously won the championship with Will, which I think was good. But we were ready. We had good cars. As I said earlier, we were disappointed with how we qualified. I’m sure Juan was, too. But we focused on the race.
When you see the finish here, four cars in the top 10, three in the top 7, I don’t know how we do any better. We have to go back, look at our notes. I think I said last night at our dinner with our sponsors, probably have 700 years of experience at the track here in the garage area working on these cars. That’s what I think makes the difference.
So long as we can pull it together, Tim doesn’t mind us pushing the way we have to, we’ll be back.
Q. Juan, were you surprised that Chip Ganassi stopped the convertible as you were about to go on the track?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: No, just congratulate us. We’re still good friends. He made a business decision. That’s what it was. He brought his A game. We did, as well. I mean, I think big difference is, I think Roger has four bullets to win. Honestly, he really does. I think Chip has two maybe, where we have four.
With 40 laps to go, 30 laps to go, four of us in the top five or six. We were right there. Pretty cool.
Q. How much harder did you have to work versus 2000?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: 2000 was good because our car was really quick. We executed well in everything. But this one, when you’re fighting with your teammate, it’s hard. Knowing that they’re right there, it’s a little bit what happened in St. Pete. I mean, you want to run as hard as you can, but you know the guy running third is a Ganassi car, and you’re not going to give that win away. You can’t give that win away. I know what it means to Roger and everybody at Team Penske to get this win.
Earlier I thanked him for giving me the opportunity and believing in me that I could get the job done. I’m happy I can prove them right.
Q. Roger, you joined Chip today as the only team owner to win the Indy 500 and Daytona 500 in the same year. What took you so long?
ROGER PENSKE: He wouldn’t let me in the club (laughter). I finally got in.
He sent me a note earlier, he said, Welcome to the club. I said, Thanks for the invite.
Q. Juan, you said all week you were going to win this race. You told your teammates you were going to win this race. You seemed to be like you were in 2000 with your confidence. You’ve said when you have a good car, it’s easy to be like that.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: And it is.
Q. How long did it take you after coming over here and getting in Penske equipment to recapture that part of yourself?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: On the ovals, it didn’t took me that long. Road courses, I haven’t figured it out yet. The street courses, we’re there pretty close. I feel my qualifying is close, but not there.
In the ovals, to be honest with you, my worst oval last year was Indy. It was my first oval. That’s what I told the guys. I mean, I had a fifth, I had a win in Pocono, I had a third in Texas. To be honest with you, I should have won Fontana. Still finished fourth.
Come here, if we blow this today, we’re going to be fifth. That’s what I told the guys. I told my engineer Brian, This is my best car I’ve had in an oval. To be honest, if it would have been a little cooler, it would have been even stronger.
Q. Juan, when did you know you were going to win the race?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: When I got through three and four. I got into turn three. I come out of turn two, Will pushed, I had to push, the gap got bigger. Turn four, he wasn’t close enough. Ha, ha, ha, I got this!
I was screaming. I was so happy.
Q. Juan, the fact that you now have two Indy 500 wins in three attempts, but separated by 15 years, how much more satisfying is this victory than the one in 2000?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: It’s cool. You know what I mean? It’s exciting. I mean, each one is very special. The first one was really cool. But it was weird because we came from Japan, the day before running Nazareth. It was cool, we didn’t do anything. We didn’t experience it.
Team Penske, when you’re here, you do a lot of things for sponsor and events. We had a dinner. We had a really nice dinner, as well, last night. We had the parade.
It’s the proper experience of the month. So when you go through everything, you start understanding what it means to win here. It’s pretty special.
Q. The last seven-lap battle, the crowd was reacting to everything that was going on, the roar of approval, how important is that for this sport that the fans were so engaged at the end of that race?
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA: For me personally, I think the aero kits have been a huge plus. We had that good of racing because of the aero kits. You can follow people. Chevy brought really good equipment. The motors at the end were really, really good. Our cars were amazing.
I think IndyCar is going in the right direction. Of course, you’re going to get a lot of people criticize it, look for the bad side of everything. But, no, it’s really cool.
Q. (No microphone.)
ROGER PENSKE: There’s no question. With the new screens, you could see it. You never knew who was going to lead the next lap, down the front, down the back.
To me, I said the same thing. Once I saw our two cars pull away, Dixon was battling the 83, I thought it gave us a real good chance. The question was, was it going to be the one or the two car? It was great for the fans. I hope that erases some of the negative publicity we got earlier in the month.
That kind of racing, 220 miles an hour, 222 miles an hour, inches apart lap after lap, it shows you how good they are.
Again, anybody could have won this race the way it worked out. What Juan didn’t say, they kept working on that car. I think that was the difference. His car got better. It wasn’t that he had the same car when he started. He could stay under someone, be able to make a pass. It would have been tough for Will to get by.
To me, the fan noise is what it’s all about. When you look down the straightaway, never saw so many people. To think we’re on the platform here is pretty special.
Q. (No microphone.)
ROGER PENSKE: John (indiscernible), he’s had 11 victories here. He’s the right guy you want to have on your car. But, you know, John is an athlete. He’s a guy that started with us back in the early days, worked his way up. A couple years ago he used to hang around my box. I said, Hey, you got to run one of these cars. Guess what, he’s passed his test, I guess, did a great job calling the race. Has been doing that for Juan now for maybe the last year and a half.
John, I want to congratulate you.
TIM CINDRIC: Absolutely. When I came to the team, he had been here 13 years before I got here, 29 years he’s been here.
ROGER PENSKE: He fell off his bike, by the way. I get the call the other day after qualifying, John had a problem after qualifying, broke the chain, fell down, knocked him out, had to go to the hospital.
He had a tougher week than you had, Juan.
TIM CINDRIC: But he’s the guy. He helps set the tone for this excellence that Roger stands for. Somebody set that tone, carries it through. Guys like him and Clive Howell and Kyle Moyer coming into the team this year continues to add to that. Those are the guys that behind the scenes really make it happen. I’m grad he’s here today.
THE MODERATOR: We appreciate you coming in. Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: A couple of guys that had pretty good days as well, Will Power and Charlie Kimball.
When you fall a little bit short of winning the Indianapolis 500, people are crestfallen. On the other hand, Graham is on a roll coming in. Charlie Kimball, you were in the hunt till the very end.
THE MODERATOR: Charlie, I saw a couple of people that had you listed as a dark horse for this event. You were up there at the very end still in position to win this darn race. Had to be absolutely thrilling.
CHARLIE KIMBALL: Yeah, it was a blast. The guys worked really hard on the car all month. To be so close to winning the pit stop competition on Friday, then to come close today, I think it makes us all hungrier.
All the guys at Chip Ganassi Racing wanted to give Chip a win for his birthday today, but especially the Novo Nordisk team. We learned a lot from Dario this month. As Graham says, over 500 miles, the car changes all the time. The first couple stints, I couldn’t do anything wrong. Could you have put that thing down through the grass and she’d have stuck. In the middle stint, felt like I couldn’t do anything right. Kept telling my guys, kept talking to Brad, tell him what the car was doing, asking for what I needed to be there at the end. He kept giving it to me. The last two stints we kept making progress.
I saw Scott racing pretty hard with the Penske boys. I thought that I could be in the catbird seat here if they go three-wide into one and I go in the warmup lane and come out the other side.
Having said that, it was great racing. Scott had to lift for traffic, I wasn’t going to lift. I didn’t have anything for the Penske boys the last couple laps. A lot of credit to them. They ran strong all day.
It was nice to see Team Chevy and the Bowtie lock out the top four at least, especially picking up the momentum heading into the Detroit Grand Prix next weekend.
THE MODERATOR: Will, the last laps, last turn on the monitor, I suspect you maybe thought or replayed, the question you’ll ask, would you have done anything different than you did.
WILL POWER: Yeah, I mean, the only thing I could have done was not lead. And I understand the car, I just had too much push when he got by. I had to lift on that last lap. I could get close enough because I ran a little less downforce than him.
He was definitely better when he got behind me. That’s why he got the run. Anywhere else I’d be happy with second. But here it sucks. It was a great day.
THE MODERATOR: A great total month for you.
WILL POWER: It was, yeah. It’s kind of funny. Pole win, second, second. Not what I was looking for. There was some great battling out there. I have to give it to the drivers in the race. Fair, clean, but close and hard. That’s all you can ask for.
It was an intense battle. I kind of forget where I was in the end, I was so immersed in the race itself. Just a great day for the team to finish 1-2.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll continue with questions.
Q. We talked a lot about safety all month. There were wrecks today, but nobody got airborne. Is there a reason you can point to for that?
WILL POWER: I think it’s a fact of the slow speed. Most of the people who got airborne were at high speed in qualifying trim. Maybe we should keep it always below 230. That might be a lesson.
CHARLIE KIMBALL: We don’t all understand the crash dynamics of the aero kits yet. IndyCar, I have a lot of faith in the safety committee to do that, understand those crash dynamics for those single-car spins. At least what I could see on the replays under yellows, looked like they were contact for most of the incidents. There were very few, except for maybe Tony’s, that were single-car incidents.
I don’t know that we’ve got an answer yet. I think Will has a good point about the speeds. We put on a heck of a show. If you want the number up there, just change the distance. I’m joking, you can’t change the distance.
CHARLIE KIMBALL: Fair enough. You have to ask yourself what we’re here for. We put on a heck of a show today. It was one heck of a motor race out there, in beautiful conditions. I think that showcases what the Verizon IndyCar Series is really about.
Q. Would you describe the last lap, and how grateful you were that none of you crashed.
CHARLIE KIMBALL: Here I was waiting for the top two to take themselves out. At that point I knew I wasn’t quite close enough to make a move. I kind of hoped Will would make a move on Juan that maybe wasn’t quite going to work.
You got to be heads up for 500 miles. It’s not just about the last lap around here, it’s about how you set yourself up for that, how good you’ve made your car over the course of the day.
I wanted to keep the 9 car behind me and stay in the top three.

Q. Charlie, what is the favorite board to watch?
CHARLIE KIMBALL: All the new Panasonic boards look really good. I think it looks beautiful lit up in blue at night.
WILL POWER: Verizon (laughter).
CHARLIE KIMBALL: That wasn’t awkward. Speaking of, the Panasonic pylon is gorgeous.
CHARLIE KIMBALL: It was nice to see gaps behind, how many to go. The fact that it goes green when it went green. So much time on the restarts, it was really calm. I got to check out the video board.
The ones I could see, there’s one in turn one when you’re cruising around, shiny. You take a minute to look.
Q. The leader could be ahead for a couple laps, there were times when there was a pass in three or one. With five laps to go or whatever, did you think it was inevitable that you were going to get past and repass or did you think you could stay out front?
WILL POWER: If Dixon had stayed there, because he was on lower downforce, I could stay out front. I saw Juan get him. I thought I might be safe. I actually felt I could get hit back. I just had an imbalance in leading. Out front, it was loose. When you get behind, I readjusted for that.
There’s no problem, I was running less downforce. I could draw up really quickly. It just came down to an imbalance. I just didn’t spend enough time in second place understanding what I need from the car. He comes back there, which is a smart move, because it won him the race.
It’s a difficult position, right? If it goes yellow, you win the race. You want to lead. I really fought hard to make sure I was leading all the time. Then again, if it’s going to go green, you get a bit of experience behind the way these cars draft.
If the car wasn’t in balance, I would have had no shot at him. Still, Team Penske, 1-2, pretty good.
Q. Got to be tough to look at the screen and see the boss taking a ride with Juan. Any idea what Juan would have done with his résumé if he stuck around here?
WILL POWER: Obviously he would have been pretty successful.
CHARLIE KIMBALL: Thankfully he didn’t.
WILL POWER: Yeah. I mean, he’s very strong this year. He came back. His plan was to win this race, win the championship. Going to be very determined to make sure he doesn’t win the championship. I think it’s going to be a team battle all the way to the end.
Looking at the screen, yeah, it sucks (laughter). Watching someone else celebrate, it’s not good.
Q. Will, can you put us in the cockpit, coming out of four, how hard are you pressing the gas? What’s going on?
WILL POWER: Honestly, when I lifted in three for understeer, I knew it was over. There’s no way you’re going to get to him. No way.
It’s kind of going into one, yeah, I got a great shot here. I was very close to him in one starting the last lap. Out of two, a big push. I’m like, I can still get to him. Then three a big push, lift. No, I’m not going to get it.
Q. What would you say to kids who say they couldn’t do it?
CHARLIE KIMBALL: I think that’s really cool. All of my racing career has been about breaking down barriers, if you’ll excuse the pun, but paving new roads, for drivers with diabetes, for anybody overcoming a challenge. When I meet somebody who has just been diagnosed, I always try to put as big a smile on my face, maybe not as big as what I had when I got out of the car today, but a big smile that says, Welcome to the cool kids club. You have diabetes, but now you’re part of this community. To be able to give them that message and hopefully change their perspective.
I’m fortunate to be part of this diabetes community and represent them at what I think is the best job in the world, driving racecars, to be able to do it at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indy 500, and be successful as well. That’s a big part of it.
Q. All three of you talked about how good of a show you put on today. Aside from whoever is leading the race, how do you feel from a driver’s standpoint as far as red flags, letting the race continue and not finishing under caution?
WILL POWER: I think at some point there’s got to be a cutoff. I think it’s about six laps you can really do it by the time you go green.
But that’s what they would do. If it had gone yellow within six to go…
Anything inside that, they wouldn’t do that. There’s not enough time.
CHARLIE KIMBALL: That’s one of the challenges here, all the incidents take a while to clean up because they are fairly significant. It’s really important that we do everything we can to finish under green for the fans. I’ve heard it across the board, I think, as a team internally. We all feel the better show we can put on, the better job security we have long-term for us.
Q. Will, watching qualifying, drivers seemed to come out to the turn four wall, then come down towards the pit wall at the start/finish line, then go back up high. In the rain, I also noticed there was a line of cars. Is that to break the draft to do that or is that just the fastest way around? The whole line zigs and zags. How can you possibly pass somebody if they’re moving around the track like that?
WILL POWER: Yeah, I mean, in the race, it’s to block. You don’t want someone to get up your inside. That’s why you do that. You get right down to the wall.
CHARLIE KIMBALL: Blocking is illegal. It was defend (laughter).
WILL POWER: Defend. We like to make it real hard here in IndyCar. It’s defending, yeah.
So, yeah, you go down to defend and come back. In qualifying, it’s actually following the stagger, you got stagger, actually drag the wheel. You go back, load the car. Pretty fast entry, understand what it is.
Juan was definitely doing that on the last lap to break the draft. It kind of does a bit. You’re going to do everything you can. I would have been doing the same.
Q. Charlie, talk about the amount of trust and respect you had with the guys you were racing against there at the end and how much you were willing to risk if you were able to catch up to Juan at the end?
CHARLIE KIMBALL: Graham and Will said it, the guys were really clean today. There was a lot of intelligent, respectful racing. Doesn’t mean it was not hard-fought right on the edge, but everybody understood what the situation was and was racing each other very cleanly.
It’s the Indianapolis 500. You get to the front, you give it everything you’ve got. Every opportunity you have, you make the most of it.
Q. Charlie, you keep having this amazing comeback. Does it give you confidence to know you could do that or does it frustrate you?
CHARLIE KIMBALL: It just means we need to work better in qualifying. I feel if we start up front, we can stay up front. I think I said that on the radio. We caught that lucky yellow while we were in the pit lane and beat the guys at the line. That’s why we restarted from the lead. Then it was my job to try to stay up there for as long as we could.
I think we had a little more downforce and drag than we wanted compared to those guys for that stop.
If we can qualify up front, we can stay up there. I think it’s also an indication of the resiliency of the team, the fact we never stop fighting, try to get the best result we can.
Q. All month we’ve been talking about the packages and the crashes. For the last 16 laps of this race we saw how good the racing can be with these cars. Do you think that bodes well for the ovals ahead?
WILL POWER: It’s actually quite different every oval now, which is pretty cool. We don’t go to one that’s the same. We got a mile-and-a-half at Texas, then you got Iowa which is like a bullring. Then you have a flat one-mile oval. They all race differently. Going to come down to what downforce level and all that that they run.
At the end of the day I think you should be lifting at every oval because that makes you a better oval driver. It should be about the driver, not just a fast car. I liked the fact today it was hard. One of the hardest days I’ve had running the track there. It was rarely flat. Rarely were you wide open. Only at the end when you were leading were you wide open. That’s how oval racing should be. I think IndyCar needs to make the rules so it is that way.
CHARLIE KIMBALL: I have to concur with Will, if you limit the downforce so the racing benefits whoever is better prepared and has a better car, has more mechanical grip, can manage everything throughout a stint a little more successfully, benefit those guys, you still have great racing because you have guys that are willing to risk less downforce, less risk, but maybe they don’t as long throughout the course of the race.
As we move forward to the next ovals, it gives me a lot of confidence how good we can be at all the different ov