CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
BOMMARITO AUTOMOTIVE GROUP 500
GATEWAY MOTORSPORTS PARK
MADISON, ILLINOIS
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER
POST RACE QUOTES
AUGUST 25, 2018
DRIVER QUOTES:
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – RACE WINNER
YOU BROUGHT IT HOME WITH YOUR 35TH CAREER VICTORY AND THIRD WIN OF THE SEASON.
THAT WAS SUCH A TOUCH-AND-GO SCENARIO. FIRST, THEY TOLD YOU TO SAVE FUEL. THEN THEY SAID TO GO FOR IT. DID YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHEN THEY PULLED THE PLUG THAT IT WAS GOING TO WORK FOR A VICTORY?
“Well, I was seeing the numbers and I was like man, everyone is going to have to go very slow to get it. And I thought we should go; and Roger (Penske) just said, go, so we did. We had a great car. I was kind of mad at (Scott) Dixon because he pushed me up into the marbles, so it gave me extra motivation to like get him back and get to the front. I’m stoked with the Verizon crew. Man, whew, I’ve had so much fun. I passed so many cars.”
WHAT ABOUT A RACE LIKE THIS WHERE YOU HAVE TO MAKE THAT DECISION BECAUSE FUEL SAVING RACING SOMETIMES CAN BE BORING. BUT THEY SET YOU LOOSE, WHICH IS ALMOST LIKE A DREAM COME TRUE. SOME PEOPLE ARE SAVING AND THEY SAY, WILL, LET’S PUT THE HAMMER DOWN
“Exactly, I was just so like ah, come on. I was so stoked when they said let’s just go hard, because we were able to get by people before that and it was so much fun when you can just go wide-open. Yeah, I hate fuel-saving.”
YOU HAD A BIG MOMENT WHEN YOU GOT HIGH EARLY IN THE RACE AND INTO THE MARBLES AND BARELY SAVED IT. HOW MUCH OF AN ISSUE WAS THAT?
“Yeah, I had a couple of them. I tried to go around the outside of (Scott) Dixon and he kind of ran me wide into the marbles, so it was just so slippery up there that you couldn’t get up there. But, I kept it off the wall this time, so yeah, fantastic job.”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – FINISHED 4TH
WHEN YOU GOT OUT OF THE CAR, YOU SAID THAT WAS A ROCKET! WHAT MORE DID YOU HAVE FOR THEM TONIGHT?
“I think we had a winning car. When Will (Power) passed me, I was saving fuel and I tried to hold the high lane. It didn’t work. So, we lost about, I don’t know, six or seven positions. But we came back because the car was so good. What a shame. But, in the meantime, I had a blast. There was some awesome racing out there, especially at the end. With the strategies, I think it just threw a curve for everybody and made the racing really good at the end. So, I think we had a winning car. But, that’s good. That’s really good. My guys did a phenomenal job in pit lane.
“Hats off to the Menards Chevy crew for phenomenal pit stops all day. Ben (Bretzman), my engineer, last night just went through everything, seven years back. We figured out what I needed from the car. I think I had the best car tonight. Just made a mistake when Will (Power) went by me and I went high in Turn 1 and lost probably six positions. If it wasn’t for that, I think we would have been on the top spot. It was a good race, I really had a lot of fun. Great racing and the strategy at the end made it a lot of fun for everybody.”
WE ARE COMING UP ON TWO ROAD COURSE RACES, HOW CAN SOMETHING YOU LEARNED HERE TRANSLATE TO THERE?
“Well, I think we’re learning every time we get in this new car. But, Portland is good. We have a test on Thursday, so we’re going to be able to do a lot of development items that we’ve been thinking about and that’s going to be very welcome and hopefully will get me more competitive on the road course, I’m sure. We’ll find a way. These guys at Penske are phenomenal. I love working with them and they give me everything I need.”
SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 21 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET – FINISHED 6TH
SOME HAD YOU PICKED FOR THE RACE WIN FOR A LITTLE BIT THERE, BUT YOU HAD TO HAVE THAT LAST SPLASH OF FUEL. WHAT WENT WRONG?
“I don’t know if anything went wrong. I don’t know if we were ever going to be able to make it. I think that was always the plan. And we were just going flat-out, as fast as we could go, to try and make up as much track position as possible. The guys did a great job in pit lane and got me out quick. We were able to hang on to sixth, so I’m really happy with that for the Fuzzy’s Vodka #21 Chevy. But yeah, sorry guys. I would have liked to win but I think sixth is pretty solid compared to how the beginning of the race went.”
WE WATCHED YOU BATTLE IT OUT WITH ALEXANDER ROSSI AND PASS HIM, AND YOU STILL GOT ON TO YOUR SECOND-BEST FINISH OF YOUR INDYCAR CAREER. THAT’S GOT TO FEEL GREAT
“Yeah, it feels good. I think we’ve for sure come a long way this year, especially on short ovals. We think back to Phoenix, where we really struggled; but the last couple have been really solid. So, I think this team has a lot of good things going for us, and hopefully we can end the season on a high-note as well.”
“We definitely got stronger throughout the race. The guys made some good changes for me during the stops and they were good pit stops as well. We were able to jump some people on the pit cycles which was great. The last 80 laps were a lot of fun. There were people on different strategies and we were just going flat out, going as quickly as possible and pass as many people as we could. It was a lot of fun with so many close battles and a lot of dicing. I am happy to have finished 6th from where we started. It’s a shame we didn’t get to qualify, it would have been nice to try and start a little higher up! Overall, I’m really happy with the result and for my Fuzzy’s Vodka guys!”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 VERIZONTEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 7TH: “Tough night. We kept in it, we tried to make the most of it. We just lost too many positions there at the end. The whole race long we just didn’t get the timing right. We got caught out in a couple of different times. Will got stuck up in the gray and we lost some speed when we caught him and lost a couple of spots there. We tried to make a fuel number there at the end, and it ended up biting us. We worked hard. We had great pit stops; the guys did a great job. We just couldn’t get the timing right tonight and had to settle for the Verizon Chevy finishing seventh. But we have a car in one piece so we go on to Portland and try and redeem ourselves.”
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 12TH: “I was hoping for a little better night! I just didn’t have a very good balance on cold tires and I lost too many positions at the start of the race. After the first stop, we went long with everyone else. We didn’t really feel like we were going to get it done doing that, so we started short pitting and trying to get track position with quick lap times. I feel like we would have been inside the Top 10 if a.) I could have stayed in front of Will (Power) on the lead lap, or b.) that yellow didn’t come out. That’s just the way it goes when you go with that strategy when you pit early; that’s what you put yourself at risk for. I’d hoped to put the Fuzzy’s Vodka car on the podium again for my last race of the season but it didn’t work out that way! On the other hand. Spencer (Pigot) had a really good drive and continues to show well the second half of the season. Hopefully, my ‘children’ can do well at Portland and Sonoma and give ECR a good finish to the season.”
TONY KANAAN, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 13TH: “We gambled with the strategy and it didn’t work out. I’m disappointed because the No. 14 ABC Supply was fast all night and we were running in the Top-10 when we got caught out by that yellow.”
MATHEUS LEIST, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 16TH: “Very difficult race, very tough to run in traffic. Most of the race we were trying to figure out what to do to run faster. I was playing with my tools inside the car, bars and weight jacker. At end of day I think it was a good race, we made some improvements throughout the weekend which is good so we’re getting there. The pit stops were good so good job to all my team, the guys have been working hard since day 1. The ABC car was good. Thanks to all the fans that came here tonight. Now onto Portland.”
MAX CHILTON, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET, FINISHED 17TH: “That was another long, hard-fought race for the No. 59 Gallagher Chevrolet and the whole Carlin team. It was going to be challenging for us to improve too much no matter how the race played out, just with it being so difficult to pass and us starting so far back on entrant points. I’d say we’re still not where we want to be as far as results, but on a positive note we have another oval race worth of experience that we can build on for next year.”
GABBY CHAVES, NO. 88 HARDING GROUP HARDING RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 18TH: “I’m really gutted tonight because we had a really fantastic and competitive race car. We worked our way on track and we easily should have been a top ten finish car. I’m not sure what happened, I think it was into our third or fourth stint. Everything was fine, I went into turn one and felt the car bottom out a little bit and just went completely straight off the track, came off the corner, and had a lot of slack on the wheel. I thought that something was for sure damaged. Unfortunately, I came into the pits and we looked at it and didn’t find anything, so I went back out to finish the race. We had such a good car, I’m really gutted how it ended because it could have been so much better.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 23 TRESIBA CARLIN CHEVROLET, FINISHED 19TH: “I’ve said it all year and I’ll continue to say it, I’m really proud of these Carlin guys. We fought the balance and when I was pushing on an out lap, I tagged the wall and bent a toe link. The guys had never done a hot change like that in a race in the pits, but they made the repair and sent me back out with a car that was still just as rock solid as it’d been before. We’ve got a lot to learn not just with pace, but also with what we can do in traffic and how to be a little bit more competitive. I think the highlight for the night for us as a team is how the guys did in the pits. We’ll learn from tonight, like we always do, and be better next time.”
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