CORRECTED – CHEVROLET IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES – POST RACE QUOTES

CHEVROLET IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
MAVTV 500
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
FONTANA, CALIFORNIA
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE QUOTES
JUNE 27, 2015

CORRECTS TRANSCRIPTION ERROR IN SCOTT DIXON AND CHARLIE KIMBALL POST RACE QUOTES:

TONY KANAAN, NO. 10 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND: That was one of the most nerve-wracking races I’ve ever been a part of, but I can’t be too upset with a podium-finish. We battled up front all day and the No. 10 NTT DATA Chevrolet was really quick. I was actually in the middle of a pass when that last yellow came out, so who knows what could’ve happened if we would’ve stayed green until the end.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 PPG AUTOMOTIVE REFINISH TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 4TH: “Honestly, I was not a fan of the racing we put on today. What I told IndyCar yesterday was that we shouldn’t be racing like this. This is full pack racing and sooner or later somebody is going to get hurt. We don’t need to be doing this. It was a hell of a show and we did what we needed to do. We had a good PPG Chevy. When Will (Power) crashed and Helio (Castroneves) crashed, for me the only goal was to finish ahead of (Scott) Dixon and we did that. So it’s all good and everybody did a great job again.”

SAGE KARAM , NO. 8 COMFORT REVOLUTION/BIG MACHINE RECORDS CHIP GANASSI RACNING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 5TH: “The first laps I have ever led in an Indy car today felt pretty good. It was pack racing which is difficult. It’s a battle and you’re in survival mode. The team did awesome and we overcame some adversity and stuck with it. We took a chance to take tires at the end and it was a good call, as we picked up a few spots to finish fifth. I’m happy with the result and glad we got that result under our belt.”

SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 DEGREE CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 6TH: “That was kind of a mess of a race. Everything depended on what kind of run you got. We had some front-end damage so we had to keep putting wing into it. We kept losing time on every stop having to put wing into it. At the end we just had too much front understeer and couldn’t get the car drivable. I think the levels of downforce were too high and it needed to be spread out more. Could have been a different result for us in the Degree car if circumstances were different.”

CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO., 83 LEVEMIR FLEXTOUCH CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 8TH: “Overall a good day for Chip Ganassi Racing having all four cars in the top 8. I think the Levemir FlexTouch Chevy ran pretty well. We just never quite got inside the top five where there was cleaner air. We need to go back and look at the data from our teammates and see where we go from here. I don’t know that we’ll see this type of track until we come back here next year, but I’m looking forward to heading to the oval challenges at Milwaukee, Iowa and Pocono.”

SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 PENSKE TRUCK RENTAL TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 9TH: “The car was fantastic. We had great Chevy power to help us on this big track. But I’ll be honest, I am not a fan of this kind of racing. We don’t need to run in a pack at over 220 mph. There is so much drafting in those cars, you get lucky if there is a hole. You slice through the hole and you push people out of the draft. It is just not safe racing. That is my personal opinion. The Penske Truck Rental car was good, but today you couldn’t tell who had the best car. It doesn’t matter when you race in a pack”

STEFANO COLETTI, NO. 4 KV RACING TECHNOLOGY CHEVROLET, FINISHED 11TH: “I am very happy with my result today. It took a while to get comfortable with the car and we had to make some changes during our stops. I went down a couple of laps at the beginning, but thanks to the yellows, I was able to get those laps back. By the end of the race I was fast and I managed to move up to 11th. I am very happy with my oval best finish and thank all my crew and Chevy for giving me a great car.”

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 11 TEAM MISTIC E-CIGS – KVSH RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 14TH: “It was a very tough day for the Mistic KVSH Racing team. Every time we would begin to move up we started to have overheating issues, so I had to come into the pits a few times to clean the radiators. The guys pulled a tear off out once, but it kept happening. It was frustrating for sure, but the Mistic boys hung tough. Everybody gave their best and I was trying hard behind the wheel and making some moves. Then we would have to give it all up because we were running to hot and had to pit. We will look at it and try and find some solutions. Maybe some blocking or screens. In the end, we managed to salvage some points, so that is a good thing.”

WILL POWER, NO. 1 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 19TH: “The Verizon Chevy team did a great job today, despite how tough of a day it was. When you have a pack race like what we had today, you have to take a lot of risks to gain track position. As exciting as it is, it’s intense at the same time. I’m just glad that no one got hurt out there and that everybody is okay. Now we move onto Milwaukee, which I’m really looking forward to after how well we ran there in our win last year.”

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO., 67 HARTMAN OIL CFH RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 21ST: “I ran out of room. I think Ed was hearing one thing from his spotter, he just washed up into Lane 4 and we ran into the wall. It’s unfortunate because you don’t want to have both cars out of the race. If it was just one of us it would be better, but we just got together with probably a little bit of miscommunication on what was going on. Everyone was using four lanes. It’s a lot of tight quarters, it was dicey racing so we just got together and kind of got caught out.”

ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA CFH RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 22ND: “I don’t even remember who I was racing with, it was getting so jumbled up there. I went into the bottom and thought I was going to be able to go to the third lane. Someone shoved me to the second lane and I got understeer and started going up the track. I was just letting it go up the track because my spotter was telling me, he wasn’t saying anything, so I assumed I was clear. It doesn’t get much worse than taking out your teammate and crashing both team cars. It’s stupid. I should have lifted and left more room up there but I didn’t even know anyone was even coming, I didn’t have that information. I am pretty bummed out about it. We had a good car, ran up front all day, and I would have been there at the end.”

HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 AUTO CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 23RD: “Unfortunately (Graham) Rahal was coming up on me, and then kind of like, he really squeezed on me at the top. So, as soon as I come into position that I think I was going to, that I was about to push, I started lifting because I didn’t want to crash. I think we touched, and one lap before he was already squeezing me. And I’m like, ‘Dude, you don’t need to do that.’ So I’m kind of like lifting, and all of the sudden people are coming and start chopping, and (Ryan) Briscoe and Will (Power), all of the sudden, they just closed it up. Briscoe didn’t have to do that. He just turned into me and as soon as he turned into me I was like, ‘This is a tough one.’ I’ll tell you what, there was a long ride of sideways. The AAA Chevy was unbelievable. We had a fantastic car. It’s a shame we have to finish like this, but we’ll see what happens. Right now, we went out, it looks like the toe links are bent, so we’re going to change and continue to keep going.”
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