Chevy PR

Chevrolet Finishes 1-2 in 102nd Indianapolis 500

Posted on by Tony DiZinno

Chevrolet Finishes 1-2 in 102nd Indianapolis 500 

  • Will Power earns first victory in the 200-lap race
    ᴏ Driver of No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet led 59 laps
  • Ed Carpenter finishes career-best second in hometown race
    ᴏ Pole sitter in No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet led 65 laps
  • Team Chevy claims 10th win in ‘Greatest Spectacle in Racing’
    ᴏ It’s the third 1-2 finish since return to Verizon IndyCar Series in 2012
  • Simon Pagenaud sixth-place finish is career best in the race

INDIANAPOLIS (May 27, 2018) – Will Power didn’t secure his first oval victory until his eighth Indy car season in 2011. His seventh win proved to be the biggest one of his career.

Power led a 1-2 Chevrolet sweep of the 102nd Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil with a 3.1589-second victory over pole sitter Ed Carpenter.

The 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series (VICS) champion, who started on the outside of the front row in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet for the 200-lap race in 91-degree ambient temperature that tied for second-highest in race history, led 59 laps.

“I can’t describe it. I feel like collapsing. I want to cry. I was wondering if I would ever win it and thoughts went through my mind during the month,” said Power, who in 10 previous starts came closest to winning in 2015 with a runner-up finish to fellow Team Chevy driver Juan Pablo Montoya. “This was the last box to tick, but I’m not done.”

Chevrolet claimed its 10th Indianapolis 500 victory dating to 1988 when Rick Mears won from the pole for Team Penske. Since its return to Verizon IndyCar Series competition in 2012 with the 2.2-liter twin-turbocharged, direct injected V6 engine, Team Chevy has posted three 1-2 finishes.

“Will Power showed speed all month and today he delivered a huge win for his team, Roger Penske and Chevrolet,” said Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. “Will and his crew never gave up all race. They kept making the right adjustments on the car at the right time, and Will simply drove a great race.

“Will’s win is extra special because it is Chevrolet’s 10th win at this iconic race, and Roger’s 17th Indy 500 championship. We couldn’t be prouder of the one team effort with Chevrolet Propulsion, motorsports, Ilmor, Pratt & Miller and Team Penske. The Chevrolet Indy V6 delivered the right combination of power, durability and efficiency all race long.

“Ed Carpenter was also fast during the month of May, clinching the pole, leading many laps today and finishing runner-up, capping a 1-2 finish for Chevrolet. The Speedway was packed today, the atmosphere was electric and it was a thrilling race to the end.”

Power, the first Australian to win the Indy 500, became the first driver to win on both the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval and the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course that incorporates sections of the 2.5-mile oval to complete a May sweep. He’s won three of the past four years on the permanent road circuit.

Power is the 72nd different driver to win the 500-Mile Race and tied Al Unser Jr. for eighth on the all-time Indy car list with 34 victories.

Chevrolet has powered six of Penske’s wins in “the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”

“He won the race today because he was the best. It’s a great day for Team Penske for Team Penske and a great day for Chevrolet,” Penske said.

Carpenter, who secured his third Indy 500 pole in a Chevrolet in the past six years, led a field-high 65 laps in the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet for his namesake team. His previous best finish was fifth in 2008.

“I’m extremely proud of the entire Ed Carpenter Racing team. It’s been a few years since I had a top-10 finish, so this feels good,” said Carpenter, an Indianapolis resident.

Simon Pagenaud, who started second in the No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet, finished a career-best sixth in the race. Reigning Verizon IndyCar Series champion Josef Newgarden, driving the No. 1 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, completed the Team Chevy top 10 with an eighth-place finish.

A single-car incident in Turn 2 on Lap 68, ended Danica Patrick’s ambitions to become the first female Indy 500 winner. She stated that it would be the last race of her motorsports career. Helio Castroneves’ hunt for a record-tying fourth Indianapolis 500 victory ended on Lap 147 in a single-car incident at the entrance to pit lane, and Tony Kanaan was running 13th on Lap 189 when he was involved in a single-car accident at the exit of Turn 2.

The Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear on June 2-3 is the next event on the Verizon IndyCar Series schedule. The 70-lap doubleheader race weekend – the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit — on the 2.35-mile, 13-turn temporary street circuit on Belle Isle will be telecast by ABC at 3:30 p.m. ET both days.

Chevrolet swept the doubleheader in 2016 (Power and Sebastien Bourdais) and 2014 (Helio Castroneves and Power), and Bourdais also won in ‘15.

CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIE
102ND RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE DRIVER QUICK QUOTES
MAY 27, 2018

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET (WINNER, started third):

WHAT A LONG JOURNEY YOU’VE HAD TO THIS PLACE TODAY

“Man, I just can’t believe it. I changed my attitude a lot after Barber. Very positive. Had a great month. I just can’t believe it. I’ve got to thank Roger Penske, Verizon, and my parents for allowing me to get to this point. I can’t describe it. I feel like collapsing. I want to cry. I couldn’t stop screaming on the radio. I can’t believe it.”

SO YOU WERE LEADING, WITH JUST A HANDFUL OF LAPS TO GO, AND A YELLOW FLAG COMES OUT. WHAT’S GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND?

“I’m just like, I have to get these guys. I don’t know how much fuel they’ve got. But this is the restart of my life. And then, I go on, and two (cars ahead of him) pit, and I’m like man, I think I’m going to win this. With one to go I was like screaming. Like man, I’ve got this. Unbelievable.”

YOU’VE HAD SOME LOW MOMENTS IN YOUR LIFE AND THINGS THAT GOT AWAY FROM YOU. YOU WERE SO CLOSE. DOES THAT MAKE THIS SO MUCH SWEETER, AT YOUR AGE OF 37, TO WIN THIS INDY 500?

“I was wondering if I would ever win it. And, thoughts went through my mind during the month, I guess. My career, I’ve had so many wins and so many poles. But everyone always talked about the 500 and I just couldn’t imagine winning a race in front of a crowd like this. This many people is just amazing. What an event. I love it.”

ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET (finished second, started first): “”Definitely not a great ending, but I kind of said before I came here that I feel like if it’s a complete disaster, ‘complete’ like as in not in the ballpark at all, look silly, then people might remember that. If I win, people will remember that. But probably anything in between might just be a little part of a big story. So I kind of feel like that’s how it is, you know.

“I’m appreciative for all the fans, for Go Daddy, for Ed Carpenter Racing for giving me a good car. Today was a tough day. A little bit of it was okay, a lot of it was tough to drive.

“I will say, though, for sure I’m very grateful for everybody and for being able to finish it up like I wanted to. It still was a lot of great moments this month, a lot of great moments this year.

“I’ll feel pretty good about this in a day or two. We lost the lead in one of the pit sequences, so I have to look at the data to see if I had a bad in lap. I thought the guys’ stops were great the whole time. There was one out lap where I caught a weird string of traffic, and that’s all it takes. Track position was so critical. I’m extremely proud of the entire Ed Carpenter Racing team. Wish my teammates could have been up there. It’s been a few years since I had a top-10 finish, so this feels good.”

SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET (finished 6th, started second): “It was all about track position today. We had a fantastic Menards Team Penske Chevrolet. I just want to put my hat off to Chevrolet and Team Penske. I am so happy for Will. He’s been through a lot. Winning the race, that’s my next goal.”

JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 66 SALESFORCE DRR CHEVROLET (finished 11th, started 27th): “It was a very long race. We tried very hard to gain some track position in the pits and everytime it sort of ended up to be a little bit of a wash where the yellow fell. They guys did a great job all race long. No mistakes from anyone on the strategy side or pit lane side. Every time we took a gamble, it didn’t really seem to hurt us. Always good to get 500 miles under your belt here (the track) and to finish the race. To see so many guys today have a really tough day as far as handling very poorly really early in the stint. I was fortunate to be right around a few of them and watching them happen like that could have been us if we were a little worse or a little less careful. Happy to bring the thing back in one piece. Would have liked to have snuck it into the top 10 there at the end but kudos to the team. They did a great job with the Salesforce car all month long and what turned out to be real tough conditions.

“You always appreciate being able to put 200 laps in here. You always are learn a bunch of stuff. You learn things about driving the car. You learn what you need in the car. You learn about conditions and what other guys have learned about the car. We won’t forget that stuff when we come back next year.”

MATHEUS LEIST, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET (finished 13th, started 11th): “First Indy 500 done – I’m pretty happy with the performance – managed to complete the whole race and it was probably the most difficult race I’ve ever done, you know, pretty difficult, pretty tricky and the car was changing a lot from one stint to the other so it was a long day. I’m happy for the team, I think we deserved it and I’m looking forward to the next race now.”

GABBY CHAVES, NO. 88 HARDING GROUP CHEVROLET (finished 14th, started 22nd): “It was a race of perseverance for us. First 150 laps were really tough because the car was a bit all over the place. At the end we had a nice change that completely turned the car around and all of a sudden I was passing cars and driving as hard as I could. That put us in a really good position to where if we hadn’t been unlucky in the last restart with the lapped cars that went though pit lane on the last few laps, we would have had a top ten finish”

CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 23 FIASP CARLIN CHEVROLET (finished 18th, started 15th) “Major props to everyone on the Carlin team – they’ve worked so hard since November to put this program together. To come out and qualify two cars in the top 20 and finish the race with two cars in one piece in the top 22 in their first Indianapolis 500 is impressive. I’m just really proud of these guys, everyone really did a great job all month. I’m excited to come back next year with everything we learned this year both in qualifying and in the race. We will definitely do some things differently but that’s the thing about the first time, you learn so much and we’ll just keep moving forward from here. We’re looking forward to another 100 points up for grab next weekend in Detroit.”

SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 21 PREFERRED FREEZER SERVICES ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET (finished 20th, started sixth): : “We started off well, then came the speeding penalty and next thing I know, we’re a lap down. We weren’t able to get it back. I know we had enough speed to finish in the top ten, but, unfortunately, we didn’t have that luck and finished farther back. I’m still really thankful for my team, especially the Preferred Freezer guys for giving me a great car all month and our fans, too. It was good to be a part of it all. “ 

MAX CHILTON, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET (finished 22nd, started 20th): “Yeah, that’s just the brutal life of the Indianapolis 500. At times you feel like you’re doing well and then at times it’s like the world is against you. I think we did a reasonable job for our first time entering the race as a new team and we did a good job in qualifying. There are definitely things we’ve learned and we’ll come back stronger next year. Honestly, I just didn’t have the pace. I tried in traffic, but I just couldn’t do much with the car. We tried a different fuel strategy at the end, but we just couldn’t make it. It was great to see so many Gallagher guests at the track this weekend to cheer on the No. 59 Gallagher Chevrolet and we’re looking forward to Detroit next weekend.”

TONY KANAAN, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FFOYT RACING CHEVROLET (finished 25th, started 10th): “We had a great day going and we had a puncture, and that put us behind all day long so I was playing catch-up. We came from all the way from the back of the pack to the top 10. Great restarts. It wasn’t our day. I made a mistake trying. We have a great thing going. This team is very promising. We’ll leave here with our heads up.

“Man, the Speedway, right? We had a great day going and then we had a puncture that put us behind all day long, so I was playing catch up. It was not for lack of trying, we came back from all the way from the back of the pack to the inside of the top 10. Great restarts and…oh my God. So, it wasn’t our day. I mean we have a great thing going, this team is very promising so we will leave here with our heads up. We had great pit stops, and I mean it wasn’t our day and to finish ninth or last for me it doesn’t matter. I’m not trying to make an excuse, I made a mistake trying and that for me, in my book, it’s totally fine. I’m looking forward to the future on this team.”

SAGE KARAM, NO. 24 WIX FILTERS DRR CHEVROLET (finished 26th, started 24th): “I really don’t know what happened because the race car was stable in the rear end all day. Then all of a sudden, the car just snapped around without any notice.  It is extremely puzzling. We had a pretty good car all day and then that happened. I’m upset because I felt like we had a car to race into the top-five today. I feel badly because the DRR crew worked so hard to prepare a good machine this month. The nthis happens. I love Indy so much and now my race ends like this.  I know I want to come back here next year and race hard again.”

HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 PENNZOIL TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET (finished 27th, started eighth): “Probably went wide in Turn 3 and probably was a little of dust in the tires and then as soon as I came to 3 and I tried to pass Simon (Pagenaud) but the rear just gave out. I was not expecting; I never had a sign. The car was good. It was definitely tough out there. Please, Roger, let me go back.” 

KYLE KAISER, NO. 32 NFP/JUNCOS RACING CHEVROLET (finished 29th, started 17th): “Obviously, a disappointing end to what I think could have been a really good race.  All month has been pretty amazing.  We have fought our way back from a lot.  We got the car pretty good and had an amazing qualifying and a really good starting position for the race.  We fell back in the beginning of the race with a bad pit stop on my part, but we were fighting back.  We got one lap back and I know we were going to get the other one back.  We had a really good race car.  We were hanging with guys that were running up front and we were fighting through the field.  We are not 100 % sure what put us out of the race, but we know that it was out of our control.

“I am just very happy with everything this month.  It was a great experience.  I was improving and I learned so much.  I can’t wait to be back next year.  I want to say thanks to the team and everyone on the team for doing their part and bringing me a great race car.  I also want to thank NFP for their support and family and friends that came out to make this day possible and to cheer me on.”

DANICA PATRICK, NO. 13 GODADDY ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET (finished 30th, started seventh): “I do feel like it was unexpected, but on the other hand, the car was a little bit positive today and turning more than I wanted it to. I was just having to chase it a lot. Turn 2 did seem a little bit more edgy than the other corners, but I can’t say that in that point in time that I was on edge or felt like I was. It just swung around as soon as I recommitted back to the throttle again, I felt a little bit of understeer in the middle of the corner. I wasn’t expecting it by any means, but I think it just goes to show that these cars are tough to drive. All the drivers out there are great drivers. It was definitely not the way I wanted to end, of course. I wouldn’t want to end any year like this, but being my last race, it definitely makes it a lot worse. I did have some good moments here this month. I won’t forget that, and I won’t forget my fans either.”

THE INCIDENT LOOKED SIMILAR TO WHAT HAPPENED TO ED JONES JUST A FEW LAPS PRIOR
“I’m not really sure what happened. It just seemed to come around. It seemed pretty late off the corner. They said they looked back at the data and there was a little lift in the middle, a little understeer and back to it and just swung. I do feel like it was pretty unexpected. But, on the other hand, the car was a little bit positive today and was turning a bit more than I wanted it to, so just having to chase it a lot. Turn 2 did seem a little bit more edgy than some of the other corners. I can’t say that at that point in time I was on edge of felt like I was. It swung around as soon as I recommitted back to the throttle for a little bit of understeer in the corner. I wasn’t expecting it by any means. I think it just goes to show that these IndyCars are tough to drive.  Today was really disappointing for what we were hoping for and what you want for your last race. I’m grateful for all of it. I wish I could have finished stronger. I wouldn’t want to end it any year that way. Being the last one makes it worse. I did have some good moments here this month and I won’t forget that either and I won’t forget the fans.”

ALL THE EMOTIONS YOU’RE DEALING WITH, ESPECIALLY HERE AT INDY AND WHAT IT’S MADE IN YOUR CAREER, AND NOW YOU’RE LOOKING AT YOUR CAREER THAT’S WRAPPED UP
“It’s an entire career, but what really launched it is this. I’ve had a lot of good fortune here and still had some this month. It just didn’t come on race day.”

JAMES DAVISON, NO. 33 JONATHAN BYRD’S 502 EAST FOYT WITH BYRD/HOLLINGER/BELARDI CHEVROLET (finished 33rd, started 19th):

“We had an anti-roll bar jam on the car, so I just couldn’t change the balance. I had to do the best with the adversity I faced, if I tried any harder I was going to swap ends. I was getting plenty of warning signs there, if I was anywhere close to another car I was getting huge wiggles and snap oversteer. I just really feel for Takuma getting caught up in that, that’s not at all the situation that you want to drag someone else in to. That’s the Indy 500 though isn’t it, I’m still very proud of this Foyt/Byrd/Hollinger/Belardi team for the adversity we overcame and at least showing some kind of competiveness there in the first stint.”