CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
BOMMARITO AUTOMOTIVE GROUP 500
GATEWAY MOTORSPORTS PARK
MADISON, ILLINOIS
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE RECAP
AUGUST 25, 2018
Will Power Puts Chevrolet in Victory Lane at Gateway
Madison, Il – For the third time this season, and the 35th time in his career, Will Power stood on the top step of a Verizon IndyCar Series podium after winning the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at Gateway Motorsports Park.
The 2014 Series’ champion was credited with leading 3 times for a total of 93 laps during the 248-lap/310-mile race on the 1.25-mile oval just east of St. Louis, Missouri.
Power is now tied with Bobby Unser for seventh on the all-time list which moved him to third in the standings, 68 points behind the leader with two races remaining in the season.
Power’s win behind the wheel of the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, was the sixth of the season for Chevrolet’s 2.2 liter twin turbocharged direct injected V6 engine.
Simon Pagenaud, No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet, captured the fourth finishing position. Spencer Pigot, No. 21 Fuzzy’s Vodka Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, finished sixth and Josef Newgarden, No. 1 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, finished seventh to give Team Chevy four of the top-seven finishers.
Newgarden, the defending Series’ champion, remains in the title hunt, sitting fourth in the standings, 78 points out of the lead.
The remaining Chevrolet drivers finished as follows:
No. 20 Ed Carpenter 11th
No. 14 Tony Kanaan 13th
No. 4 Matheus Leist 16th
No. 59 Max Chilton 17th
No. 88 Gabby Chaves 18th
No. 23 Charlie Kimball 19th
Alexander Rossi and Scott Dixon (both Honda) completed the podium. Dixon remains the points leader.
Next on the schedule is IndyCar’s return to Portland International Raceway On September 2, 2018.
IndyCar Media Conference
Saturday August 25, 2018
Will Power
Press Conference
THE MODERATOR: We’ll continue with our Verizon IndyCar Series post-race press conference. Joined now by the winner of the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 here at Gateway Motorsports Park, Will Power, driving the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet for Team Penske. Will’s third consecutive podium in the past three races, also his third win of the season. This is his 35th career win, which ties Bobby Unser for seventh on the all-time wins list. Will, last year you started from pole in this race, and unfortunately ended your race a bit early with an early crash that pretty much ended your championship battle. This one might get you back into the championship hunt, moving 68 points behind Scott Dixon. Take us through your race and ultimately how your thoughts are heading out of this race and into the final two races of the season.
WILL POWER: Yeah, pretty determined to at least get past Turn 1. That would be a start. But you know, the car was not that good last night. We had to work — have a really good think about it and spent a little time speaking with my engineer, and we came up with a really good setup, or what we thought would be a good setup, and it ended up being one.
It was just a lot of fun out there. I was so happy to win my first race with Roger. I was just wondering when that was going to come because I didn’t get to work with him in Indy and obviously won two races there. That was my first win with Roger, and when he told me I could go wide open and not save fuel, that was a great call and a lot of fun, to chop through the field, passed — I’ve never passed so many cars in a shorter period of time. Yeah, I have to thank IndyCar for a great package, as well. As you could see, last year it was very difficult to pass, and they came up with a package this year where you could definitely pass and run close.
THE MODERATOR: How aware were you of the strategy that Alexander Rossi was taking and if you were going to be able to get around him heading towards the end of the race.
WILL POWER: Well, all I knew was Roger said go wide open and the other guys dropped back and tried to save fuel. So I figured that there would be a bunch of guys trying to do it, and I saw the number you had to get for us, and I was like, you have to go so slow to get that number, and I thought that we could probably make that time up if we just ran wide open, and that was the case. Yeah, it was the first time in my career where I’d gone that way instead of saving fuel because obviously I’m very good at saving fuel, but so many times I wish we could just go wide open. When you’ve got Roger on the radio, he’s always pushing just to push, to go, if you’ve got a fast car, and that’s what we did.
THE MODERATOR: We’re heading into two permanent road courses to finish out the season. You have a win at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis earlier this year. How are you feeling about your chances heading into those last two races?
WILL POWER: It’s going to be very tight. It’s really hard to close a gap at this point of the season because as you can see, the same guys are finishing in the top 5 every week, and they’re all the guys you’re racing. I need those guys to have a bad day and for me to win a race. We have been so quick everywhere all year, we’ve just had — amongst the guys I’m racing, between them they’ve had one DNF. I’ve had five DNFs, basically five. I’ve had a lot to make up, and we’re on the way there. Still a big chunk of points, honestly, when you’re only gaining maybe 10 or 12 a race.
Q. When you went to the inside of Rossi, I don’t know if you’re aware, but he went on to have the mother and father of all saves to keep it off the wall; were you confident you wouldn’t get caught up in whatever incident he went on to have?
WILL POWER: No, not if you’re on the inside. I tried on the outside of Dixon and that didn’t work, so I figured you’d have to go on the inside. That’s why I tried to do the fake and get alongside the wall and then get the inside.
Q. And you did basically the same over on Scott, as well?
WILL POWER: Yeah, yeah. After I went up in the marbles, I thought, man, I lost so many spots. I was so mad. I was trying to get back in the game and win a race, so there was a lot of determination there, and obviously a very good car. I felt like we had a better car than Dixon from the beginning and Rossi. Just following them, I’m like, they were saving good fuel and I’d run very close to him, and I could see they were struggling a little bit, so I knew if we got either clean air or got by them, we’d be in pretty good shape.
Q. How much detail can you go into about what you changed on the car?
WILL POWER: We changed a lot, actually. We changed springs front and rear, we changed toes, we changed aero, everything, cambers, all of it. We had to make the car better, and we did.
Q. You just mentioned you were in the marbles or close to the marbles. Was this a scary moment?
WILL POWER: Yeah, because at Phoenix we did the same thing. You just go up to the wall so quick. I had that same feeling, like no front, and I was like heading up there, and yeah, didn’t get to the wall. Yeah, we kept it low from there on.
Q. From yesterday to today the other dramatic change was the weather. Was there any change in the track conditions that you could feel?
WILL POWER: Yeah, it wasn’t really. Like there was so much grip. It was amazing the speed you would carry in 3 and 4. The cars are really hooked up. Yeah, it’s a good — definitely a better package than last year as far as following. I think these guys have nailed it at a lot of places, obviously fine tuning at other places, but yeah, the car was fun to drive.
Q. It used to be — well, before I get to that, your final pit stop you got that splash and you came out and Rossi was just ahead of you, and he was having to save fuel and you could give it full throttle. How important was that?
WILL POWER: To get the fuel?
Q. You got the fuel, to be that close to him where you could come out so that you could just blow by him.
WILL POWER: Yeah, he would have had to have a significant gap to beat us because once I had a two-second gap, I just backed way off. But we had so much speed in hand, yeah. It was kind of fun, like I’ve never passed so many cars. You just keep knocking people off one after another. I had no clue who was leading or what it was when I went out of the pits until Roger said, you’re the leader now. I was like, ooh, that was good strategy.
Q. It used to be you could win everywhere but the ovals, and this year you won the two biggest oval races on the schedule. Talk about that.
WILL POWER: Yeah, ovals are where it’s at for me in the last two years, last two or three years. I’ve won more oval races than road courses and street courses. Got to pick my game back up on road and street courses now. Seems like ovals — I love ovals. It’s my favorite part of IndyCar racing. It’s what separates IndyCar racing from everything else, and just enjoy the whole process of putting a good oval car together and driving and where to run and air, and it’s just so much fun. Yeah, favorite, favorite part of racing in IndyCar.
Q. I keep on hearing you say you’ve never passed so many cars, and yet I walked up and down pit road after the race and Sato and some other drivers said they couldn’t pass at all. What was the difference?
WILL POWER: Yeah, well, I guess that’s what’s good about a package where they’ve taken some of the downforce off, although it didn’t feel like that, is that some people will struggle, so that’s how you get the variance between the cars. When you have so much downforce, everyone does the same speed. It just masks all handling deficiencies. You have to take some grip away so people are not so — only a couple of people nail the setup and there’s some in between and there’s some that really struggle, and then you get racing, and you get a bit of tire deg and you get mistakes, and that’s what IndyCar has tried to achieve with this car, and they have it. A lot of the short ovals for sure this year have been like that, and obviously road courses, as well. You never see passing at Mid-Ohio, and there was a lot of passing.
Q. You said it was the first time in your career that — not saving fuel, but actually pushing paid off; does that factor into the future, these situations, or is it just situational?
WILL POWER: Yeah, it’s been more like — the last couple years I’ve been like, man, I’m not going to save fuel anymore. I’d have like 10 more race wins to my name if I’d just taken off back in the day instead of saving fuel and getting caught by a yellow or something. Yeah, that’s the most fun way to go racing is when you can just go hard, you don’t have to think about lifting and being in a lean fuel slot. Yeah, we’ll see, maybe we’ll do that the next two races, see how it works out.
Q. With your position in the championship, are you going to take more risks than usual as you come into these next two races, especially with double points in Sonoma?
WILL POWER: I think we have to strategy-wise, but it will all depend on where the guys we’re racing — teams like Rossi and Dixon are the main guys, and Josef. He’s in our team. But if they’re at the front, yes, I mean, we have to take risks. We have to make things happen. Kind of like tonight, we just said, let’s go, let’s run hard. We’ve got to beat these guys. We can’t finish behind anymore. So I’m going to be aggressive with them racing-wise. If there’s a half gap there, I’m going to go for it. You have to. They know it; they’ve got a lead. I’ve got nothing to lose. That goes for strategy, as well.
Q. As far as the difference between Chevrolet and Honda, would you say — there were a lot of people pointing out that I think the top six or seven cars in practice last night were all Honda. Was that just a byproduct of, in fact, Penske struggling a little bit, nothing to do with engines?
WILL POWER: It was nothing to do with engines, pure handling. That’s the great thing about this package is you have to get your car right, you can’t just rely on downforce to mask issues. There really doesn’t — it’s hard to see any difference between the engines when it’s like that.
Q. You talked about the championship early on; can it be done? Can you catch these guys in the last two races?
WILL POWER: Yes, we can absolutely do it. It’s mathematically possible. When I turned up to Indy, it was a single points race and a double points race. I was about this amount of points behind, and I came out two points ahead with two wins. So yes, absolutely.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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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