CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
HONDA INDY GRAND PRIX OF ALABAMA
BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE QUOTES
APRIL 23, 2018
DRIVER QUOTES:
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER:
HOW EVENTFUL DID THAT RAIN MAKE IT AT THE END?
“More eventful than I would have liked. But, everyone did a great job. How about Team Chevy today? They gave us a great engine, good fuel mileage, and good reliability; that’s what we needed to win this race. It’s great having Hitachi. We had Verizon and we got them a victory, and now we got Hitachi a victory. So, thank you guys. Everyone at Team Penske did a great job. But like you said, that was more eventful than I would have wanted it. It seemed like smooth sailing for the most part. We weren’t having any yellows, which we were hoping no yellows today. But then that rain crept in and I couldn’t believe how long everyone stayed out. It was really risky what they were doing, but I understand why they were doing it, and I’m glad we made the call to come in so soon.”
HOW AWARE WERE YOU OF WHAT SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS WAS TRYING TO DO OUT THERE ON THOSE SLICKS, BECAUSE HE HAD A FAIRLY SIGNIFICANT LEAD ON YOU?
“Yeah, I knew what he was doing. It was the same thing with (Ryan) Hunter-Reay when he came up on me, and I asked if he was still on slick tires. At that point you could still probably manage them, but man it just kept getting worse and worse every lap; so, more and more risky. The problem is we put the rains on a little bit earlier to protect and I kind of fried the fronts because you know, these things aren’t designed to work in the dry. So, in the dry I kind of over-cooked the front end. And then I had to deal with that when the rain actually came. Fortunately we had a big gap. That’s really what I think helped us win the race was just building that gap over the beginning part.
THIS IS YOUR THIRD WIN IN THE LAST FOUR BARBER RACES. WOULD YOU BE COOL IF THEY ADDED FOUR OR FIVE RACES HERE A YEAR?
“Yeah, I like it here. We could do the whole series here. That would be great! Thanks to some of the fans who came back. I understand most people can’t make it. But they stuck it out yesterday. They were dealing with the wind and all the rain yesterday. They’re just great fans, so thanks for coming out everybody, and some of the people who came to watch this. It’s a good day for us at Team Penske.”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 9TH: “We had a pretty good race going and I think we potentially could have been a top 5. So, I was very frustrated with Gabby (Chavez). He was two laps down. And I just got stuck behind him, which gave an opportunity to (Scott) Dixon as I was trying everything I could to make it happen. But, it’s a real shame because when it’s not your day, it’s just not your day. You’ll have better days later, but you won’t have everybody on your side when you have a good day. And at the moment he doesn’t have you on his side, let me tell you. But, it’s a real shame. I think the Menards 22 was really from where we started. The strategy to go on rain (tires) when we went on rain was a good choice and yeah, I thought it was a really good pace. We just started from too far back.”
AND, AT THE TIME, YOU WERE RUNNING 10TH, HE WAS TWO LAPS DOWN. YOU ALSO HAD WORDS FOR HIM AFTER THE RACE. WHAT DID YOU SAY TO HIM?
“Driver stuff (laughs).”
REMINDING A YOUNG DRIVER WHERE SOME DAY IT’S GOING TO BE HIS DAY, RIGHT?
“Yeah, we’ve all been there. I’ve been in his position. It is what it is. I can’t comment for him. You can ask him the question. But I’m not going to make too much of a deal about it. It’s just a shame that it ruined my race. But, we’ll come back stronger. It’s Indy soon and that’s what’s going to give me a smile back on my face.”
YOU’RE EXCITING ABOUT THE UPCOMING INDY TEST, RIGHT?
“Oh, very excited. The new aero kit is very cool on oval. The cars are fast; fast on the straightaway, a little less grip and sliding more. The fact that we’re going to see those red tires moving in the corners is going to be really cool for the fans and for the drivers. So, come to the test. I think it’s open, so enjoy it.”
MATTEUS LEIST, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 12TH: “We made some great progress from where we started the weekend, so I’m pretty happy with that. The car was good with the reds in the race so I think we had good pace. We were running w Pagenaud and when Dixon came in front of me he was not that much faster which means we made some progress from practice. Unfortunately in the rain the car wasn’t as good, we were struggling with understeer so I couldn’t push as I wanted. If we look at where we started and where we finished it was a good weekend. I’m happy for the ABC Supply team and myself. Onto Indianapolis.”
JORDAN KING, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 14TH: “I had a really good restart. I did exactly what I wanted to do, I wanted to dispatch a couple of cars quite quickly. I managed to get past both Ed (Jones) and Scott (Dixon) before Turn 2, so that was really good actually. That gave me good track position, we were then in the Top 5. Unfortunately, the rain yesterday may have caused an electrical problem that took quite a while to clear. Once we got going, it was then alright. Our strategy was then compromised with the rain and we were caught out. Overall slightly annoying, we really would have been fine for a Top 5 finish quite comfortably I think.”
SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 21 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 15TH: “It was definitely a difficult race out there. We thought we were making up some ground by pitting early and running hard, which seemed to be working a bit. We tried to gamble at the end to stay on slicks. We were hoping for a yellow that the race would end under and we could stay up where we were. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and I just tried to keep it on the road the best I could. Eventually, it just got too wet and we had to come in at the end. There are some positives to take away from this weekend, we’re going to take those into the INDYCAR Grand Prix and hopefully be back up front!”
RENE BINDER, NO. 32 BINDERHOLZ JUNCOS RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 16TH: “It was a tough race. We finished P16.”
GABBY CHAVES, NO. 88 HARDING GROUP HARDING RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 17TH: “Today’s conditions were not ideal for us to start. Our strategy we used yesterday to hope for a yellow to get our lap back obviously never came. We just did more to learn, try to gage our pace and try to keep improving. I thought we really improved on our pace compared to everyone else and we did well to pick up a few positions at the end of the day and brought the car home. Now we get to work on our most important month of the year.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 18TH:
“We had a very difficult weekend and I’m glad it’s over. Looking forward to Indianapolis.”
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – REJOINED RACE 17 LAPS DOWN AFTER DAMAGE ON SUNDAY START, RETIRED AFTER GAINING AS MANY POINTS POSSIBLE, FINISHED 21ST:
“It’s just a real shame for everyone on the Verizon Chevy team. The car was good and we were doing our best out there but it was really hard to see anything in front of me. The conditions were just so bad. As soon as I got to the front straight the car just came around and I tried to keep it off the wall but it was hydroplaning and there was nothing I could do. I feel bad for the team and for the fans in this weather. Just too bad. Hopefully our luck can turn around when we get to Indianapolis.”
MAX CHILTON, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET, FINISHED 22ND:
“That was a really unfortunate way for us to end the weekend. We were happy with the qualifying effort of the No. 59 Gallagher Chevrolet and felt like we were making progress, but after the race was red-flagged and everyone was allowed to start on full fuel we knew we were going to have a hard time doing much strategy-wise to move toward the front. Unfortunately for us, we didn’t get a chance to see what we could do during the remainder of the race because of an electrical issue that had us stopped on track before the field went green. The boys had it fixed and back out on track, but once we had confirmed the issue was fixed out on track and the heavy rain picked back up again there was no point in us continuing and possibly tearing anything up.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 23 TRESIBA CARLIN CHEVROLET, FINISHED 23RD:
“The 10 car of Ed Jones just drove into the back of me. The stewards reviewed it and decided that no action would be taken, which I vehemently disagree with. Yeah, visibility was tough out there, but it was tough for everyone. I didn’t run into anyone and no one else ran into me, except for the 10 car. I don’t know what the stewards were looking at, but I’m going to have a discussion with them after the race. I’m just disappointed because the Carlin guys know how to run in the wet and they gave me a great car. We were moving up the field a few spots and with the Marco spin we were able to elevate another spot. We were just knocking on the door of making it into the top 10 and coming out of here in these conditions with a top-10 result heading into May would’ve been really good for the team.”