CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
INDIANAPOLIS 500
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
POST RACE RECAP
AUGUST 23, 2020
Josef Newgarden leads 17 Team Chevy drivers in the 104th running of Indianapolis 500
(INDIANAPOLIS, Aug. 23, 2020) – Josef Newgarden finished in fifth place to pace Team Chevy at the 104th running of the Indianapolis 500. The two-time and defending NTT IndyCar Series champion started 13th and ran in the top-10 for most of the afternoon.
Pato O’Ward started 15th and quickly moved toward the front before finishing sixth.
Helio Castroneves finished 11th in his quest to become just the fourth driver to win The Greatest Spectacle in Racing four times.
Rookie Rinus VeeKay, who was Chevrolet’s top qualifier, ended up 20th, one lap off the pace after a pitlane penalty took him out of the top-five running where he had been running.
Tony Kanaan finished 19th as the 2013 winner winds down his successful career,
Seventeen drivers powered by Chevrolet’s 2.2-liter, twin-turbocharged, direct-injected V6 engine qualified for the 200-lap race on the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval.
Although the race had to be postponed from the traditional month of May and there were no fans on premise as a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic, the race had the same drama, same high level of competition and same surprises one has come to expect from the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.Takuma Sato clained his second Indy 500 victory followed by Scott Dixon and Graham Rahal filled out the podium.
GM president Mark Reuss led the field to the green flag in a 2020 Corvette Stingray. It marked the 17th time a Corvette has served as the Indianapolis 500 Pace Car, starting in 1978, and the 31st time a Chevrolet has led the field, dating to 1948. No other brand or vehicle has served as the “500” pace car more than Chevrolet and the Corvette.
Newgarden is second in the point standings, O’Ward sits third and 2019 Indy 500 winner Simon Pagenaud is fifth in the standings as the Series prepares for next week’s doubleheader weekend at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Ill.
DRIVER QUOTES
NO. 1 JOSEF NEWGARDEN, SHELL V-POWER TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 5TH: “It’s disappointing for sure. Our Shell V-Power Nitro Chevrolet was fast. It was really, really good. We were just taking our time. My boys in thepits were on it today. They made us up spots on every single pit stop. We put ourselves in position there at the end of the race, which is all you can ask for. We actually came in with Sato on that last stop and maybe we should have went one lap longer. But in the end, we were a little behind the eight ball on the final stint. We were working to unhandcuff ourselves. I’m proud of everyone though – they fought hard. I can’t thank Shell and Team Chevy enough for all the support they give us. We just didn’t have what we needed. We were in position, but couldn’t capitalize to take advantage of it. Congrats to Takuma on the win. Just wish we were up there battling him for it.”
NO. 5 PATO O’WARD, ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET, FINISHED 6TH:
“The No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP team did everything we could to get to the front today. My crew did an amazing job in the pit stops. We were fighting up there with Dixon, Rossi and Takuma – great job to him. Towards the end we just didn’t have enough to get those in front of us. I think we juiced out the car and got everything out of it. We were right behind Josef in 5th for Chevrolet, so I think it was a good job for my first ever Indy 500. Obviously here the only thing that matters is winning. I’m excited to come back next year and try and get that win as this place is pretty special. For now, just collecting and move onto Gateway.”
NO. 3 HELIO CASTRONEVES, PENNZOIL TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 11TH: “I miss this thing so much. I know I didn’t finish in the top 10. One spot behind but let me tell you, what a great group of guys. They did a phenomenal job today. The No. 3 Pennzoil Chevrolet was not the strongest car out there, but we fought from 28th all the way up to 11th and we did everything we could. Obviously, we tried to take our chances with some of the yellows and it didn’t work out. It was very difficult to pass however and we hung on and a top 11 was the best we could do. Again, I miss everyone. This was awesome, but now on to the next page and on to Road Atlanta.
NO. 12 WILL POWER, VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 14TH: “Obviously we made our way all the way up to eighth with really good restarts. And then I feel like I got too good of a restart, so I was almost touching Colton [Herta] in turn 4 and had to pull out to the outside. There is no draft there and about three guys blew by me and then I got pushed wide in turn one. And yeah and the bad stop didn’t help us there – my bad. But I wanted to thank Verizon and Chevrolet for everything. Chevrolet gave us a great engine. My guys worked really hard all month and I just really have to thank them for everything. We’re going to refocus for Gateway and work on that.”
NO. 67 JR HILDEBRAND, SALESFORCE DRYER REINBOLD RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 16TH:
“The car was a huge handful at the beginning of the race. I almost spun out on the first lap. It was a bummer because I found some passing lanes in the middle of the fuel stint. But I couldn’t get to those lanes when I wanted to. Unfortunately, the car was twitchy early in the race. And we went for a different fuel strategy and the boys got the car working better throughout the day. I felt I got the feel of the car better as the race went on today. We knew the track temps were going up and we needed to make adjustments with every pit stop. I was working the trim switches and various items to help the car roll into the corners better. We were good to go to the end on fuel and we might have picked up some additional spots if others had to pit. But with yellow to the checkered, that didn’t happen. I hope Spencer (Pigot) is okay. That was a huge hit at the end. I just missed a few of the crashes today. I was dodging a number of incidents. We made the right calls today with our strategy. But we just missed a few things that would have improved our finish. Overall, the DRR guys worked really hard this month and we gained more information when we return. At least we made up half the field going from 32nd to 16th today.”
NO. 59 MAX CHILTON,GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET, FINISHED 17TH:
“It was a long race, but it always is around here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I tried my best out there and the whole team did a great job today. We really worked on making the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet better throughout the race. Every pit stop we were changing something whether it was the front or rear wings and I was working with the weight jacker and the bars pretty much every lap. We had great pit stops all race and we tried to change up the strategy a little bit and at the end of the day we were a big climber. I think we were the fourth-highest climber of the day coming from 30th up to 17th, which isn’t bad at all and we brought the car home in one piece, which on a 500-mile race is extremely important when you want to be in it to win it at the end. We’ve struggled for speed all month, but today was a massive improvement and I’m excited to come back and try again for an even better result next year.”
NO. 4 CHARLIE KIMBALL,TRESIBA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVRLET, FINISHED 18TH:
“I was able to pass guys in the early part of the race, and I had a very good restart which gave us more spots. So we were moving up. The first five or ten laps of the stints were fast, but then the tires fell off and I couldn’t pass people. Ultimately, I made a mistake on pit lane with our third stop. I don’t know if the tires were worn or the brakes locked, but I slid by our pit box. Then I had to get in reverse and we lost two laps. I got our one lap back and almost the other lap too. And the #10 car stayed out and it prevented us from getting a rave around on the next yellow flag. At the end of the race, the WIX Filters Chevy was better, but I didn’t want to ruin other guys races and I moved out of their way. We ran out of time trying to get the lap back, because the car could run with guys on the lead lap. The DRR crew did a great job in the pits as always and we just had the one mistake today when I missed the pit. I feel badly for that one. We did learn a lot this month as a ‘one-off’ team at Indy.”
NO. 14 TONY KANAAN, ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 19TH:
I don’t know what to say… We had a solid car, made a lot of positions on track and also in the pits. We went from 23rd all the way to 8th, I believe, but at the end I had to match a fuel number to make it to the checkered without a splash and in order to do that I had to let a lot of cars go. I truly believe that we had a Top-10 car. We ran up there most of the race and it’s just disappointing that we had to settle for 19th.”
NO. 21 RINUS VEEKAY, SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 20TH:
NO. 66 FERNANDO ALONSO,RUOFF ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET, FINISHED 21ST:
“It was a very eventful race for us, we didn’t have one lap of kindness let’s say. We were struggling from the very beginning with the balance of the car with a lot oversteer. We kept changing that balance in the pit stops, reducing the front flap, doing tire adjustments and then we started to be happy with the car. We were up to P15 around Lap 110, which is where we wanted to be. We spent half the race going from P26 to P15 and then we had a clutch problem on the car that we didn’t know how to solve. We finished the race without the clutch, so from that point on every pit stop we had to push the car, engage the gear and go. That cost us a lap and unfortunately, we kept that lap down until the end and we could not achieve anything more.
“I’m happy to finish the race, cross the line and have one 500 miles in the pocket, that’s the positive thing. The negative is that we were out of contention very quickly with the clutch problem. Anyway, I think the Arrow McLaren SP team was fantastic during the race, the strategy and pit stops meant we were always gaining positions. I’m very proud of the work we’ve done over the last couple of weeks. We tried to race but luck was not with us today, but I’m proud of the effort from everyone in the team.”
NO. 22 SIMON PAGENAUD, MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 22ND:
“It was a real shame to start as far back as I did. I really do think that Chevy brought an incredible race engine. It had so much power. It was so good. So I think if we started further up, we would not have lost as much time in traffic. I feel like we had one of the best cars. I didn’t see [Takuma] Sato, but congratulations to him. He’s an incredible driver around this place. It’s fantastic. I think he’s the most successful Japanese driver ever so congratulations to him and the Rahal team. We were just on the outside of Ryan Hunter-Reay and he just hit us in the front wing like we weren’t there. So we had to pit for a new front wing, and it went downhill from there. At the end of the race, we were running I think is the fastest laps of the race. The car was really, really good and it would have been good for the last shootout, but it wasn’t our year. We’ll come back next year and we’ll be strong. We have a good baseline to attack for next year and we’ll come back to try and get No. 2.”
NO. 81 BEN HANLEY,DRAGON SPEED USA CHEVROLET, FINISHED 23RD:
“It’s a fantastic feeling to finish the Indy 500! All the odds seemed against us two weeks ago, but a huge effort by everyone from the DragonSpeed crew to INDYCAR, Chevrolet, and Firestone made it possible. We tried a switch in strategy late in the race that didn’t quite didn’t work out, but we are really happy with 23rdand what we’ve achieved as a team at Indy this year. As we hoped, we gained a lot of knowledge today and can’t wait to come back next year to apply it!”
NO. 20 ED CARPENTER, U.S. SPACE FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET. FINISHED 26TH:
NO. 24 SAGE KARAM, WIX FILTERS DRYER REINBOLD RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 24TH:
“I was able to pass guys in the early part of the race, and I had a very good restart which gave us more spots. So we were moving up. The first five or ten laps of the stints were fast, but then the tires fell off and I couldn’t pass people. Ultimately, I made a mistake on pit lane with our third stop. I don’t know if the tires were worn or the brakes locked, but I slid by our pit box. Then I had to get in reverse and we lost two laps. I got our one lap back and almost the other lap too. And the #10 car stayed out and it prevented us from getting a rave around on the next yellow flag. At the end of the race, the WIX Filters Chevy was better, but I didn’t want to ruin other guys races and I moved out of their way. We ran out of time trying to get the lap back, because the car could run with guys on the lead lap. The DRR crew did a great job in the pits as always and we just had the one mistake today when I missed the pit. I feel badly for that one. We did learn a lot this month as a ‘one-off’ team at Indy.”
NO. 47 CONOR DALY, U.S. AIR FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEEVROLET, FINISHED 29TH:
NO. 7 OLIVER ASKEW, ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET, FINISHED 30TH:,
“First of all I need to thank the AMR Safety Team, Dallara, and INDYCAR for keeping us as safe as possible in these cars going these speeds. I’m sorry for the No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP team, they’ve worked so hard all week, all month, all year building up to this event. So, to have a result like this is really sad for all of us but we will move on to Gateway next weekend. I was really happy with the pace we had and the aggressive strategies we were running. We were trying to make something happen with passing being at a premium at this race. Thanks again to the team for all their hard work.”
NO.41 DALTON KELLETT, K-LINE USA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: FINISHED 31ST:
“It’s obviously a different 500 experience without the fans and having the national anthem and flyover without the energy of our great race fans and it was bit sad to see that. But the start felt pretty good. I thought I was going to get the jump on Tony and Will but they showed my rookie status and got the jump on me, so now I know where to go next time. The car felt really good the first stint, we were just chipping away at it, working with the tools and dealing with a bit of understeer with the tailwind in Turn 2. The car felt really good in 3 and 4, making moves in traffic and was able to pass guys. On the second stint, the wind shifted a bit so I was getting a run out of 2 into 3 but got stuck behind Hanley who was running a bit off the pace. I kept trying to draft and get by him going into 3. I went pretty late and I didn’t know if his spotter didn’t let him know I was pretty low or he didn’t think I was going for it. I kind of popped and he came down almost immediately so I didn’t have time to back out of it and he skimmed my front wing and took all the air off it. After that I was just trying to save it and couldn’t quite get it turned enough to miss the wall. Pretty disappointed that was how it ended. We were having a really good month up to that point.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
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