CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
GRAND PRIX OF PORTLAND
PORTLAND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
PORTLAND, OREGON
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE QUOTES
SEPT. 4, 2022
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 FREIGHTLINER TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, RACE WINNER: “I don’t think the car really felt good in that first stint but as the race went on, it got a little bit worse. I just had to really concentrate on where I wanted the strengths of the car to be and work with those and make the best of the weaknesses. The Freightliner Chevy all weekend has been fast. It’s been right there where we needed. This team – the Thirsty Threes – got the job done in the pits, and I’m really proud of them. We did exactly what we needed to do this weekend, which was win and get max points to keep ourselves in the championship fight. Yeah we’re a longshot. I don’t care because we have a shot so I’m looking forward to it.”
COULD YOU IMAGINE YOURSELF HERE TWO YEARS AGO? “Roger (Penske) and Tim (Cindric) gave me the opportunity to come over here and I was thankful for that. It was my next step and my next challenge. I took it all very seriously and knew it was going to be hard. I thought I could one day I could win, but the ultimate is to win a championship and the (Indy) 500. I’m not going to stop until I get one of those or both. It’s a long way to climb but you have to have goals. It’s the same for everyone out there. You have to dream big and try to get it done.”
THE CHAMPIONSHIP IS STILL ALIVE: “I’m a big golf guy and the big media spot is actually at Pebble Beach so I’m really excited for that! I wanted to be in the championship fight so I can go to Pebble. It’s working out and we’re going there! I’m so excited. I think Greg (Penske) told me I could play Pebble so all good as long as I can bring some friends!”
YOU HAD ENOUGH ENERGY TO DO A FRONT SOMERSAULT! “It’s become my thing now. I don’t think I look very good doing it, but it’s a thing. Everyone has their own thing when they win and I have that. It’s a lot of fun! I’m really proud of the Freightline Chevy guys. The car was unreal and I’m really proud of the pitstops. It was a full-team effort. We came here with the belief that we could do this weekend and win like we did and get pole, and we did. I’m really proud of that.”
ON THE RESTART WITH WILL POWER AND SCOTT DIXON BEHIND: “Those are two guys you don’t really breathing down your neck. I’m really proud of the restart. I’ve worked very hard the last couple of years to learn the tire and get it ready for those restarts. Thankfully we held on. It was pretty dicey behind me. I saw in the mirrors that Will almost got taken out. It was pretty wild but that’s why we love INDYCAR racing, right?”
ON THE POINTS HEADING TO LAGUNA SECA: “It ain’t over so let’s press on!”
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED SECOND – ON TIRE CHOICES: “The red was a lot better for us. The black tire just never really came on and we never really had a good balance with it. It was a tough decision because those reds had a lot of laps on them, but I still feel like we would have been quicker over the stint. It was the right move and a good move. It would have been tough on the restart without it, so it was a good call by the guys. We had good strategy all day. If (Christian) Lundgaard hadn’t gotten us at the start, we could have had a shot at Scott. It’s another day where we did everything we could. We had a little get-together with Pato (O’Ward) so luckily that came out alright. I just want to win this championship for the guys who have been with me for more than a decade like my engineer Dave (Faustino) and my data acquisition guy Robbie (Atkinson) and the group. It’s a lot less selfish for me this time around because they deserve it. I feel their pain over the years of losing so many. I’d love to win it for them.”
A TOP-THREE FINISH DOES IT FOR THE CHAMPOINSHIP AND GOING INTO LAGUNA SECA LEADING BY 20 POINTS: “That’s very tough. Ganassi has tested there. We’re in the best position and have the best shot. We’ll do everything we can.”
PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET, FINISHED FOURTH: “We had to come out with the win to truly have a decent shot at it (the championship) headed to Laguna. We didn’t have enough for the Penske boys. All weekend they dominated everybody. I tried to make the pass on Will and we had an injured left side of the car for the rest of the race and had to nurse it from there. Graham (Rahal) was coming behind us pretty quick. We had to let (Scott) Dixon by because apparently we blocked him. I expect INDYCAR to make the same call whenever someone does that to me.”
THE FAN SUPPORT AT PORTLAND: “It’s awesome, these people. It’s not just here but a lot of them come to Long Beach and it’s awesome. Everyone from Mexico that lives here in the States come out and bring their full support. It’s awesome to see. This is what it’s all about. I’m glad we gave them a good show today.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED EIGHTH – ON THE LAST TIRE CHOICE: “I think the obvious one was that we didn’t predict the caution. There’s always the risk that a caution comes out in that final stint. I wasn’t thinking about that; we went green the entire race. I thought the primary tires would probably have better durability at the end. That argument holds up a little better with no caution. We just got hosed when we had to restart with all reds (around him). I was blown away at how much better everyone was on them, especially in the caution situations. That just did not play into our favor, unfortunately. It’s a hard day where we really gained nothing after a tough start spot. We’ll regroup and take our Team Chevy car with Hitachi to Laguna and try to be fast.”
GOING INTO THE FINALE 20 POINTS OUT OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP: “At this point, it just kind of is what it is. We’re going to try to win that race and go for broke. It’s been kind of a weird year. Everyone has done such a great job on this 2 car. I’m so proud and happy with everybody. They’ve really put a good effort together. It’s either been winning the race or some weird luck has happened. We didn’t need that yellow. Obviously it helps some people and hurts others. We just seem to be on the odd end of these things and they’re not working out. I don’t know how Laguna is going to play out. We’re going to go and play to win. We’ll see what happens.”
CALLUM ILOTT, NO. 77 JUNCOS HOLLINGER RACING CHEVROLET, FINSHED NINTH: “I’m really happy with that one. I think we maximized everything we could on the strategy we had so ended up P9. Great race with no mistakes. It was a good car and big thanks to the team. All the guys worked hard this weekend to get it a bit better after qualifying. So it was a pretty good race. We’ll move on to Laguna next week. Hopefully we can carry this momentum forward.”
FELIX ROSENQVIST, NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET – FINISHED 10TH: “We started the race really good but had a tough second stint on the primary black Firestones because we couldn’t get the tires to warm up and get going. Ultimately, we were probably on the worst strategy of the race. I think one driver did better on that strategy than us, but everyone just ate us up, track position-wise, on that second stint. We came back and finished P10 – which was decent – but a bit disappointed in that result.”
KYLE KIRKWOOD, NO. 14 SEXTON PROPERTIES AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 13TH: “Made it all 110 laps. We definitely were on the right strategy and probably just missing a little bit of pace. We ultimately finished where we started. The strategy got us forward and the pace kind of brought us back a little bit, so it ended up equal with where we started. I’m super-happy with that because we brought the car home and got some good points there ahead of the people that we need to be ahead of. You can’t be any more satisfied than that, and we’ll go into Laguna next week with heads high and hopefully finish off the season strong!”
RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 BITCOIN RACING WITH BITNILE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 20TH: “First of all, I want to apologize to Jimmie Johnson and his team, as well as my own team, for screwing that up. I thought I was fully past him, but it was bad judgment and I was not. This is definitely a hard pill to swallow because we were having a good race. I was comfortably in P9 and I think maybe a couple more positions were possible. It’s really tough. The only thing I can do now is learn from this and end the season strong at Laguna Seca. Again, I am sorry to everyone that was hurt by my mistake.”
DALTON KELLETT, NO. 4 K-LINE AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 22ND: “A bit of a tough weekend overall for us. Never seemed like we quite found the pace for the K-Line car from the start of the weekend to the race. It felt like we were kind of dealing with a bit of understeer that we couldn’t quite get rid of. During the race we were trying to make some adjustments around the stops and with the tools in the car to deal with that, but it kind of persisted throughout. So we feel like we probably needed another three- or four-tenths to be more in the mix of where we wanted to end up. But it was a good clean race. We came home without any issues and now look forward to wrapping the season up at Laguna Seca next weekend.”
CONOR DALY, NO. 20 BITNILE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 25TH: “If you’ve followed my career a long time, you know I’ve been on fire a few times. This one for some reason was weird. It felt like it was in the cockpit, and it was kind of nerve-wracking for awhile. I felt like my shoulder was burning but I could see the fire was going out so I was like, ‘Let’s just keep on going.’ I was hoping that science and wind would take care of the rest of it. It’s just such a shame. The car was really fast and I had a great start. With everyone from BitNile here, we really want to get them a good result. It’s just such a shame. So many things have been taken away from us that they’re out of our control. That was not fun but hopefully we can just finish strong at the next one.”
YOU COULD HAVE CONTINUED PHYSICALLY BUT IT JUST BURNED UP THE CLUTCH? “Yeah the clutch burned up. And we honestly had no idea how much fuel was in the car, as well. We were going to stop more and be out of contention anyway. But yeah the clutch was burnt up. Usually fire does damage, and apparently that’s what happened. It’s such a shame.”
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