CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH
STREETS OF LONG BEACH
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE QUOTES
APRIL 10, 2022
LONG BEACH, Calif. (April 10, 2022) – Josef Newgarden delivered Chevrolet its first victory at Long Beach in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES since 2016 with a thrilling victory in the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach – the first of his career at the street circuit and second in a row on the season in the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet.
Newgarden withstood a furious final 28 laps and two full-course caution periods before winning under yellow-flag conditions at Long Beach. It gave Team Chevy its third straight win to open the 2022 INDYCAR season for the first time in six years.
Team Chevy recorded three of the first five finishing positions. Team Penske teammate Will Power was fourth in the No. 12 Verizon 5G Chevrolet, followed in fifth by Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Vuse Chevrolet.
A.J. Foyt Racing’s Kyle Kirkwood wrapped up the top-10 with his best finish of his rookie season in the No. 14 Rokit Chevrolet.
TEAM CHEVY QUOTES
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HITACHI CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE – RACE WINNER:
IS THIS ONE OF YOUR GREATEST WINS?
“This is definitely up there on the list. This was a fight today. This is not an easy race to win. I don’t know what it looked like from the outside, but I was working my butt off with Grosjean there at the end on the used reds. I was hoping he would fade a little bit, Holding him off on that restart was super difficult. This Hitachi car was on it. I knew coming in to the race we had a great strategy and with Team Chevy we were going to be alright. With pit stops helping me get around Alex (Palou), I’m so proud of Team Penske. I have been trying to win a race here for 11 years so I’m so happy to finally get it done.”
WHAT WAS HARDEST BATTLE?
“I think the out lap with Palou. We got together in Turn Five and that almost didn’t work. We went side-by-side in that corner and then again in Turn Six. That was the difficult battle, but I think overall Grosjean had the best shot at getting it done. Fortunately we just held.
DID YOU HAVE HERTA COVERED?
“Yes, I think we had him covered. I was pretty determined.”
MORE ON THE WIN.
“When I was walking out of the press conference room after qualifying, a reporter from the LA Times pulled me aside and said, ‘Hey Josef, real quick… at what point does Herta just check out tomorrow?’ I took total offense to that. The guy assumed Colton was going to run away with the race. So I was pretty determined. Alex (Palou) was fast but I think we had them both covered for sure.”
IT’S BEEN FIVE YEARS SINCE YOU WON CONSECUTIVE RACES. IS SOMETHING SPECIAL HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?
“It’s too early to say. It’s only three races in. We could have a horrible rest of the year. I’m not trying to wish bad juju on us, just looking at both sides of the argument. What I feel like we are building on the 2 car. We’ve got a good engineer in Eric Leichtle and all our crew plus everyone else at Team Penske that works on this team. I’m feeling positive about where we are going, but we have a long way to go. Indianapolis is where we have to perform for Team Penske. I want a Borg-Warner so bad. So let’s see what we can do during the Month of May.”
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON 5G CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE – FINISHED FOURTH: “It was a very solid day for the Verizon 5G Chevy. We’re playing the long game and banking those points. When we get a chance to win, we’ll go for it. At the start we said if we got in the top-five we’d be really happy. A podium would have been awesome, but I’m happy with this.”
PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 McLAREN VUSE CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN RACING SP – FINISHED FIFTH: “We had a rough start to the weekend so this fifth-place feels really good. We wanted to just get a solid foundation for the rest of our year, and we’ve done this today. I’m happy and proud of the boys. We should be very satisfied with fifth because we started 11th. We went forward and not just one or two positions. We went up a handful so we can be proud of that.”
KYLE KIRKWOOD, NO. 14 ROKIT CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING – FINISHED 10TH: “The race went exceptional for us at A.J. Foyt Racing. It’s a sweet win for us because we’ve had a couple of finishes we didn’t want with the pace we had. Today we had the pace and we were able to show that. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make some passes happen but we got into the top-10. We were absolutely solid on the red tires. I felt like we could make some passes but everyone was a little too bunched up in the first stint to make that happen. Once we went to the black tires, we were able to run with everyone else who was in front of us but it was a bit of a fuel-saving game so we were all kind of sitting in limbo. The restarts here are just so tough because you come out of the last corner and it’s a massive accordion effect. You can’t make passes happen into Turn One. It’s so tight between the walls to make the passes anywhere else. It’s just so difficult. We’re right there with the big dogs and we’re right there with the big teams. We were quick today and we showed that. All we did was go forward. It was solid points for the team. I’m super happy and everyone is smiling. We’re look forward to going testing at Indianapolis here in a couple of weeks.”
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 PPG CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE – FINISHED 14TH: “We had good pace but I made a mistake on the second exchange. It was bad judgement. I clipped the inside wall which spun me out. Once you lose track position like that, you’re pretty done. We managed to claw our way back to 14th and passed the most cars. We just didn’t have track position. I felt like it was a pretty good weekend overall pace-wise. We were right there but didn’t put it together. I’ll keep my head up and keep working and we’ll be OK. Team Penkse still won, which is the main thing. We’re in a good spot. Until that mistake, we made a good start, were in a good spot and in front of Grosjean who ultimately finished second. It’s disappointing, but we’ll keep building. We’re still second in the championship, which isn’t a bad thing.”
TATIANA CALDERON, NO. 11 ROKIT CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING – FINISHED 16TH: “I’m really happy with the steps have we made since St. Petersburg. I feel much more confident in the car, even on pit stops and making little adjustments and learning how to deal with the tires better. I’m really thankful for the team. They did a fantastic job. Of course we want to be fighting more people in the next couple of races. The steps we took were huge and I’ll carry that confidence into Barber.”
CALLUM ILOTT, NO. 77 DYNAMIC EDGE CHEVROLET, JUNCOS HOLLINGER RACING – FINISHED 24TH: “Unfortunately, our race ended early with a little bit of contact with the wall in Turn Eight. We just knocked the rear out and had to retire. Otherwise, it was a weird race. There was so much grip on the track and the rubber was building up massively. It was a real shame to finish like that. We didn’t have a massive amount of pace which is something we need to work on, the different feelings with the tires from reds to blacks. We have a lot to look at after this weekend, some pros and some cons. We have Barber in two weeks, which I believe is a physical one, so I need to train a bit for that one. Overall, Long Beach was a challenge, but we will analyze and look to improve for the next one.”
DALTON KELLETT, NO. 4 K-LINE INSULATORS CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING – FINISHED 26TH: “I got a little deep into the brake zone for Turn One and carried too much speed through the entry to the corner, got wide and hit the barriers. I was trying to shift into fuel-saving mode and kind of misjudged it on the brakes.
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