CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
HONDA INDY 200 AT MID-OHIO
LEXINGTON, OHIO
TEAM CHEVY FIRESTONE FAST SIX REPORT
JULY 1, 2023
THREE CHEVYS TO START IN THE TOP-10 AT MID-OHIO SUNDAY
- Chevrolet will be represented by three drivers in the top-10 when taking the green flag in tomorrow’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, with Will Power seventh, Scott McLaughlin eighth, and Felix Rosenqvist 10th.
- Power, driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet, topped the leaderboard in second practice that kicked off Saturday morning with a fastest lap of 1:06.4905.
- Four Chevrolet drivers, including Power, Pato O’Ward (fourth), McLaughlin (sixth), and Rosenqvist (10th), represented the Bowtie brand in the NTT INDYCAR Series second practice top-10.
- Chevrolet commanded the first and second positions on the combined practice leaderboard from the first two sessions, with Team Penske’s Power, and Arrow McLaren INDYCAR’s O’Ward leading with their fastest laps of 1:06.4905 (Power, Practice 2) and 1:06.4935 (O’Ward, Practice 1), respectively.
TEAM CHEVY TOP-10 QUALIFYING RESULT:
Pos. Driver
7th Will Power
8th Scott McLaughlin
10th Felix Rosenqvist
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING (QUOTES)
Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Chevrolet at Team Penske:
“Not the day we were looking for with the PPG Chevy, and we’ll have to do a deep dive to see what we missed. It’s not ideal, for sure, but look at what Will (Power) was able to do from the back last year. No one thought he could drive to a podium, but that’s what happened. We’ll need to be super aggressive from the drop of the green. That’s what we’ll work on between now and then.”
Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Chevrolet at Team Penske:
“Overall, okay day for the Good Ranchers Chevy. A P8 starting spot for us tomorrow on race day. We’ve got a great race car. Looking forward to the race; it could be wet or dry. Could be a mix of changeable conditions and I enjoy that. There is no doubt we can win from eighth, so we’ll do our best to do that.”
Will Power, No. 12 Chevrolet at Team Penske:
“Car felt really good. It’s obviously ultra, ultra tight. Everyone in front of us are Hondas, so maybe just [this condition] is suiting their engine being very humid. I could’ve done a bit better with the tire prep on the first lap. I didn’t anticipate having to back up in [turns] 4, 5, and 6. But man, not me. I was quicker in the first round; maybe the track slowed up. That’s everything I had.”
“What am I off? Like three-tenths. I’m off not even three-tenths and I’m seventh. Just INDYCAR. It’s so bloody tough. It’s no joke. It’s great, really. Still haven’t cracked that top-six this year, if you can believe it.
Are you close enough you can find something tomorrow and contend for a win?
“I think our race car, our race, will be good. I think we had the ultimate pace as well. We had a theoretical as P3, but I just didn’t get a good enough prep lap on the tire there. Maybe we would have got through, but yeah. It’s been an interesting qualifying year for me.”
Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren INDYCAR:
I feel bad for the team. We have a really strong car but that doesn’t mean we can’t go forward tomorrow. So yeah, it was all on me there. I lost the rear and got off on an angle that I couldn’t save it. I stalled it as soon as I got into the grass. It sucks. You are taking these cars to the limit and sometimes things happen. It’s probably not the last time it’s going to happen. You just have to look forward. At least it’s not the race; it is just qualifying. The race is super, super long so we can make a lot of spots up when you have a comfortable car underneath you. We will go forward tomorrow. I have no about it. Tomorrow will be a good race for us and we’ll just we’ll just keep on pushing through cars.”
Felix Rosenqvist, No. 6 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren INDYCAR:
“A little bit bummed. Top-10, but couldn’t get my tires up to temp. I had traffic and had to follow the guys in front of me. Started my lap with cold tires. The timing wasn’t right. I had more in it. I think we had a top-six car. It’s a good starting place. It’s not bad. We’ll have to figure out how to put the car in race mode and go from there.”
Alexander Rossi, No. 7 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren INDYCAR:
“I mean really everything. I mean, we’re trying to figure it out. It’s disappointing. I don’t know that we thought we had a car for gold, but I think we should have gotten out of Q1.”
”It’s been a tough weekend. We just haven’t quite found a good balance with the car. I don’t really know what tomorrow holds from a weather standpoint or a race standpoint. It was just a disappointing day overall for everyone, and we’re going to have to be pretty aggressive with the race and strategy tomorrow.”
Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 20. Chevrolet at Ed Carpenter Racing:
“We’ve been together such a short amount of time so still obviously we’re both learning together. They’re trying to come to me and what I need grip wise. It’s still kind of the same scenario Road America. I’m just lacking mid-corner front grip which is a big lap time robber here and in this series in general on road and street circuits. We’re working on that. The good thing is we have a direction we made the car a lot better from where we started. So we’re trending in the right direction on that. Just head down, focusing on our own task list. And yeah, having a good time doing it.”
Rinus VeeKay, No. 21 Chevrolet at Ed Carpenter Racing:
“Well, I think we have a really fast race car. I finished fourth here last year. We made steps from practice to qualifying. I think we made improvements so I’m happy with that. It’s very tough out there. The track changes consistently and it’s just really hard to get it perfect. But I think we fixed our biggest troubles and balances in some corners, so I think we improved. We do want to comfortably advance, and we’re not doing that yet. But I think we have made a step. I think Ryan (Hunter-Reay) has really helped the team understand stuff better and you know, his approach is a lot different than mine. He also could be my dad, so I learned a lot from him. He has a lot of INDYCAR experience and I think that’s also helping me get more prepared for qualifying sessions and everything. So, a step in the right direction and baby steps for now, but I think the BITNILE.COM team is making good changes. Ryan (Hunter-Reay) is extremely serious. He writes everything down. Really serious and of course, he has a lot of he can take away from a team that performed really well with him with Andretti, so I think he can carry that forward with us. We’re going to make forward progress from here.”
Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Chevrolet at AJ Foyt Racing:
“Trying to go in a certain direction from practice and trying to chase a balance and we found a balance that we like but we just have zero pace. So back to the drawing board to understand why that’s happening so we can actually move through the field tomorrow. With the cars being set up the same, I think it’s very clear to see what’s wrong with them and just hope we can manage to adjust in the correct direction to find the second that we lost from practice.”
Benjamin Pedersen, No. 55 Chevrolet at AJ Foyt Racing:
“Qualifying all wrapped up and we’re just missing speed as a team. Obviously we have very similar setups to what we thought was going to be the fastest for qualifying and we’re just both struggling to make the car go fast. The feedback is very similar. The car feels pretty balanced, just struggling to get the tires activated we think and get the lap time out of it. Regardless, we’re working really hard and the race strategy tomorrow will be really exciting with weather. We’ll work hard with the whole team here and Team Chevy to be the most prepared for tomorrow.”
Callum Ilott, No. 77 Chevrolet at Juncos Hollinger Racing:
“I think the result, the position, didn’t really do us justice. We improved the car quite a lot from Practice 2. We were reasonably close to the top, but unfortunately it was a very tight group. We ended up P10 in the group. That put us back in P20. I think if I were in the other group, probably would’ve transferred to the Fast 12. It’s like that. We’ve been a bit unlucky with the group so far this year. Still a few things to improved, so we’ll see what we can do for warm up tomorrow and prepare for the race.”
About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in 79 countries with more than 3.2 million cars and trucks sold in 2020. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
