CHEVY INDYCAR AT TEXAS: Pagenaud Puts Chevy on Podium at Texas

CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES

DXC TECHNOLOGY 600

TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY POST RACE DRIVER QUOTES

JUNE 9, 2018

Simon Pagenaud Puts Chevy on Podium at Texas

FT WORTH – June 9, 2018) – Simon Pagenaud scored a hard-fought runner-up finish in the 248-lap/357.12-mile DXC Technology 600 at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS).  Behind the wheel of the No. 22 DXC Technology Team Penske Chevrolet, the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series (VICS) champion scored his first podium of the season and his first at TMS.

Starting second, Pagenaud battled through the scorching heat that plagued the event all weekend that resulted in greater tire wear.  He was credited for leading twice for 26 laps, and jumps to eighth in the standings with eight races remaining in the 2018 season.

Charlie Kimball, No. 23 Tresiba Carlin Chevrolet, scored his third top-10 of the year after starting in 12th position.

Defending VICS champion Josef Newgarden started on the pole and was credited with leading once for 59 laps, but had to pit for a vibration that relegated him to the 13th finishing position, four laps down to the leader.  After nine races, the driver of the No. 1 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet sits fifth in the standings.

Indianapolis 500 winner Will Power, started third and ran in the top-five throughout the majority of the race until on-track contact with another competitor ended his night in 18th position.  Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, now sits third in points as the Series looks forward to a weekend off.

 

Other Team Chevy drivers finished as follows:

Spencer Pigot                                               11th

Max Chilton                                                  12th

Gabby Chaves                                             15th

Ed Carpenter                                                            20th

Tony Kanaan                                                            21st

Matheus Leist                                               22nd

 

Scott Dixon and Alexander Rossi (both Honda) completed tHE podium.

 

Up next for Team Chevy in the Verizon IndyCar Series will be Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on June 24, 2018.

 

DRIVER QUOTES:

SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 DXC TECHNOLOGY TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND:  ON RACE BATTLE WITH ROSSI: “They gave me some grey hair at the end. It was awesome. It was a great showing for DXC Technology, obviously, and I had a blast. It was very difficult racing, and Rossi kept me on my toes at the end and I had to try everything to break the draft. He was getting monster runs out of Turn 3 and 4 but we had good handling and we were able to hold him off. I was trying to break the draft on the exit of Turn 2 and it worked out for the last 10 laps. I’m super proud of my guys in the pits. They did a great job today. And the whole No. 22 team was on it this weekend. So, it’s nice to get a good second place. We want to win, obviously, but it was a good showing.”

CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 23 TRESIBA CARLIN CHEVROLET, FINISHED 10TH: Tonight was tough, with the tires degrading and the car sliding around more and more as the stint went on. The nice thing about the No. 23 Tresiba Chevrolet, actually both Carlin cars, is that they were stable all race. I was confident in what the car was going to be able to do. That really comes down to the preparation that the team has put into making sure that every time I roll out of pit lane they’ve given me the absolute best car that they can. It feels like these top-10 finishes are starting to be a habit and we’ll just keep moving forward from here.” 

SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 21 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 11TH:   “It was a tough race. Throughout the stints, the balance was changing quite a lot so I had to try and stay on top of that. At the end of the day, we were missing a little bit but we hung in there. The guys did a great job with strategy and in the pits to keep us in the fight and finishing 11th was probably better than we expected at the beginning of the race! Overall, I’m just happy to get through it and I learned a lot tonight.”

MAX CHILTON, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET, FINISHED 12TH : “It was a long day in the office. Sometimes this race feels as challenging as Indy. We knew coming into this race it was going to have its curve balls. I felt like we handled everything thrown our way tonight pretty well. Our tires lasted longer than most people – I think we might’ve done one of the longest stints. I struggled with ultimate lap pace, but from midway onward we had pretty good speed. It was more to do with just strategy at that point. We were three laps down and we were able to get ourselves to one lap down. We had some good pit stops and we had a couple of good overtakes. We’ll take P12 for sure for the No. 59 Gallagher Chevrolet, especially considering where we started. We’ll have a nice midseason break here next week and we’ll come back stronger in Road America.”

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 13TH“You know, pretty much anything bad that could have happen happened tonight for the No. 1 Verizon team.  Everyone worked real hard and the guys gave me a great car.  Everyone did everything they could tonight. It was a great effort from my team.  Pretty much, anything that could have went wrong went wrong tonight.  That is all there is to it. We will move on to Road America.”

GABBY CHAVES, NO. 88 HARDING GROUP HARDING RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 15TH“It was a bit of a long night. We felt pretty good about the car during the last session on Friday night. So we came into the race thinking that we’d be in pretty good shape. We did a small tweak which I think threw the balance over the edge and because of that we really struggled for the first stint. The car was really loose, so it became pretty hard to drive and keep pace on a track like this. We tried to do the best we could and made some good changes that gave us good pace after that, but unfortunately we were already already so many laps down that it’s impossible to get back into the race. Proud of our guys for powering through today, onto Road America!”

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED  18TH: “The guys in front of me were saving a lot of fuel and completely lifting  to try and make it and someone went around on the outside.  Unfortunately, the timing stand was talking to me at that exact moment and I couldn’t hear my spotter call outside and there was someone outside at that point.  It’s just a bad situation, but something that happens at a track like this.  It was not the guy on the outside’s fault.  I didn’t know he was out there at that point.  We were lifting so much trying to save fuel and he go outside me.  It was just a bad deal, but we will move on to Road America.“

ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING  CHEVROLET, FINISHED 20th:  Sidelined in crash on Lap 173 “It was a mistake. I knew Robby (Robert Wickens) was coming. I thought I could close the door, but it was a big mistake on my part. He was a lead lap car. We were having a bad day; so, my apologies to him. I know it doesn’t mean much now. I feel bad for those guys. I feel bad for my guys. The night certainly didn’t need to end like this. It’s a mistake on me, and I’ll have to come back and get ‘em in Iowa.”

AS GOOD AS YOU WERE IN INDY, WAS IT THAT HARD AND THAT BAD TONIGHT?

“We just didn’t have it this weekend. We just could never get the balance right where it needed to be. That last stint, thought it was going to be a little bit better with the adjustment we made, but we never quite had it this weekend. And, then I made it worse by making a mistake like that.”

TONY KANAAN, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 21ST: Sidelined by contact: “I don’t know what happened. We definitely had a little issue with the rear of the car and it cost us the race. But it was a great weekend up until now, we qualified sixth. You know when you’re 12 laps down, it’s not worth it to put yourself out there. We’re not going to gain anything so we decided to stop. We’ll bounce back.”

MATHEUS LEIST, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 22ND: Sidelined by mechanical issues: “We were having a solid start I think and then I just lost power in Turn 1. I told the team “No power. No power.” And then suddenly I just saw flames coming up from the engine cover. We don’t know what happened. The only thing is that it is a pity for the team. I feel for the team not just for myself. I think we had a great car here and we could have done a great race here. It is what it is. It happens sometimes. Looking forward to the next one now.”