CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF MONTEREY
WEATHERTECH RACEWAY LAGUNA SECA
MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA
TEAM CHEVY RACE REPORT
JUNE 23, 2024
ALEXANDER ROSSI AND ARROW MCLAREN PUT CHEVROLET ON THE PODIUM AT WEATHERTECH RACEWAY LAGUNA SECA IN THIRD
Chevrolet Finished the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey with Five in the Top-10
- Alexander Rossi, driver of the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, finished third, giving Chevrolet a podium finish in the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
- Rossi’s third-place podium finish was Chevrolet’s fifth since the NTT INDYCAR SERIES’ return to Laguna Seca in 2019.
- Rossi, along with Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden, combined to lead 15 laps in today’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey. Chevrolet has led 65 laps total in the five races held at Laguna Seca in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES since the 2019 return.
- Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay, driver of the No. 21 Chevrolet, topped the mid-day warm-up session with his fastest lap of 1:08.4096 seconds. Chevrolet finished the 30-minute session with four in the top-10.
- Up next, Team Chevy and the rest of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES head to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sunday, July 7. Broadcast for the 80-lap, 180.64-mile event at the 2.258-mile, 13-turn natural terrain road course takes the green flag live on NBC at 1:30 p.m. ET.
TEAM CHEVY TOP-10 RACE RESULT:
Pos. Driver
3rd Alexander Rossi
4th Romain Grosjean
7th Will Power
8th Pato O’Ward
9th Santino Ferrucci
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING (QUOTES):
Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet:
“Another top-10. Honestly, we’re kind of on a streak right now. If it wasn’t, obviously, for the hiccup at Road America. Pretty bummed in myself. I feel like I let the guys down with the blocking penalty. I think we missed out on a chance to get a little closer to the top-five. The good thing is, we’re on a roll right now. We’ve got solid momentum. We’ll work on getting qualifying up, and it’ll be there.”
Sting Ray Robb, No. 41 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet:
“Well, what was a terrible day, but considering all things, I think that we came out decent. This morning really set us back. My mistake there in warm-up, putting it in the wall, that was impressive for the team to put the car back together that quick. I definitely owe them a dinner and a few drinks. Super proud of them, super thankful for them. They work so hard, and I’m happy that we were able to get back out there for the race. The race didn’t really go as we wanted but considering the scramble ahead of the race to get the car back together, I think that it was pretty good. The Goodheart Chevy felt pretty good.”
Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:
“It was another P8 for us, a hard-fought P8. We just couldn’t really make the strategy work there. It was just a really tough race, to be honest. There are nine races to go, so there are plenty of points left on the table.”
Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:
“All done with my first race at Arrow McLaren. P23 to P12, securing the biggest mover of the race, so overall, I think it was a successful day. It wasn’t without its challenges, but everyone pushed through and kept at it all race long. We were able to make up a ton of spots at the end there. I’m really happy with the No. 6 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. The car was truly the best it’s been all weekend, and it was really fast all day. A lot of this was because of the pit stops that the crew did and the strategy that was called. I’m grateful for my crew and can’t wait to work with them more in the future.”
Alexander Rossi, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:
THE 26 AND 10 WERE GOOD TODAY, BUT YOU GUYS WERE BEST IN SHOW. I THINK THIS WAS A GOOD DAY FOR YOU GUYS. YOU EXECUTED THE BEST YOU COULD AND CAME AWAY WITH THE GOOD RESULT. IS THAT HOW IT FEELS TO YOU?
“I think that is a fair assessment. I feel like before the yellow, we were quite good up front. But then you get into a fuel save race and it’s a little bit difficult. Nonetheless, it was an amazing job by the team and obviously our best result of the year. So, we will take the positives from that. You know it’s a great job by Pato (O’Ward) and Nolan (Siegel) as well, so we will just keep hammering. It’s a good bounce back from the difficulties in Road America and we look forward to taking that to Mid-Ohio.”
HOW DO YOU BUILD ON THIS MOVING FORWARD?
“I think it is just understanding why we were good. It is always easy to Monday morning quarterback when you are bad, but believe it or not, it’s a little bit harder to understand when you are good. So, we will just keep working at it and overall the McLaren group is doing a good job, Team Chevy is doing a good job, so we will keep hammering.”
Gavin Ward, Team Principal at Arrow McLaren:
“It’s hard to be upset with a podium, but we’re kind of upset with this podium. Alexander and the No. 7 crew deserved to win until that caution mixed things up. It’s a tough call at that point; it splits the field in half. You could go either way and never know where the cautions fall from there. They did the best they could from there to bring home a podium. It was a difficult day, a day of perseverance for the No. 5 crew and Pato. They brought home a top 10 and kept their composure. There was a lot of learning for the No. 6 car with Nolan. He was the biggest mover and top-finishing rookie. He had a great recovery, and I’m happy with how everyone kept their cool with that mid-race spin. The pace was there and that gave us options. A lot of other people made bigger mistakes today, so I’m pretty happy overall.”
Christian Rasmussen, No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet:
“Pretty good start of the race, I thought. We were moving forward on the red tires. I think what held us back a little bit in this race was the stint on black tires. That didn’t really go our way. But overall, from a messy race, from everyone’s perspective, our own included, a pretty solid result with a 13th place finish. Happy about that. I think there was probably more in it just eliminating some mistakes we had in the race. And then especially the drive-through (penalty) held us back a little bit. Overall, pretty happy with the result with how messy of a race that was.”
Rinus VeeKay, No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet:
“Just a really unfortunate day. I was feeling good after the warm up session and confident in the changes we had made to improve the car. Unfortunately, the bad luck continued and we had a failure within the gearbox. We will try again in Mid-Ohio!”
Romain Grosjean, No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet:
“A great result for all of us. I think yesterday in qualifying. I think we had a lot more than we could show and I think today, we also had a bit more we wanted. One set of tires was a bit strange in the middle stint that cost us quite a bit of time. On the last stint, sadly there were too many safety cars. I knew the deg was on our side, and we didn’t have much problem with that. I knew I could catch at least (Alexander) Rossi, maybe (Colton) Herta. We spent most of the stint under yellow, but it is what it is. Very happy for the whole team, for Chevy, and for myself. It was a tough one. I’ll tell you, the car was hard to drive, but I think for everyone it’s hard to drive. Saw a lot of guys going off, and it was a tough race. Happy where we are. We’ll keep going.”
“What a good race. I think we knew we had a fast race car, but it was a tough race and we saw a few people going off (track) a few times. I went off myself a few times. It was very physical, very hard, but I think we did an amazing job with Chevy and the whole team all weekend. I am very proud of everyone. It was very close to the podium, but a little bit too many safety cars at the end because I was on blacks, and I knew I didn’t have much tack. I was coming for (Alexander) Rossi. We are good friends, so it is all good anyway. A fantastic job by everyone and we keep working and we keep getting better. I think that is good for all of us and I think we scored the first points for Chevy today, so we are happy with that.”
Will Power, No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet:
“Laguna Seca (is) done. Finished P7. Went all the way from the back. Had a bad first lap, was last. Went back up to sixth, went back to 10th, had a couple of people with late restarts. Still a good recovery day. When you can make the most of those bad days, it’s good stuff for the points. It’ll be a tight battle to the end but we’ll keep digging in the Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet.”
ALEXANDER ROSSI, NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN CHEVROLET – Podium Press Conference:
THE MODERATOR: Good evening, everyone. Wrapping up this year’s Firestone Grand Prix at Monterey, Laguna Seca.
Alexander Rossi, who led 10 laps today, driver of the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. Best-ever finish at Laguna Seca, kind of his home track-ish.
THE MODERATOR: As well, Alexander Rossi coming home third. Your thoughts on kind of a crazy race strategy-wise today?
ALEXANDER ROSSI: Yeah, I mean, I think it was a good day for the organization. I think our pace out front, pushing, was certainly better than what we could do once it kind of switched to a fuel race.
Nonetheless, it was a great job by the team all around to manage a difficult race with the strategy flipping back and forth. Kind of wild there with all the restarts at the end.
Yeah, ultimately we’ll take a lot of positives from this weekend and build on it going into Mid-Ohio where we’re starting a whole new wild, crazy, unknown era of hybrids.
THE MODERATOR: The countdown is on. We’ll open it up for questions.
Q. Alex, how good does it feel to be back on a podium?
ALEXANDER ROSSI: Oh, good.
Q. Just pretty good?
ALEXANDER ROSSI: Very good, yes (smiling). Much good.
Q. Did it feel much good to lead laps and be in contention?
ALEXANDER ROSSI: Yes.
I think we were able to just start strong this weekend. Obviously qualifying was strong for us. We know how important qualifying is to get a good result in this championship. We knew we had a good shot at it today.
I was glad we were able to manage the race and have good pace kind of in all phases. It was a welcome change of pace. Hopefully it gives us a good foundation, good framework to go forward for what few road courses we have left in the year.
Q. Alex Palou has won twice at this track, four podiums in four career starts. What is it about Laguna Seca that fits his style?
ALEXANDER ROSSI: I mean, he’s won at a lot of tracks. I don’t think it’s necessarily this one.
I think it’s a track where you kind of, even with the repave, it’s all about managing kind of a four-wheel slide, if you will, in a lot of different places of the track. I think he’s quite good at that, while still being able to protect tires. That’s I would imagine the reason why he’s able to make such a difference here.
Q. The strategy call to come in under caution around lap 36, how was the call made? What did the race look like from your standpoint at the time? How did that make the difference in the race?
ALEXANDER ROSSI: I mean, it’s hard for me to really comment on it right now because I need to look at the race trace and everything.
But certainly I think we were quicker when we weren’t saving fuel, at least on the 7 car side. That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t the right strategy for us. I honestly have no idea what Alex’s pace was in clean air. Until I know that, I can’t really answer it.
Yeah, I mean, he was strong all day. We knew he was the car to beat, was going to be hard to beat.
Q. Today may be the last time some type of electric power is not used in the power train. What’s it like turning the page on something that has been utilized in racing for so long, the internal combustion engine?
ALEXANDER ROSSI: I mean, I have two emotions. I mean, I’m sad because it’s the end of an era. We grew up falling in love with this sport with kind of the framework of what it is now. At the same time if you look at where the world is going, where manufacturers are going, you got to evolve. It’s an exciting time for the series to take that step towards the future. It’s something that’s important to all of us and the partners involved.
It’s happy and sad. It’s cool to be able to introduce new technology into the cars, but also it’s sad that this phase of motorsports is coming to an end.
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