CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES
103RD RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY, INDIANAPOLIS
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE DRIVER QUOTES AND PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MAY 26, 2019
CHEVROLET RACING IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES
103RD RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY, INDIANAPOLIS
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE DRIVER QUOTES,
WINNER AND TEAM PRINCIPALS TRANSCRIPTS
MAY 26, 2019
Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Shell V-Power Nitro Plus Team Penske Chevrolet (started 8th; finished 4th): “We just fell short. It hurts a lot to be in positions and then fell out of position when (Takuma) Sato got by me. Then it was really tough to do anything. Certainly you needed to be those top two guys; that’s kind of blocking everything out. I tried to make up ground on the (final) restart. I got by (Ed) Carpenter and got into third but I just couldn’t quite get (Alexander) Rossi, and that’s what I think we needed to be in the fight at the end. We were close, we just fell short. The Shell V-Power car was fast all day, Chevrolet gave us what we needed. It’s a Team Penske victory. One of us wining is what ‘The Captain’ wants. They do such a great job that it’s great to reward the whole group with a victory. Congrats to Simon. Still not a bad day but it hurts a bit.”
Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet (started 6th; finished 5th): “They ruined my day for no reason. I didn’t even hit a guy. Wait until I see them. What a disgrace – to ruin someone’s day for no reason. I didn’t touch a guy. It was a really bad call. Shame on them, man. We were really good. We were in that group in the end. It’s a disgrace that these guys control what happens on the track. I’m not really happy at all.” (How about this win for your teammate Simon Pagenaud?) “It was a great battle at the front there, watching those guys go at it. Simon deserved it. He was better than everyone else.”
Ed Carpenter, No. 20 Preferred Freezer Services Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet (started 2nd; finished 6th): “It was fun for a while, but we just didn’t have anything left at the end. I am happy to see Chevrolet get a win with Simon Pagenaud. For us, this is a disappointing end of the month for the team and Preferred Freezer Services. The car just didn’t feel as good at the end as it had been all day. I want to go look at the data see to where we lost out on balance and why it just wasn’t as quick as earlier in the race. I thought we were going to be able to fight on the restart when I was sitting third, but I couldn’t get the car up to pace and got passed. I felt the race was pretty good throughout until the red flag and it just didn’t go our way.”
Tony Kanaan, No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet (started 16th, finished 9th): It’s a typical day that you have to prove that you can’t give up. We never gave up. We had a little bit of a mishap; we ran out of fuel under the yellow. We were too close to pit and it went yellow and they closed the pits. That stuff happens right, you can’t predict all the yellows. We got lucky finally, we got our lap back and I got to do my magic at the end which I enjoyed the most. You know, we have so many ABC Supply employees and Bryant employees here. Actually, between them we had more than 2000 employees here today. I feel like even on my worst day, I can’t give up. So even when I was back there in 24th, a lap down, I still had to race. I still had to prove to them that we’re here and we’re trying. It paid off with a top 10. Is a top 10 what we want? Not really but after the day we had, I’ll take it.”
Ed Jones, No. 63 Ed Carpenter Racing Scuderia Corsa Chevrolet (started 4th; finished 13th): “First of all, thank you to Ed Carpenter Racing and Scuderia Corsa. Fortunately, we had the good weather, so that was nice since up to today we weren’t sure about that. We struggled a bit with some issues at the start and restarts. That really hurts you a lot when those are the biggest times to overtake and you’re unable to do anything. At that point, it sets you back and makes it harder to recover. We were still running inside the top 10, but we had a problem at the second pit stop and that put us back. Once you get further back in the pack it gets harder and harder to move forward. It’s a bit of a disappointing day from where we started. Hopefully, we will be back next year and be a little stronger.”
Spencer Pigot, No. 21 Autogeek Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet (started 3rd; finished 14th): “At the beginning, it was going alright. As it heated up, we seemed to struggle more and more on old tires. As it got hotter and later in the stint the car just kind of fell off. I couldn’t hang with the guys throughout the stint and that just got worse and worse throughout the race. It was a difficult day; we’ll look at what we can do better.”
Pippa Mann, No. 39 Driven2SaveLives Clauson-Marshall Racing Chevrolet (started 30th; finished 16th): “Our goal coming into this month was to be smart, do the right things and have an error-free month in the No. 39 Clauson-Marshall Racing Driven2SaveLives Chevrolet. Today, I feel like we went out there and we executed that plan. This was an entirely new group of people we put together, and I’m really proud of how the Driven2SaveLives car ran out there on the racetrack. I also want to thank Chevy again for all of their support this month and I feel that finishing 16th in our first Indianapolis 500 together is a really strong was to start this partnership.”
Matheus Leist, No. 4 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet (started 24th, finished 15th): “I feel like from everything we went through in the race, it wasn’t a bad result. We finished p15. Of course, it’s not where the team wants to be, it’s not where we want to be but considering that we started 24th, we had some bad pit stops and some other things, I think we did a great job. I felt good in the car, that’s a good thing too. I could pass some people and run together with some people. I think I got a lot of experience and a lot of good fun. Hopefully next year I’ll be a couple positions more up in the chart.”
Helio Castroneves, No. 3 Pennzoil Team Penske Chevrolet (started 12th; finished 18th): “I’m not sure what the 33 (James Davison, on pit lane incident) was doing om the fast lane. He was really slow. I didn’t know if I could go around him; I didn’t know if I would be penalized or not. He was looking for his pit. I saw his pit. Finally, I decided to stay away because he’s not coming in. I saw he was going to miss it and all of a sudden he just stopped. It damaged not only the front wing but the steering rack as well. It was frustrating because we had a phenomenal setup. The No. 3 Pennzoil Chevrolet was really strong. However, the good news is the team captured the win and Simon deserved it.”
Sage Karam, No. 24 DRR WIX Filters Chevrolet (started 31st; finished 19th): “Finishing 19th and the sister car with JR took 20th. Obviously, we want better than that. Some tough luck hurt us today. Unfortunately, we dug ourselves in a hole early. Our car was pretty fast, but I couldn’t get around the slower traffic. It is hard to pass with these cars when it gets hotter. So we lost a lap in the pit cycles and came out with Simon (Pagenaud), the leader. We ran with the leaders and the WIX Filters car was fast in race trim. But getting the lap behind really hurt us. Then we pitted a lap before the big wreck in turn three and we didn’t get the lap back. With a little luck in a couple of spots today, I think we had a top ten car. Overall, it was a rough month for us and we did take the checkered flag this time. Again, the DRR pit crew did an amazing job with our pit stops. I thought I did good job on the track and keeping my nose clean. We just didn’t get the breaks at the proper time today. That can happen here. It’s a legendary place and you have to take the good with the bad. I’m excited to come back here next year.”
JR Hildebrand, No. 48 DRR Salesforce Chevrolet (started 21st; finished 20th): “It was a longer day for us when I hit the pit lane too quick and received a drive-through penalty. I thought I was a gear down when I hit the pit lane. I just didn’t get the gear down quickly enough and I was speeding into the pits. So I then locked up the rears (tires) and I slid into the pit lane. I had a good start and moved up several spots pretty quickly. We thought we needed some fast stops to make up some positions throughout the race. We had some good pit sequences with the in and out laps too. Then the drive-through penalty prove us a lap down that we couldn’t get back. I had to protect the tires early in the stint and I couldn’t charge how I probably needed to. At the end of the race, we got the car into a window where I could maintain our position during the run. We made a number of adjustments through the race and the car did improve at the end as the track changed. I’m bummed for the guys because they did an awesome job in the pits. I think we were running with guys who were hovering in the top ten at the checkered flag. We could have been knocking on the door for the top ten had we kept everything together. So I’m a little disappointed in myself with the penalty. We got the car back into the garage after 200 laps again.”
Charlie Kimball, No. 23 Fiasp Carlin Chevrolet (started 20th, finished 25th): “At the end of the day, the result wasn’t at all what we wanted, but I am so proud of this 23 crew and everyone at Carlin for staying focused and motivated to get us to the checkered flag today. We were on for a top-six or top-eight finish, but we got collected in someone else’s crash. I feel really bad for the guys, but they did a great job on pit stops all day long and they got the car back out after the accident so quickly. The No. 23 Fiasp Carlin Chevrolet was pretty quick in clean air – it maybe needed a little more downforce for traffic, but we saw the checkered flag and we had a good run going there for a while. I can’t stress how proud I am of this Carlin team and what they’ve done here all month long.”
Kyle Kaiser, No. 32 250ok Juncos Racing Chevrolet (started 33rd; finished 31st): “Obviously, an extremely disappointing result for us after a such a wild month. I really feel for the guys and all the work they put in for us all month. Not the result we were hoping for by any means. But, we can’t hold our heads down. We were competing out there and I’m so proud of the guys all month. Everyone can be so proud. Thank you for all the sponsors and everyone who came onboard this month. 250ok, NFP, GMR, Hagerty, River Plate Indiana, and so many more joined our effort and we are so proud to have represented them today. This team has made great strides and only positive things ahead for us moving forward.”
Ben Hanley, No. 81 10 Star DragonSpeed Chevrolet (started 27th; finished 32nd): “It has been amazing for me. We learned quite a lot. We pushed really hard make the race, and unfortunately we didn’t have a good race car in traffic. On our own, we were OK. My first Indy 500 was an unbelievable experience. We knew we were up against it as rookies but focused on making the show the first week and did it, which was a huge achievement for everybody at DragonSpeed. The rain last Sunday cost us three hours’ track time for developing our race setup, but we still managed to make progress in practice this week and more today with the adjustments available to us. Our race pace was improving, and we had a promising strategy lined up before a driveshaft problem ended our run. I can’t wait to come back for next year’s ‘500.’ ”
An interview with Indianapolis 500 winner Simon Pagenaud, No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet:
FOREVER AN INDIANAPOLIS 500 CHAMPION. HOW DOES THAT SOUND?
“It’s amazing. It’s another dream come true, and the biggest dream of my life come true. It’s hard to fathom really. It’s really hard to process it right now, but I’m just filled with a lot of joy. I drove really spirited today, but it’s just incredible. I can’t take all the credit because I think I definitely — and I think it showed I had the best car out there. What a day. Wow, incredible.”
YOU USED THE WORD SPIRITED. YOU DROVE THIS ONE FULL THROTTLE, DIDN’T YOU?
“Well, yeah, we’ve had so many times we thought we could have won the race, especially since 2015 when I joined Team Penske. I think ’15 was one of those years, I think last year was one of those years for sure. In ’16 we had a mechanical issue that took us out, but we were running second. You know, there’s been a lot of races we were strong, but we never really executed to the end. Today was about attacking. We had our strategy meeting this morning, and we decided we were going to attack, we were going to control the day, and we were going to take our fate in our own hands. Destiny is what we decided to control. It was pretty cool. Obviously everything played for us really well. The stars, like I’ve been saying, have aligned this month, incredibly, but especially today.”
WHEN ROSSI PASSED YOU LATE IN RACE, DID YOU THINK THAT WAS IT?
“No, because actually I was concerned — obviously I led most of the race, so I didn’t have — except when I was passing back markers, I didn’t have a big knowledge of my car in traffic. So what I did was obviously at one point we ran so much up front we didn’t save enough fuel. When I let Josef (Newgarden) by and I ran behind Josef for the entire stint and the car was phenomenal. It was really easy to follow for me. So we adjusted the car really well during the race. Obviously Kyle Moyer and Ben Bretzman, my engineer, were giving me the perfect information. I think we had the perfect amount of downforce on the car, all the right decisions were made. The car was just fantastic, and I realized that I could run second as long as I wanted and pass people when I wanted. As you saw before one of the pit stops, I regained the lead on Josef just to make sure I wasn’t losing too much time in the sequence. But then when Rossi — Rossi I knew was going to be the biggest threat for a while because he looked really strong. He came back from the back and he’s always really strong in these races, so he was a bit of a concern. But yeah, I let him by to save fuel again just before the yellow came out, so that was a bit of a bummer. But we were able to get him back. Quite frankly I wasn’t really worried about getting back, I was just worried about the rhythm, when to get him back to finish first. There was a lot of planning, a lot of brake drafting, as well. It was a lot of fun, and obviously my teammates, I think about Juan Montoya, I think about Helio Castroneves, I think about Josef and Will (Power), and I think about Gil de Ferran, especially Rick Mears, as well, they’ve been teaching me so well the intricacy of driving on an oval, and I applied it today, and it worked.”
IS THIS AS FIERCE A DRIVE AS YOU’VE EVER HAD IN YOUR CAREER?
“Yes, yes. I was never going to give up on that one, I’ll tell you. But the same with the Grand Prix. That’s pretty much my trait, that’s my character is I can never give up until it’s over, even if I’m eighth, I’m ninth, you never see me give up. That’s what saved me, saved my career at one point. That’s what always helped me, and I always believed. I’ve been saying it, but kids, if you’re looking, if you’re watching, always believe in your dreams, and if you really believe it, believe it hard, and if you work hard enough, anything can happen.”
WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS MAY THAT JUST KIND OF FLIPPED THE SWITCH FOR YOU?
“Well, I think it’s fate, quite frankly. Obviously in racing you need a little bit of luck on your side. You need everything to go your way. So it did today. I could do nothing wrong, quite frankly. And sometimes I can’t do anything right. That doesn’t mean I lost my talent, that doesn’t mean my team is not doing a good job. It’s just you have to accept that there’s a little bit of mystery out there that you can’t control. All you can do is the best you can and extract the best out of yourself in every situation. The rest, it sorts itself out really.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK THE IMPACT WILL BE IN FRANCE?
“Well, I’ve got 330-something texts, so I think the impact — in a little bit, and I’m sure it’s going to keep coming. Actually, people in France are sleeping right now, so I’m sure tomorrow morning will be pretty crazy. I’m just so, so proud. Obviously flying the French flag like this, obviously there hasn’t been a winner in a long, long time, almost a century, being the next one is just phenomenal. I’m so proud. Proud of myself, proud of my country, and I’m happy that I’m giving smiles after obviously the burning of Notre Dame was a catastrophe. It’s good for the country to just give back, give some smiles and make people happy. That’s what sports are all about. It’s about transporting joy and adrenaline and fun. That’s what we did today. I’m so proud that I think France is going to be very excited. Obviously, the numbers talk for themselves. I’m sure we’ll do a media tour there, as well. But I also want to thank America. I’ve always been so welcome here, and that’s a trait of character that you guys have is incredible to me. I want to thank you all for welcoming me so well in the country, treating me as anyone else really, not as a Frenchman but treating me like a friend of yours, and that means a lot to anyone, I think especially me. So I want to thank America for welcoming me here and making me feel like I’m home.”
DOES THIS CHECK OFF THE LAST BOX?
“Well, I want many Indy 500s and more championships. You know, my goal, I’m already leading the championship this year, so it’s fantastic. I told Ben Bretzman before the month, knowing our momentum, I said, we can win the next two and be in the championship, and it happened. So we’re going to go into Detroit with a really good street car. We’ve done a lot of work on that car, and I think we’re going to be strong there. So I’m excited. I love that track. That’s the place where I won my first Indy car race in 2013, so we’ll try to make it happen again. But that’s my next box, obviously, is to win another championship. I got to close in ’17. It would be awesome to add some numbers. But some day I want to go back to Le Mans and win it, but some day. I’m not in any rush. I’ve got more to accomplish here. I want to keep driving for Team Penske forever and keep winning races. Le Mans would be one of my dreams, and another dream is to win the Monte Carlo in rally, but that’s for a long time ahead. Probably when I’m 45, 48 years old.”
TODAY, DID THE RACE REWARD THE BEST DRIVER?
“Well, I don’t know, you guys watched the race. I didn’t see what happened in the back. Certainly Will — I think I led 116 laps, so I didn’t see many people quite frankly. I mean, the car was just so far. They kept coming at me, and I was like trying to defend. Will, I saw him — I check the TV when I’m on track. There’s like a big screen and you can check the pylon, so you know a little bit what’s going on, but you have to focus on your own race. But certainly Will, if he didn’t have that problem in pit lane, I think would have been a big contender. He was very fast. He came back second right at the beginning of the race. I think he would have been a big threat, and Josef was a big threat, too. Obviously the Penske cars did really well. But I personally feel like, yeah, it was the best car that won. And best driver, you guys have to decide on that, I guess. I wouldn’t have the pretension to say that.”
HOW SPECIAL IS THIS TO GET A WIN FOR JOHN MENARD?
“Well, I mean, obviously bringing another win to Roger is very special. You want to see him happy like that. He gives us so much. He treats us like his children, really. When you drive for Team Penske, you represent his brand that he’s been building for 60 years, and he trusts you to represent him at this level of the sport, the sport that he loves, and it’s a dream for him to win the Indy 500. Making his dream become true, big part of it really is sensational. Super proud of that. And John Menard, he’s been trying so hard. I felt so bad that we didn’t get one for him already, so finally getting one for him is very special. Having that livery is very cool because people notice the car so easily. It’s so great for all that he’s done for the sport. He’s done so much. He deserves to get a Borg-Warner, so I’m very proud, very proud to be the driver driving that car.”
EXPLAIN THE EMOTIONS ON THE FRONT STRAIGHT.
“It wasn’t planned. We didn’t discuss it on the radio. When I got to pit entry, I’m like, oops. I think I should have went to pit lane. I was crying a little bit on the decel (cool down) lap and the fans were going so crazy, I thought I have to share this with the fans. There’s no racing without fans. Obviously I wanted to go to Victory Lane and we did. I didn’t think it was going to be that complicated. But I wanted to share with the fans — they filled this place up. It’s incredible. It’s incredible to be part of this sport as a driver, and it wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t have 300,000 people in the grandstands. It was my way of saying thank you for your support and please come back, we’ll give you more of this, and that’s what I did.”
THE LAST FIVE WINNERS OF THE INDY 500 CAME FROM FIVE DIFFERENT CONTINENTS. DO YOU THINK THIS LEGITIMIZES THAT ANY DRIVER WHO CAN’T EXPAND HIS CAREER IN FORMULA 1 … THIS IS CURRENTLY THE HIGHEST AND MOST COMPETITIVE RACING SPORT?
“Well, I mean, I don’t know about Formula 1, quite frankly. I’m not there to judge it. And I would never judge it. But I certainly know what’s going on here, and you see all the drivers come in, you see the level of competition on road course, street course, we’re fighting for tenths of seconds, hundredths. You saw here it was the smallest margin in history in qualifying between first and last. I think it shows the level of the teams, the level of the drivers, the sponsors that we have, obviously it’s a growing field. We had 36 cars. It’s a testament to IMS and INDYCAR for doing such a great job promoting the race, and we see our numbers are going up. It’s an exciting sport. You know, you saw it today with all the fans that we have. It’s the biggest race in the world. Yeah, I think it is very competitive, yes. Now, driving on an oval is not easy, let me tell you. It took me years to get to this level. I remember we were just talking about it with my engineer, my first Indy 500 start was definitely not like that. It’s just you’ve got to work. You’ve got to work really hard.”
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE REST OF 2019?
“Well, you know, let’s not — in French we say let’s not put the car in front of the cart. They still have work to do for the championship. There’s been a lot of very competitive teams. It’s not going to be easy. We’re going to have to work really hard at this. But certainly I think we’ve hit our stride. I think we’ve understood what I need from this car and how to get it. That was the biggest thing. We knew what I needed. It was how to get it. We did get that. Very comfortable on the oval now. I love the package. The racing is awesome. And on road course and street course, I think Team Penske has done a phenomenal job now, and I think our team is going to be very strong. Yes, the goal is to win the championship this year. There’s a lot to achieve still, and we’re going to get back to work tomorrow. But I hope everybody is scared.”
YOU MENTIONED RESILENENCE HAS BEEN A KEY FOR YOUR CAREER. YOU’VE TALKED ABOUT YOUR DAD GETTING A LOAN TO TRY TO KEEP THIS THING GOING. HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT THAT SINCE YOU’VE WON?
“Not yet, no. That will be one of the things that will make me understand what just happened for sure. But yes, it’s been tough to get to the top level of racing. Especially when you come from a non-racing family. You know, I had nobody in racing. I had to learn it all on my own. But actually I think it’s an advantage because I had no choice, it was either going to work or I was done. So I put all my guts in it, and I tried as hard as I could, and I learned quickly. But I had great mentors, as well. It’s all about the people that you meet in your life really. Obviously I was lucky enough that my dad could help at the time, but with all the sponsors actually I found, at the time I found 350 sponsors back in 2004 to keep going racing. 350. So I used to drive my car and go meet with potential sponsors and sell them a driving school. I had my own driving school. And that’s how I financed my career. So yeah, those moments are very special when you think about it, when you think back on that. After that when I became professional it was about perfecting my craft and using everybody that I met, and I did.”
An interview with winning team owner Roger Penske, John Menard (title sponsor), race strategist Kyle Moyer:
WELCOME JOHN MENARD TO VICTORY CIRCLE
“Thank you very much. It was 40 years ago when I first came down here in 1979, and I didn’t get all the way in, and I had a big sign that we used to put up over the garages. So I’m dragging the sign on Georgetown road, and I’m walking — I didn’t know where the entrance was. I didn’t know enough to go there on 16th and drive under. So this guy at the gate in a yellow shirt was standing there, and he goes, where are you going with that sign and I said I want to get in the garage area. So he said, “I’ll open the gate for you.” So he unlocked the gate and let me in. I didn’t have a credential. I didn’t know where I was going. I said which was is the garage area? I think he thought I was crazy, but we had a good time. But that was the first time I was here, 40 years ago. Been trying ever since. I see some stubborn, stupid guy. Here you go. Great fun.
DOES SIMON KNOW HE NOW HAS TO MAKE AN APPEARANCE AT EVERY MENARDS STORE?
“I think he already has. Most of them anyway. Roger is going to cut the ribbon, though, on our new store in Michigan, right near his office. He goes, I will cut the ribbon for the opening. I thought, great. I don’t know how much he’s going to charge me, but we’re going to have to talk about that.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL TO SEE A MENARDS CAR IN VICTORY LANE?
“You ever watch that movie called “The Candidate” when that guy works and works and works and finally gets elected, after the election, he won, and he gazed into the mirror and says, what the hell do I do now? That’s the way I feel. We’ll go try to win another one.”
WHAT’S YOUR TAKE ON SIMON PAGENAUD?
“Wow, well, first, Simon is just one wonderful human being. If you get to know him, you’ll love him. Second of all, if you watched the last few laps of this race, as a race car driver, Simon is really, really good. I mean, he was — Rossi is really, really good, and that could have ended kind of badly in Turn 1 or 2 or 3 or 4, a lot of other places, and yeah, that was just plain good racing. Two really talented guys, and they were just going after each other, back and forth, back and forth, but Simon doesn’t give up. He’s the real deal.”
ROGER, AS I THINK YOU SAID, HE WON THAT ONE
“Well, I’d have to say, I’ve been here many years and the last couple of years, somebody pass you and it would be over. Happened to Helio a couple times, but that flight at the end you knew we were building up to something with 15 laps and they take the cars that are not on the lead lap and put them in the back. It really sets up for an amazing run and good clean racing. You see how close it was. One more lap, it could have gone the other way. To Kyle Moyer, Kyle is the man that ran that pit and Ben (Bretzman) the engineer, they’re the ones that deserve the credit. We come here with four cars, we’re all on a particular car and these guys were the winners today. I tell you, Simon arrived here this month, I don’t know if it was May 1st or May 10th and he never left until today, so it’s a tremendous situation. I got a call from the President as we were in the winner’s circle, we had been down there with Joey, and he congratulated me, he said, I must have been your good-luck charm. He was in Japan and got — Simon had a chance to talk to him, so hopefully he’ll be invited to the White House.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT JOHN MENARD WINNING HIS FIRST INDIANAPOLIS 500 AND HOW MUCH THAT MUST MEAN TO YOU, TOO?
“Well, John and I have been around here a long time, haven’t we. I’ve watched him and he watched me and a couple years ago, we said, look, maybe we’d do better together. Finally, it took a couple years, but John, to see the Menard’s logo and certainly your excitement and commitment to the sport for so many years is terrific, and we could bring home a winner with you and you with our guys. Just tremendous. You’ve got a great brand. You’re a great person, your family, and obviously Paul is a key guy on our team down in the south, so we can’t say enough. You’ve got Indy, you’ve got the Brickyard, and now you’ve got the 500. And also you’ve got the road race, a triple header. Think about that, all three, so pretty good.”
KYLE, YOU LOOK A LITTLE STUNNED. ARE YOU SURPRISED HOW THIS CAME TO BE?
“Yeah, it was a weird day because, I mean, we had a really good car, and then we put him out front, and I thought there for a little bit maybe we were not going to do the fuel mileage right, we were just going to get the most laps led and that was it for a while. But then the yellow came out wrong, then it came out right and stuff. It was sort of like the Grand Prix, we just kept fighting at it and the car came really good toward the end there. But all day, I mean, Simon drove brilliant. We had sort of planned on not trying to drop back, but when you’re out front it’s a lot of fuel you’re using.”
JOHN, DOES THIS FEEL LIKE SOMETHING YOU’VE KIND OF BEEN REWARDED BACK NOW?
“Oh, it should sure. This was really, really special. I mean, been trying to win this thing for 40 years, win it with Roger. Kyle, I remember Kyle when he was working for Gary Bettenhausen. That was a good 40 years ago. There’s a lot of history here, a lot of memories. So yeah, it’s a journey, not a destination sometimes. But this is a good destination.”
JOHN, THE SCUTTLEBUTT GOING INTO THIS MONTH WAS THAT SIMON MIGHT BE IN A LITTLE BIT OF TROUBLE AS FAR AS HANGING ON TO HIS JOB. WAS THAT TRUE? AND JUST TALK ABOUT HIS REBOUND THIS MONTH
“I don’t think that I said anything to the media about Simon. He’s on our team. He’s one of our drivers. You’ve seen that. That was scuttlebutt. I think that’s a good word for it. But what he did this month, certainly he achieved records in his own personal life and certainly what he had expected to, and the run today, it’s a history book run for me when we think about some of the races — an opportunity to be in the winner’s circle, so he did a great job.”
ROGER, CAN YOU SAY WITH CERTAINTY THAT SIMON WILL BE BACK WITH YOUR TEAM NEXT YEAR?
“What do you think? Do you want to answer that question for me? Absolutely.”
CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR SECRET TO THE DOMINANCE THESE LAST 50 YEARS AT THE INDY 500?
“It’s just one word: It’s our people.”
KYLE, IT’S LIKE YOU FLIPPED A SWITCH ON THE GUY. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS MONTH THAT HAS CHANGED THE WHOLE DYNAMIC?
“It’s an easy answer. He’s on your back looking at you, and you’re on this team for a reason, and the reason is to win. Team Penske has always been winners, that’s why I came here. That’s why Simon is here. That’s why all of our drivers, everybody that works here is for a reason, and that is to win, because that’s our brand we’re putting out there, you know. Penske, Team Penske, all of them are winners. So you’re expected to win. So when you’re not, you’ve got to figure out a way to do it. Simon has done that. I think in this month he’s actually forced it on you to show you that he can win. Like I told you a month ago, I said, if he wins one, there’s no reason he can’t win five in a row, because he’s that type of driver, once he gets the confidence built, the GP really gave him confidence, and then the pole did, and so now you’ve got the race.”
ROGER, HOW ABOUT YOU?
“Well, I think that from my perspective, he came with us the first year, won the championship, had one down year, but again, our guys are with us. You think most of the drivers spend a lot of time, and obviously we thought a lot of him, or we wouldn’t have had him in our sports car. Remember he runs the sports car in the longer races. No, I think Kyle is right. We’ve got a great group of people, and it really is a combination of all four drivers, and it’s amazing if you’ve got numbers, they seem to work here, and there’s no question. With Helio in the pits, Davidson didn’t have a good speed limiter and I’m not sure about Will’s call, but we put ourselves out of the race. Again, with Josef and Simon — and Simon wasn’t going to be beat today. He raced clean, and that’s what I have to say about Rossi, also, the two of them for the laps that they ran side by side was as good a racing as you’ve ever seen here.”
HAS THERE EVER BEEN ANYTHING NOT WRITTEN TO EXPLAIN THE SUCCESS OF YOUR ORGANIZATION?
“No. You know, we’re racers. I’ve heard it too many times, I came here in ’51 with my dad, and we put teams together. We got commitments to sponsors like John, and we’ve become almost a family, everyone, and we work together because when you walk out of that garage this morning, only one guy can win. But we won as a team today, and I think that’s — when I saw Helio and all, they all said the same thing. Look, the success here is amazing, but you can’t do it without the best people. And again, year after year, and I said it here a couple weeks ago, that we had over 700 years of experience in our pit this weekend and this month. So that’s what makes the difference, not the clippings. I hope I didn’t say that, but maybe I did. I’m sorry.”
ROGER, THE FIERCENESS OF THAT BATTLE. HAVE YOU EVER SEEN SOMETHING LIKE THAT AT THE SPEEDWAY?
“You know, you’ve seen that at Phoenix, I think, on the miles we’ve seen that kind of racing. You pass, get back and get yourself back in position. But not here. The last couple years, the car would get out front and they’d go, but you couldn’t get away here, and I think it’s a credit, by the way, didn’t say much about this to IndyCar and the rule package we had today. It’s safe. You could see that when the guys got sideways, upside down almost, we could race each other and draft, and I think that’s what the fans want, and again, it was a fuel-mileage race for a while there, and Dixon was in a great position there, probably nine or 10, 11 laps better than anybody, and that yellow came out. You never know here until it’s the end here, and you saw that here today.”
KYLE, HOW NERVOUS WERE YOU?
“I wouldn’t say nervously. I’ve been on the wrong end of that before, so you know, where I come in second. It was good today with him. I think he did a really good job on covering the base. I think he knew exactly what he had 15 laps to go when the yellow came out, we told him. We were fast all day, so I think Simon drove brilliant there. And I think, you’re looking at a former winner already that you beat. Rossi came to the pack pretty heavy, especially when he had the fuel he had a good car, too. So a little bit of Chevy power there sure helped.”
ROGER, YOU’VE WON THREE OF THE LAST FIVE AND FIVE IN 14. IS THIS THE BEST YOU’VE BEEN SINCE THE SPLIT?
“I’d have to say — we came back, you remember, in I think we won ’01, ’02 and ’03 there, three in a row, which would have been equal to winning five, but that’s pretty special. I was talking to Michael Andretti before the race, and I said, hey, it’s going to be one of us I hope. I meant that because he’s a tough, tough competitor. Kyle knows, he worked with him, and they’ve done a great job fielding as many cars — he was certainly disappointed I’m sure to see Herta go out early. This place just gets you, and either it comes true or you go home, come back next year. That’s the problem. You’ve got to wait 12 months.”
YOU’VE WON THIS 18 TIMES; WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE?
“Well, can I tell you, I didn’t know if we were going to win. I didn’t know until the car came off the fourth corner. I was watching it on a monitor just like everybody else was. But I felt the fact that he couldn’t get by with about two laps to go down into 1. It seemed like he pulled out a little bit there in the draft, and I think the tires were getting — after getting in the dirty air, and I think then I saw that we had it. But going down the back straightaway, he came up on him, and the good news is that the start-finish line isn’t down in Turn 1, or it might have been a different story.”