CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
HONDA INDY GRAND PRIX OF ALABAMA
BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK (ALABAMA)
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE QUOTES
MAY 14, 2016
CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE QUOTES:
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER: TALK ABOUT THE IN-LAP AND THE OUT-LAP AROUND THE LAST STOP. HOW FAST WAS THAT? “I went faster than any other lap on the in-lap. Kyle Moyer (team manager and car strategist) told me that I had to go. I knew it was going to be the chance to get back in the lead. The pit sequence was so important. With the temperature being so low, it was very difficult on the out-lap to get the tires going. I knew this was my chance so I drove as hard as I could. I drove into pitlane like a rally car so it but worked out! The pit crew did a fantastic job on that stop. That was an easy last stint. Thank you so much! I’m so glad for Menards. They just joined Team Penske. Obviously, Team Penske is the best in the business but having this livery and being the driver of that livery is very special. Thanks to everyone for coming with this weather.”
YOU HAVE TO THINK THIS IS A GREAT WAY TO COME INTO THE INDY 500. “Yeah, it feels nice I have to stay. Three in a row is pretty incredible these days in IndyCar. It’s not just me; it’s the whole team. This car is magical. I couldn’t do it without them. I want to thank Verizon as well for being such a tremendous supporter of our sport and our team. We couldn’t do it without them. They bring the fans to the racetrack as well, so thanks to them as well for the opportunity.”
HOW DID YOU GET TO VICTORY LANE TODAY? “The car was fantastic once again. The balance was perfect all race. When we were in the lead, we were cruising and doing what we could to save the tires. But the car was just fantastic to drive. Charlie (Kimball) had a good pit stop on the first one. I managed to get him on the outside of Turn 7. It was very difficult on cold tires so you could really make up some ground on the pit sequence. After the first one, I realized there was something to do with it. I let Kyle know – he already knew – and the next two pit stops we did the opposite and it worked. We had two great pit stops at the end. It’s incredible to win three in a row like this. To win here in Indy is very special. I’ve lived here for nine years so this place is very special in my heart.”
HOW DID THE FIRESTONE TIRES PERFORM? “Very well. In general, the Firestone are so consistent whether it’s the black or the reds. The red tires were really good because it was cool and they were bringing me more grip. It was easier to drive. The black tires were really tough on the out-lap so you had to tiptoe it but somehow be aggressive to generate heat. But everything was so consistent. I was just enjoying the driver lap after lap.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 HUM BY VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND: “Great teamwork. Never give up. The hum by Verizon boys – everybody was really in sync. We never gave up because we knew we had issues and knew we didn’t have the fastest car, but we had the heart, man. We had the passion. We put it out there and had a little bit of luck, obviously, but it all blends together. A great sauce. It turned out to be great momentum for the Indianapolis 500. I can’t thank the guys enough, but again – it was a total team effort.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 83 TRESIBA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 5TH: “Frankly, I’m a little disappointed with a top five. I think we were better than that today. I wasn’t awesome on a couple of the race craft pieces, but we made solid progress in the pits. Chip Ganassi Racing guys are always solid in the pits. We had a pretty good car, the wake behind the Honda seems pretty big. I was struggling with that a little bit more. With the conditions being so different, I think we were caught out a little bit. The car was definitely better when it was warmer yesterday, but overall a solid day for the 83 car.”
SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 7TH: “At the start I didn’t feel a touch or anything. I thought TK was on my right but it sounded like he was actually on my left. At some point we broke the front wing and we didn’t have any speed. We were just off and it was one of those days where we tried to work something and it didn’t play out for Team Target.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 8TH: ‘I struggled leaving the pits. I was on cold tires and I went down there and turned and the car never turned. I needed to go through the line and I didn’t manage to. It was really close, so I got on the brakes and tried to make it but I didn’t so I got a drive through penalty and pretty much ruined our day. At the beginning I was struggling a little bit, but we made a change to the car and it got a lot better. At the end we had a really car.”
MAX CHILTON, NO. 8 GALLAGHER CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 14TH: “It was a pretty frustrating race for the Gallagher team today. We got the car handling where we wanted it but when we got around other cars it just went off. We were around sixth or seventh and we ended up dropping to around P20. We did get to P14 but we need to get the car better when we need it at the start of the stint. I’m sure we’ll continue to work on that and I look forward to getting where we need to be.”
MATT BRABHAM NO. 61 PIRTEK TEAM MURRAY – KVRT CHEVROLET, FINISHED 16TH: “I think it was almost the perfect introduction for me to the Verizon IndyCar Series. I wasn’t sure how things like the pit strategies were going to play out, having never done a racing pitstop before, but the PIRTEK Team Murray guys were on fire with every single stop. The start was crazy, I nearly shat myself going into turn one – there was so much stuff that was flying around, the buffeting on my head was unbelievable. Due to the crash, we were able to get through clean and then settle into a rhythm for the race. The whole experience was definitely different, I had never done anything like the restarts, push to pass or pit strategies before, but it all went pretty smoothly!”
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 19TH: “Unfortunately, things didn’t end the way we would have liked for the Verizon Chevy. We just weren’t good in traffic and were never able to recover from there. The front wing had some issues, so we took the time to change it during the second pit stop. Then we couldn’t capitalize on that caution because we were too far behind the leader. In the end, I could have finished a lot higher without the final penalty. It just wasn’t our day. The Verizon Chevy boys worked really hard today, though. We’ll just look ahead towards better results at Indy 500.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 21 PREFERRED FREEZER SERVICES CHEVROLET, FINISHED 21ST: “It’s just a tough weekend all around. I’m proud of all of our efforts. We’ve got a lot of great partners here with Fuzzy’s and Preferred Freezer Services. It’s a shame we couldn’t do better for this first race in May but the big show’s up next that’s what really matters. We’ll treat this as a warm-up and make sure we get all of our ducks in a row for the 500.”
JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 6 PREFERRED FREEZER FUZZY’S VODKA CHEVROLET, FINISHED 22ND: “It started out alright. We definitely made the car better. Josef and I were kind of running the same thing. The car had pretty good long run pace. We made up some spots, we got through our first stop and passed a few guys on track. We were looking okay but ended up getting caught out by a yellow and didn’t quite have the fuel in the car that we thought we did. We ran out of fuel and ended up going a lap down. At that point I don’t want to get in the way of anybody who’s running full time, but we had a consistent pace and made up the spots that were available to us. We needed a yellow to get back on the lead lap which we didn’t get. All things considered it was good to just get a race under our belts here. We’re rolling into the Month of May, the car’s in one piece and we can move forward with a few more live reps going to the oval. We’re looking forward to that.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 11 TEAM EUROPA – KVSH RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 24TH: “Obviously it was a disappointing end to the weekend for the Europa – KVSH Racing team especially since we damaged the car. I got a run on the outside of Scott (Dixon) and was up against the wall. There was still a reasonable amount of room and I was on my line. From what I saw, TK (Tony Kanaan) just got pushed a bit to the left and that was it. Tough luck.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 NTT GROUP CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 25TH: “It was a quick and unfortunate end to our day with the NTT Group car. It’s a very wide track here at the IMS road course and people were going three and four wide. Scott was trying to give me room and I was trying to do the same with others but it was just a racing incident. I don’t think it was any one person’s fault. It’s just disappointing and I wish we could have still been out there today.”