CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
STREETS OF ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE QUOTES
MARCH 10, 2019
DRIVER QUOTES:
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER:
WHAT A BIG WIN FOR YOU AND TEAM PENSKE. YOU START 2019 THE RIGHT WAY HERE IN VICTORY LANE AT ST. PETE. TALK ABOUT HOW YOU AND TIM CINDRIC FLIP THE TRACK POSITION AND ALSO HOW KEY WAS THAT RUN ON THE REDS TO MAKE A GAP ON SCOTT DIXON
“We were literally talking about it right before the race. We were trying to figure out should we go used or new reds and we made the call at the last minute was to stay used. We’ll have that advantage if we need it, and we used it. It just worked out perfectly. I just can’t thank Chevy enough for all their support and what they put in this weekend. We had an incredible engine, we had everything we needed in fuel mileage and reliability and all the power. I’m telling you, we really figured things out on Saturday and it was a rocket ship. I’m so thankful to our group. We have the best of the best working at Team Penske.”
DURING THE OFF-SEASON, YOU SAID STREET COURSES WERE THE NUMBER ONE PRIORITY. IT LOOKS LIKE YOU’VE FIGURED THAT OUT
“Well, we’ve started on the right foot, for sure. I think we made a big step. We felt positive about the step that we made, so I’m really looking forward to the rest of the year. At street courses I think we feel better on. We’ve got to convert that to road courses now at COTA and then obviously, Indianapolis is going to be a priority. Let’s see where we’re at a little later on in the year.”
HOW TOUGH WAS THAT LAPPED TRAFFIC TODAY? YOU HAD TO USE A LOT OF PUSH-TO-PASS TO GET AROUND THEM
“I’m telling you! It was definitely manufacturers playing good guys with each other, but it was really tough. I just didn’t want to see people in front of me. I wanted to keep running my laps. I knew I had the pace to keep in front of Scott (Dixon), but I was just worried about something going wrong. And when you have that many cars in front that can happen. But, everyone was kind enough, I would say. It was still hard, but kind enough.”
ROGER PENSKE, TEAM OWNER: “It’s always great to have so much success on the track, especially to start the season. We’ve had a strong start with our NASCAR program and locking Brad and Joey into the playoffs. And getting two early wins with our Supercar program and the new Mustang has been great for our group in Australia.
“Now to come out here and have a pole with Will, sweep the front row and win the race with Josef is a great way to start our season on the INDYCAR side with Chevrolet. Next week, we will be at Sebring and try to get our ACURA Team Penske program in victory lane in the historic 12 hours race.
“But we need to keep looking out the windshield. The competition in all these series is strong and they will keep improving. So we need to keep pushing. There is a long season ahead of us.”
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 3RD: HEAD OF THE RACE, YOU SAID HEY, IF YOU’RE NOT GOING TO WIN THIS ONE, AT LEAST COME AWAY WITH A GOOD SOLID POINTS DAY. SO, WAS IT MISSION ACCOMPLISHED?
“Yeah, it was definitely a lot better points day than I’ve had in the past two years so I’m really happy about that. We put ourselves in a tough position pitting early there. We had not defense. And really, me losing that position on the restart, I was stuck. I couldn’t pull the gap to negate the cold tire penalty because I was pitting early. I just kind of did my best to maintain a third place finish. That was as much as we could do in that situation. We got more points than in the last two years, so we’re in the game.”
IT GOT RACEY BETWEEN YOU AND SCOTT DIXON BUT HE SAID HE THOUGHT THE RACING WAS CLEAN BETWEEN THE TWO OF YOU. DID YOU ENJOY THAT?
“Yeah, that was good clean racing. Man, he was so good off that last corner, I was surprised. He got a run on me and we were wheel-to-wheel there for a bit. It was good racing for sure.”
IT WAS A GOOD DAY FOR TEAM PENSKE. HOW DOES THAT SET THE TONE FOR TEAM PENSKE?
“NASCAR and now IndyCar shows how strong the team is, and Chevrolet. They’ve done a great job with the engines. When I think about it, we’ve done a lot of work for street courses in the off-season and that’s paid off.”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 7TH: “I had a fantastic time out there, the Menards Chevy was phenomenal today. It was really unfortunate we didn’t have an opportunity to put a lap down in qualy yesterday which put us way back on the starting grid. Being able to come up through the field with this high level of competition was pretty amazing. The No. 22 crew was on it today making great calls and executing fast pit stops. We’re off to a great start for 2019.”
SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 21 ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 11TH: “Overall, it was a fairly frustrating first half of the race. I got shuffled back at the start and we really didn’t find our groove until later on. After that, we were able to make up some ground and gain some positions. Overall, we definitely have come away with a lot of things in mind to improve on for next time out at COTA. I appreciate all the support from Autogeek and my guys, we’ll try our best to fight up higher on the grid in a couple of weeks.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 15TH: “Tough race for us. We didn’t have the pace today. I mean we tried. We had a pretty good start and then we caught a yellow that we didn’t need. It was one of those days nothing goes right. Once we got going we definitely didn’t have the pace to fight with those guys so we just settled in. We needed a finish. Tough day.”
MAX CHILTON, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET, FINISHED 16TH: “It was a very long day, but it was nice to finish on a high, if you can call it a high. On our last stint the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet showed good pace and good fuel save, but the weekend just didn’t go where we wanted it to. I made a mistake halfway through the race and went into the run-off area, but we got back going fairly quickly and only lost one spot. The second half of the race was actually pretty decent, but to get a good result here you have to get to the the front and stay at the front to have a good race.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 23 TRESIBA CARLIN CHEVROLET, FINISIHED 17TH: “It was a disappointing result from a day with a lot of promise, but I can’t thank the No. 23 crew enough. The No. 23 Tresiba® Carlin Chevrolet was quick all day carrying over from qualifying yesterday. We just got caught out and knocked the front flap off on one of those restarts. Even though the restarts are pretty frantic, you really have to make the most of them with it being so hard to pass around here. It was just unfortunate. We had to come in and change the front wing putting us a lap down, but we kept fighting and learned a lot about the car and what we need to do on the next street circuit.”
BEN HANLEY, BEN, NO. 81 10 STAR DRAGONSPEED CHEVROLET, FINISHED 18TH:
ED JONES, NO. 20 ED CARPENTER RACING SCUDERIA CORSA CHEVROLET, FINISHED 21ST: “It’s been a frustrating weekend so far. We had the pace to be at the front in qualifying. Then today, the guys gave me a great race car. We had to take risks to get forward quickly. I made it from 16th to ninth, then I just tried to get a run on (James) Hinchcliffe and unfortunately I clipped the inside wall in Turn 9 and that was it. I’m sorry for the team, they did great work and they deserved a better result.
MATHEUS LEIST, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 22ND: “Unfortunately not the ideal race that we wanted. I ended up hitting the 20 car on the restart, so another bad race here in St. Pete but it is what it is. Sometimes it’s just not your day and you’ve gotta keep working hard for the next one, so looking forward to the next one in COTA now.”
