CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
TOYOTA GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH
STREETS OF LONG BEACH (CALIFORNIA)
POLE WINNER QUICK QUOTE
APRIL 16, 2016
Helio Castroneves, No. 3 Auto Club of Southern California Team Penske Chevrolet, won the pole for the Grand Prix of Long Beach for the second consecutive year. It is the three-time Indianapolis 500 winner’s 47th career pole; his third pole at Long Beach and his second of the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season. His first of the year came at Phoenix International Raceway on April 1, 2016.
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 AUTO CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHEVROLET – Pole Winner:
IT’S SUNNY EVERY DAY IN YOUR WORLD. BUT, TODAY IS ANOTHER REASON TO SMILE
“I’m very happy, first of all, for the AAA car. We’ve been good all weekend long. We’ve been working together all weekend long. I would say Team Penske probably had the upper hand. They say it’s better to be lucky than good and we planned very well. Will (Power) was definitely in a league of his own and he seems to be putting out phenomenal laps, but in the end putting on red tires, you saw (Scott) Dixon up there, you saw (Tony) Kanaan up there and Juan Pablo (Montoya) and Simon (Pagenaud), so it was a mix. But, I’ll take it. Definitely thank AAA and the entire Chevy team. They did a phenomenal job. And hey, it’s the right spot to start, so let’s keep it.”
WHEN WE COME TO A STREET COURSE, YOU KNOW THE CIRCUIT BUT NOBODY IN THIS SERIES OR IN RACING HAS ANY CONTROL OF WHAT MAY OR MAY NOT HAPPEN TO CHANGE THE STREET FROM ONE YEAR TO THE NEXT. HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO RE-ACCLIMATE?
“That is a great question. It’s so difficult to predict things like that. To be honest, at the end of the day for us, sometimes it hurts us on the race in some stints, it depends on how it happens; but today but it just proves that plan works it out. The track did change this year. Some of the curbs, they took them out. And some of the curbs they added. So, it was a little bit different. But in the end, I don’t care (laughs). We are starting on the front row in the number one spot. Well, we put it on the pole.”