CHEVROLET AERO KIT INDYCAR V6 2.2 LITER
STREETS OF LONG BEACH
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRACTICE QUOTES
APRIL 17, 2015
WILL POWER, NO. 1 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FASTEST OF THE DAY): HOW WAS PRACTICE? “It was pretty good. A lot of cars were running and laying rubber, but with the new aero kits and everything, the cars were just faster. It’s always super tight around here when it gets to qualifying. The top six are usually separated by about a tenth and a half (of a second) or something. So definitely a track with a lot of corners, I don’t know why it is stacked so closely, I think that is going to be the case tomorrow. So you will have to do your homework.”
IS THERE A DIFFERENCE IN THE CAR WITHOUT THE UPPERS ON THE FRONT WING? “It is fine. We will get them back on when they are reinforced. It is no big deal…let’s not make it one.”
DID YOU HAVE TO COMPENSATE: “The crew made the right adjustments with the front wing”
HOW DO THE AERO KITS CHANGE THE WAY YOU DRIVE THIS TRACK? “The braking zones are a little shorter and you carry more speed through the fast stuff. It’s little gains on tracks like this. It’s high-speed tracks where you get the biggest gains. The faster you go, the more benefit you get from the (additional) downforce.”
WHAT MAKES THE LONG BEACH GRAND PRIX SPECIAL? “I think it is the history. It has been around time. It is a very cool setting. I love coming here. The atmosphere is great. Big crowd. Really good track, but the main thing is the history.”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 PENSKE TRUCK RENTAL CHEVROLET, 2ND FASTEST OF THE DAY: WHY IS THIS SUCH A SPECIAL RACE? “The history of this place is amazing for IndyCar. It is great to be part of it. This event is very special”
IS INDYCAR’S PROACTIVE, ONGOING REVIEW OF AERO KITS A GOOD THING? “Frankly, it’s really not my decision, it’s INDYCAR’s. For the safety of the fans, it’s great, but you’ve got to make it fair for the manufacturers as well. As long as it doesn’t slow down one manufacturer or accelerate the other one, then it just has to be fair.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 AUTOMOBILE CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: “Obviously all of the Chevrolet teams were thrown a little bit of a curveball this morning with the changes to the aero kits. We are all in the same boat on that and we will make the best of it. The four Team Penske Chevrolets are still very fast, at the top of the speed charts. We collected a lot of information in the first practice about how the downforce changed and we made some really good changes for the second session. We are still improving it and have another session tomorrow to make the No. 3 Automobile Club of Southern California Chevy better before qualifying.”
SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET. 4TH FASTEST: “We started out the day really good with a lot of speed in the Target car. Unloading fast on a street course is always crucial as qualifying can really make or break you on a weekend like this. I was happy with the balance of the car overall, and we worked on getting the car ready for qualifying tomorrow. The whole Target Chip Ganassi Racing team has been working hard and we’ll stay after it heading into tomorrow.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, 5th FASTEST: “I was really happy with the No. 2 Verizon Chevy in the first practice. It had a lot of speed. We made a few changes for the second practice and it just didn’t respond like we hoped, but we have a pretty good car and we have something we can work with. Qualifying is going to be very important for us. We’ve made a lot of strides in that area this year and I’m confident that we can get a good starting spot tomorrow afternoon.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 67 HARTMAN OIL CFH RACING CHEVROLET, 6TH FASTEST: “I think we’re finding our way. We started a little rough and were a little lost in the first session. We’re one of the best groups at recovering and I had a lot of faith in my guys. They’re very good at figuring it out and we recovered well in the second session. We’re a still a little on the back foot, when you roll off and you’re not great in session one you have a lot of catching up to do. We are still battling that right now and we’re much better, but we still need to find more.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO.11 TEAM HYDROXYCUT KVSH RACING CHEVROLET, 8TH FASTEST: “Obviously I’m disappointed. We are not where we want to be or thought we would be. The Hydroxcut – KVSH Racing team has a lot of work to do. We have to sit down and review all the date, keep our noses to the grindstone and keep working hard. The good news is we have another practice session tomorrow before qualifying and I am confident we will come up with something to make the car faster.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 83 NOVOLOG FLEXPEN CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, 12TH FASTEST: “We were pretty disappointed with the first practice session. We just didn’t quite get the lap time we thought we were capable of getting. Going into the second practice session we had a lot of gains to make. We found some good time and ended up knocking on the door of the top 10 in 12th. We need to definitely find that time in the No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen Chevrolet tonight to break into the top 10. We have some improvements we need to make to the car and I have some things I need to work on before qualifying tomorrow.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, 14TH FASTEST: “It was a great day to be outside running on the streets of Long Beach – definitely better weather than last weekend. We had a solid first session and then we used the second session to work on a few things we needed to look at. The car feels really good, but we definitely have some things to work on tonight to make sure we’re ready for quals tomorrow night.”
STEFANO COLETTI, NO. 4 KV RACING TECHNOLOGY CHEVROLET, 15TH FASTEST: “It wasn’t really the result we were hoping for. We struggled to find grip and pace from the car, but I’ll sit down with my engineers tonight and we will make some changes for tomorrows session. I really liked the track though. Its a lot of fun to drive and some great passing zones. Hopefully tomorrow I can have a good qualifying and then a good race on Sunday.”
SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA, NO. 8 AFS CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, 16TH FASTEST: “It’s good to be back here in the Verizon IndyCar Series. I was just knocking off the rust and getting comfortable today really. The AFS car is looking good and I’m happy to be here. From what I’ve seen the last few races the level of competition is very high. You really can’t make any mistakes out there and it’s such a tough series. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and seeing what the No. 8 team can do.”
LUCA FILIPPI, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA CFH RACING CHEVROLET, 20TH FASTEST: “It was a tough day for us. We had a lot to learn; myself, I had to learn the circuit. From the set up point of view, we’re still exploring this new aerokit and working towards the best drivability for me. We are not where we wanted to be in terms of lap times, but Josef (Newgarden) proved that our car can be fast. The pack is so tight, tomorrow is going to be very tough qualifying. It will be important to have a fast lap to be able start at the front.”
