2023 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach
Streets of Long Beach
Long Beach, California
Team Chevy Qualifying Recap
April 14, 2023
PATO O’WARD LEADS CHEVROLET IN QUALIFYING FOR THE GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH
- Pato O’Ward led the Chevrolet contingent in qualifying for the Grand Prix of Long Beach behind the wheel of the No, 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet
- O’Ward sixth quickest time in the Firestone Fast Six and will roll off on the outside of the third row for the 85-lap, 167.28-mile race on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit on the Streets of Long Beach.
Team Chevy drivers starting in top-15
8th No. 2 Josef Newgarden
9th No. 3 Scott McLaughlin
10th No. 6 Felix Rosenqvist
11th No. 7 Alexander Rossi
13th No. 12 Will Power
The 85-lap, 167.28-mile race Sunday, April 16 will take the green flag at 12:45 p.m.PT/3:45 p.m. ET live on NBC.
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:
PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN CHEVROLET:
“We sold ourselves short on that first attempt in Q2, which made us put on a second set of tires to end the session which meant we wouldn’t have a fresh set for Q3. That put us at a disadvantage with some of the other guys, especially Kyle Kirkwood. In Q3, I was on a good lap, not as good as what Kirkwood threw down. I knew I would have to bring out a mega lap on used tires in order to get Kirkwood. Obviously being a racing driver, I went for it and lost a little bit of time in Turn 9 being a little greedy, but we’re starting sixth tomorrow. We’ll give ourselves a good race car and we’ll see what we can pull off tomorrow.”
FELIX ROSENQVIST, NO. 6 ARROW MCLAREN CHEVROLET:
“I think we; I mean me personally, I was way quicker on a two-lapper than a one-lapper. I mean we tried tp get it done. We put on new tires like everyone else but I think, obviously we had the best track for the session. The track is getting better and better, so it can be both a benefit and a disadvantage. I don’t know. I didn’t get the tires up to temp and it was really slippery. I gave it everything, but I was three-tenths off what I did on old tires. I wasn’t improving. I think we’ve been strong all weekend anyways. Ran it up to top-10. Not fantastic but also not terrible. Let’s see what we can do from there.”
“I think it’s fun. You really truly see the scale of the drivers when you’re put in that situation. You have one go and there’s no ifs or buts, there are, but it doesn’t matter now. The one who is the quickest is the quickest. I think that’s pretty cool; it really puts us under pressure. I think it’s more sporty.”
ALEXANDER ROSSI, NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN CHEVROLET:
”That was disappointing. I think we definitely had the potential to transfer to the Firestone Fast Six, but the timing of the red flag didn’t work out for us. Ultimately, we’re still a couple of changes away from where we want to be, but I think the team is showing good pace. We’re in a decent, acceptable spot for tomorrow, so we’ll try and make the most of it.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:
“I meant lucky because we went out early in Q1 with the greens and the track just got better. Kind of scraped by there. Obviously, we‘d do it different if we could now. Yeah, it’s just frustrating. I think there’s time in the car, I just can’t extract it. I just can’t put the lap together. Even there, I as up a couple of tenths, and I just can’t reel it off. I guess we’ll start eighth which is okay. I think we’ve got a good piece, it’s just difficult this weekend to put it all together.”
On the search for raw speed versus long-run speed in the race, how tough is that trade off on a street course like Long Beach?
“You really want both, ideally. Sometimes you don’t get to pick. Your car is an eight one way or the other. I don’t know where we’re at on long-run this weekend, but certainly on the short run, it’s just been hard to piece together.”
SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 SONSIO TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:
“Unfortunately, man I’m pissed. I’m being honest, this Sonsio Chevy feels really good. It felt really good in practice, it just I never got a lap in there. I just couldn’t get the fronts up, unfortunately. A couple of others behind us couldn’t go in front of us. We’ve got to work a little bit harder to try and figure that out. As a driver, I could do things better as well. Really proud of my Sonsio Chevy team. I think we’ve something for them tomorrow, see where we’re at.”
CALLUM ILOTT, NO. 77 JUNCOS HOLLINGER RACING CHEVROLET:
“Pretty bad day to be honest. Obviously starting from getting stuffed really by not having any knowledge of the track changes and just approaching it the same way I did before. We got better than the aspects of otherwise moving on from that not having any experience as agreed. We went into qualify with the car just wasn’t really the Liferay window managed to scrap a reasonable time out of it but it just just wasn’t ideal. So better shape from day to day the office for everyone. We were lining up quite well off yesterday. together today is a bit of a bummer but it is what it is we have to review the changes made sure on top of it tomorrow. Try and work towards that now.”
AGUSTIN CANAPINO, NO. 78 JUNCOS HOLLINGER RACING CHEVROLET:
“We had a good qualifying for my first time here, not bad-one second off of the leader. I struggled a little bit. We must take on everything with the new tires and make gain with the start of the weekend. Tomorrow, we will go for what we can to take some points.”
SANTINO FERRUCCI, NO. 14 SEXTON PROPERTIES/AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET
“Qualifying was pretty good for us only a couple tenths off we’re making into the Fast 12. So very happy with finding all the time we have hopefully we figured out that car we just need a little bit more for the race tomorrow and we’ll go from there.”
BENJAMIN PEDERSEN, NO. 55 SEXTON PROPERTIES/AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET
” Just wrapped up qualifying starting. P 23. For tomorrow, my first ever Long Beach race. Very excited. A lot can happen tomorrow. So just trying to stay clean, have a good strategy and get the most out of the car that we can. But yeah, solid progress all day just trying to get better and better and better. And yeah, looking forward to tomorrow’s race.”
CONOR DALY, NO. 20 BITNILE.COM ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET
“We did not have the speed at all today. There’s no way around it. Not really sure why both Rinus (VeeKay) and I are struggling, but we really need to make an improvement for tomorrow and just make some magic happen. Hopefully, we can take a big step forward at some point coming up soon on the schedule but for now it has been tough.”
RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 BITNILE.COM ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET
“That was a really tough qualifying session, really it has been a difficult weekend so far. I expected that we would be better and would be starting higher up tomorrow. We will analyze everything and work to get better for the race, that is
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