Josef Newgarden and Sage Karam Earn Podium Finishes for Team Chevy at Iowa

Juan Pablo Montoya Maintains Point Lead after Early Race Crash

NEWTON, Iowa (July 18, 2015) – Josef Newgarden earned his third podium finish of the season piloting his No. 67 Wichita State University CFH Racing Chevrolet to a runner-up finish in the Iowa Corn Indy 300 at Iowa Speedway. Fellow Team Chevy driver Sage Karam earned his first career Verizon IndyCar Series podium with a third place effort in the No. 8 Comfort Revolution/Big Machine Records Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.

Newgarden was leading late in the 300-lap/268.2-mile race in his Chevrolet Aero Kit with fully integrated V6 2.2-liter, twin-turbocharged, directed injected powered machine and looked to be on his way to his third victory of the season. However, the 24-year-old was unable to hold off a hard charging Ryan Hunter-Reay (Honda) on the final restart and had to settle for second to claim his third podium of the season.

Verizon IndyCar Series rookie, Karam pitted under the final caution taking on fresh Firestone rubber. He charged up through the field in the closing laps to earn a career-best finish of third in his Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.

Veteran series oval track specialist Ed Carpenter earned a sixth-place finish in the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Award-Winning Vodka CFH Racing Chevrolet. Sebastien Bourdais, No. 11Team Mistic E-Cigs – KVSH Racing Chevrolet, Will Power, No. 1 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet and Iowa pole-sitter, Helio Castroneves, No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet finished ninth, 10th and 11th respectively – giving Team Chevy six of the top 11 finishers overall.

Juan Pablo Montoya entered the race at Iowa Speedway with a 54 point lead in the championship standings. On lap 11 an on-track incident ended the race early for the driver of the No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. This is the first hiccup for Montoya since his championship campaign began as he hoisted the winner’s trophy on the Streets of St. Petersburg. However, as other championship contenders stumbled as the race progressed, Montoya emerges from Iowa with a 42 point advantage with only three races remaining.

Montoya was not the only Team Chevy driver to experience disappointment at Iowa. Scott Dixon, No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, experienced a mechanical issue late in the race, but the team was able to find and eradicate the issue and return to the race multiple laps down and was relegated to a 18th-place finish. His teammate Tony Kanaan who led 70 laps, appeared to be one of the drivers to beat for the win in his No. 10 Fusion Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, but was forced to retire from the race early with a mechanical issue.

Next on the schedule will be Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on August 2, 2015. Live television coverage provided by CNBC. Fans can listen on the IndyCar Radio Network, Sirius 212, XM 209, IndyCar.com, indycarradio.com and on the INDYCAR 15 app.

An interview with: Josef Newgarden (CFH Racing) and Sage Karam (Chip Ganassi Racing Teams)
Iowa Corn 300 Post-Race at Iowa Speedway – Saturday, July 18, 2015

THE MODERATOR: We’ll go ahead and get started with our Verizon IndyCar Series post-race press conference. We’re pleased to be joined by Josef Newgarden, our second-place finisher in tonight’s race.
This is Josef’s fifth career podium finish, also his third in 2015. Josef, I know it’s not the way you wanted it to end, but another strong finish for you at Iowa Speedway, which was the site of your first career podium finish last year. How did things come around full circle?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: First oval. It was a great night, really. All in all, it was really a great night. I feared at the end if we were in a shootout, we were behind, we weren’t leading, it was going to be really difficult, and it was.
I think I probably needed another 20 laps or so, some lapped traffic, I think I could have done something with Ryan (Hunter-Reay), but it was really tough. It was pedal to the metal there. Couldn’t do anything with him.
But we had a great race car. It was handling like a dream. I didn’t have to do anything to it. We tuned on it all night. Easy to get through traffic, easy to drive, not super physical because it worked really well.

So you can’t complain. I was so thankful to be in that car, that the team lets me get in and drive that thing. We’ve got a great group of owners, engineers, mechanics. It’s a solid effort. I’m really proud with the podium finish.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Josef.

Q. Maybe I’m wrong, but at the end I had the impression you could not close the gap to Hunter-Reay, but in the beginning you were fast. What was the reason for that?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’m not sure. I was flat out at the end. I couldn’t even close on him. I couldn’t do anything. So I tried as much as I could to shorten up my line, try to make some gains on him.

He wasn’t really coming back to me. That’s why I was hoping we would get some traffic. I was fast in front of him. For the most part, I had to work really hard to keep him behind me. He was faster than me. I was still flat out in front of him at that point.

It was tough. He seemed like he had some speed. I think the handling in our race car was the best tonight. Did an amazing job. All our partners worked really hard. Chevy gave us everything we needed for tonight. We just came up short. I think we still had a winning race car, but we just didn’t get it done. I think the Firestones were awesome, too. They just hung in like a dream. I was flat for a whole stint, so it was really great.
THE MODERATOR: Joined also now by Sage Karam. Sage, I know you’ve been chipping away throughout the season trying to get onto the podium. How does it feel to finally get that first podium finish?

SAGE KARAM: It feels really good. This is a track that’s always been really good to me. I had a lot of confidence coming in here. We had a lot of momentum. The team, we’re really starting to gel with each other.

But the goal of this weekend wasn’t really to get on the podium or anything, it was to help (teammate Scott) Dixon out as much as we could, try to get him in the points lead. I was running in fourth or fifth, right behind him for most of the race. I was content with just sitting there, trying to be a cushion for him. Then once he blew up or had a mechanical failure, I was going for the win there.

I think we had a really, really fast car, too. It seemed like I had the fastest car on the track. The only negative thing about the race I would say was the lapped traffic respect. They’re racing the leaders a little too hard, I think. But that’s racing.
We got stuck in the middle there on the restart, fell from third to sixth, made it back up to third. Running down the leaders, just ran out of laps.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Josef and Sage.

Q. Josef, another second-place finish in Iowa. Is this one more satisfying than last year?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: That’s a tough question. Yes and no. I think this is probably more of a true second place than last year. I won’t sugarcoat last year. We definitely got lucky with the tires. We executed well, but we got lucky. We weren’t a second-place car last year.

Tonight, we were a winning car, I think, so to finish second was bittersweet. For sure, I think it was very deserved for the team. They put a top-class race car out there. I was very satisfied with that. I think the team can be, too. It’s kind of a toss-up. It’s more satisfying, but it’s dissatisfying with the car we had not to win.
Q. Sage, talk about your drive to get to third place at the end of the race there.

SAGE KARAM: I knew we had a good car. When we were sitting there under yellow, my team was relaying information to me. My lap times were quicker than anyone else in front of me. I thought I really had a good chance of winning the race.

I just thought the two lapped cars on the restart were going to pull over and let the leaders battle it out there with 30 laps to go, but they didn’t. I got stuck, let the leaders get too far away, fell back to fifth or sixth. The car was so good, we were able to run (Carlos) Muñoz down, Graham (Rahal). I don’t know who I passed. We were able to run them down, make up the positions, get on the podium.

Q. Sage, before Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon retired, it looked like all three cars had the same speed. How identical was your setup?

SAGE KARAM: Between all four cars, I think the only difference was maybe our right rear spring by like 50 pounds. I mean, the cars were so, so identical. I was looking at the sheets, actually, before the race. I think Tony or Scott started out with a little bit more front aero than me. I was debating doing it, but glad I didn’t. The car was pretty loose to begin with.

The cars were really, really identical. The cars were really good. I think our team was the strongest here today. It’s just unfortunate that my teammates had bad luck.

Q. Sage, when I was talking to you on pit lane, you were talking about how bumpy it was in the turns, in the inside lane. With the car moving around the way it did at the end of the race, is it almost impossible to keep in the lane there?
SAGE KARAM: With new tires, you can keep it down a little bit better. But it definitely gets harder.
When you go to pass people late in the race, they pin you down to the apron, keep you pinned down, you drift up, racing for position. They get mad you came up on them. They pinned you down. They know it’s going to happen. It’s just racing.

The track is a lot different than when I was here in 2013. I don’t remember those bumps in (Turns) 3 and 4. I think the bumps made this place really physical for me, the Gs. I think with like 50 laps to go, I radioed in and told my team I needed a massage after this because my arms were about to fall off. I can’t feel my left hand right now, it’s completely numb. I think that’s just from the bumps shaking the wheel.