CHEVY INDYCAR AT IOWA: Spencer Pigot Puts Chevy on Podium at Iowa

CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES

IOWA CORN 300

IOWA SPEEDWAY

NEWTON, IOWA

TEAM CHEVY POST RACE RECAP AND TRANSCRIPT

JULY 8, 2018

 

Spencer Pigot Puts Chevy on Podium at Iowa

 

  • Pigot Scores Break-Out Runner-Up Finish in Iowa Corn 300

o   First top-three finish in Verizon IndyCar Series for Ed Carpenter Racing full-time driver

  • Defending Verizon IndyCar Series Champion Newgarden leads race-high 229 laps on way to fourth place finish

o   Jumps to second in the standings after 12th race of season

 

NEWTON, IOWA – July 8, 2018: Spencer Pigot will not forget his first Verizon IndyCar Series race at Iowa Speedway. After qualifying a disappointing 18th, Pigot, in his first full-time season with Ed Carpenter Racing, and the crew of the No. 21 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet knew they had a formidable task in front of them when the green flag flew for the Iowa Corn 300.

 

After 300 grueling laps (268.2-mile) around the tough .894-mile tri-oval, Pigot emerged with his career-first IndyCar podium in his first IndyCar race on the Iowa short-track. His only previous start at Iowa was in 2015 in the Indy Lights Series.

 

Defending Series’ champion Josef Newgarden qualified his No. 1 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet in second, took the lead on lap 24 and looked to be on his way to his fourth win of the season. After leading a race-high 229 laps, tire degradation and changing track conditions opened the door for the top-five in the running order to make a challenge for the win. Newgarden had to settle for a fourth place finish, but the strong run catapulted him to second in the point standings after 12 races.

 

Pole sitter Will Power brought the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet to the finish in sixth place – battling the same changing conditions as the race played-out. The winner of the 2018 Indianapolis 500 and 2014 Series’ champion is fifth in the standings.

 

Simon Pagenaud finished eighth behind the wheel of the No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet, and Ed Carpenter brought the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet to the finish in 10th place to give the Chevrolet 2.2 liter twin turbocharged direct injected V6 engines two of the top-four and five of the top-10 finishing positions.

 

Other Team Chevy drivers finished as follows:

 

  1. No. 23 Charlie Kimball
  2. No. 59 Max Chilton
  3. No. 14 Tony Kanaan
  4. No. 88 Gabby Chaves
  5.       No. 4 Matheus Leist

 

James Hinchcliffe was the race winner, and Takuma Sato completed the podium finishers (both Honda).

 

Next up is the Honda Toronto Indy on the Streets of Toronto, July 15, 2018.