CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
DESERT DIAMOND WEST VALLEY CASINO PHOENIX GRAND PRIX
ISM RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE QUOTES
APRIL 7, 2018
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER:
HOW CONFIDENT WERE YOU WITH SEVEN LAPS TO GO THAT THOSE NEW TIRES WOULD MAKE THE DIFFERENCE?
“Well, I was confident in the team. I don’t think I did anything tonight. This was a team victory. They gave me the pit stops, they had the strategy, I was working with rocket scientist on the pit stand – those guys are awesome, but it was a team effort. I wasn’t sure, you know you never know if you make the right call, but they did, they made the right call. It was good we were on the offense. That Firestone rubber is really good when it’s new. It’s good when it’s old too, but I like it better when it’s new. It’s really cool to have Verizon on the car for Victory Lane here. Just everyone, all of our supporters, Tim (Cindric) he was making calls it’s a good night for all of us at Team Penske.”
HOW ABOUT THAT MOVE ON THE OUTSIDE?
“I was patient all night. I wasn’t forcing it. I struggled with the balance in certain parts of the stint. We were just working on the car. The engineers were doing a really good job getting it back and I knew when it was time to be aggressive was at the end there. I just kept trying to understand what (Robert) Wickens was doing. I was a little bit nervous about going high there in (Turn) 1 because the marbles were building. You don’t want to make a mistake going to the outside, but I had to do that. He was defending the inside and it worked out perfect. I’m telling you it is all down to Team Penske tonight. I didn’t do anything.”
TO DEFEND THE CHAMPIONSHIP HOW KEY TO WIN THIS EARLY IN THE SEASON?
“I mean we got one today. We had a great car. I don’t know that I was able to drive it to a victory tonight. I didn’t feel like… I felt like a podium contender. It was probably more on me, I just couldn’t get the balance into the car, but when you can win on a night like that, that shows the strength of the team and if we can keep doing that, capitalizing on nights like this, we are going to be just fine for 2018.”
WALK US THROUGH THAT FINAL PIT STOP:
“I trust him (Tim Cindric) for sure, but I didn’t know. I didn’t know how many people were going to not pit. With 50 laps it’s good to have new Firestone rubber. It works well when it’s old, but it’s so much better when it’s new. That helped me out a lot tonight. We had everything, we had the whole package, the Team Chevy power. We had the fuel mileage from Team Chevy that we needed, just being able to have Verizon on the car finally and getting victories for them feels so good. They have done so much for this sport and so much for Team Penske, it’s a Team Penske win tonight. I’m telling you that, it wasn’t me, this was a team effort tonight that got it done.”
ON THE RACE:
“Yeah, I think the thing is Tim (Cindric) really knew what was going on. We got kind of undercut on I think it was the second pit stop sequence. A lot of guys got in front of us because we went long and then I think our team, they knew what happened there, so we just flipped the script and it basically jumped everyone on the last stop. That got us ahead and we had the fuel mileage from Chevy, which was awesome. Able to finish it off and just good strategy calls tonight. Great in the pits. I mean the pit stops, I think, are what won this race as well it was just the execution there.”
AND AS YOU SAID THE FIRESTONES WERE FANTASTIC:
“Oh man, always. Like I said, they work well when they are old, but man they work so nice when they are new. It was good to have that when other guys had 50 lap tires. It was certainly the ingredient I needed.”
ON THE AUTOGRAPH WAR WITH SIMON PAGENAUD:
“Well, I joked with him, I signed his car two weeks ago without his knowledge and then I told him about it yesterday and I think it was a mistake because I made it quicker. And then he signed my suit tonight and he might have made me faster for the race. I guess it worked out in the end.”