CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
REV GROUP GRAND PRIX DOUBLEHEADER
PRESENTED BY AMR – ROUND #2
ROAD AMERICA
ELKHART LAKE, WISCONSIN
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES & QUOTES
July 12, 2020

TOP CHEVROLET UNOFFICIALP RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
2nd Pato O’Ward
9th Josef Newgarden
10th Charlie Kimball
11th Will Power
13th Simon Pagenaud
14th Rinus Veekay
15th Max Chilton

TOP-FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS
POS. DRIVER
1st Felix Rosenquist (Honda)
2nd Pato O’Ward (Chevrolet)
3rd Alexander Rossi (Honda)
4th Marcus Ericsson (Honda)
5th Colton Herta (Honda)

It was a weekend of firsts for Pato O’Ward. The young driver put his No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet on the NTT INDYCAR Series pole for the first time in his career. It was also the first pole for a Arrow McLaren SP as the newest member of Team Chevy in INDYCAR.

O’Ward followed his pole-winning effort with leading a race-high 43 laps and scoring his first INDYCAR podium taking home runner-up hardware.

Race Two was cleaner than Saturday’s Race One, but was marred with a major crash on lap one in turn one that took out two cars and damages several others.

O’Ward appeared to be heading for his first victory, but lapped traffic, need to manage fuel mileage and monitor tire wear led to eventual winner Felix Rosenquist passing for the lead with two laps remaining in the race.

The NTT INDYCAR Series season continues next weekend at Iowa Speedway with the Iowa INDYCAR 250’s on Friday and Saturday, July 17th and 18th at 8:30 p.m. ET. Both events will be telecast live on NBCSN. Live coverage can also be found on the INDYCAR Radio Network, Sirius 211, XM 205, IndyCar.com and on thre INDYCAR MOBILE APP powered by NTT DATA.

TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:
PATWO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET, Finished 2nd:
YOUR TEAM SAID THEY ASKED A LOT OF YOU. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THOSE FINAL LAPS?
“Yeah, it was really tough. The Ganassi cars, obviously Felix (Rosenqvist) was behind me, had a lot of pace. I think we did a really good job managing the whole race. But towards the end, whenever we got into a mix with some lapped cars and dirty air, that really hurt us. I gave it every single little bit that I had. I was pushing, pushing, pushing, but I just couldn’t keep Felix behind me. But I really want to thank Arrow McLaren and Chevy. The car was really, really good. We just missed that little extra on keeping the rear tires under us. But you know, we’re here. We got some good points this weekend and we’re looking forward to Iowa. We like running up front and I think we showed that we have everything to do it. So, I’m excited for the rest of the season.”

YOU MENTIONED THE LAPPED TRAFFIC. ONE OF THOSE DRIVERS WAS CONOR DALY. DID YOU TRY TO PUSH ASIDE WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY AND GET THAT OUT OF YOUR HEAD?
“Not really. Honestly, I think it was a racing incident yesterday. I think it would have been a different situation if I was overtaking him there, but I was defending. So, I think anybody is going to say whatever they think, but there was no action taken against me for a reason, so I thank him for respecting me and everything, whenever I was leading. You know, it’s racing. Things will happen. I think today we executed. I’m ecstatic. Whenever a second place is disappointing, you know it’s a good day. We started on the pole and we led almost the whole thing. If the race was five laps shorter, we would have been fine. But we have something to work on and we’re going to keep pushing hard.”

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 PPG TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FIINISHED 9TH:
“Just a tough day for our PPG Chevrolet. Not the kind of day we wanted, especially when you see someone like (Scott) Dixon not have a very stellar day either. We just didn’t have the speed we were hoping to have. I thought we made some good changes overnight, but the race didn’t play out in our favor today. Early on, we knew we were going to be fighting some aero issues being back in the pack, so we switched to more of a fuel strategy/track position race. It could have played out a few different ways, but it just wasn’t meant to be today. All-in-all, we had some speed in our Chevrolet this weekend and we showed that with the pole and leading a bunch of laps yesterday. We just couldn’t put everything together. We will move on and focus our efforts on Iowa now.”

CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 4 TRESIBA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 10TH:
“I’m really excited to get the first top 10 of the season here in Race number two at Road America. The No. 4 Tresiba Chevrolet team worked really hard overnight to get the car ready for qualifying. We qualified 13th, had a good run there, had to save a little fuel at the end, make it across the line, come home 10th. I think it’s a good weekend – 11th yesterday, 10th today – put some points in the bank and we’ll head to a doubleheader at Iowa next weekend”

WILL POWER, NO.12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 11TH
“Man, just a rough race for us today. I guess in the end, things could have been worse and an 11th place finish is a small victory. I don’t really agree with the penalty from early in the race. I felt that was just a racing deal. So we had to come in and change the front wing, then I made a mistake and ran off the track and we had to make another stop for another wing change. Just not the day we needed for the Verizon Chevrolet. Got a podium yesterday, but just didn’t have it today.”

SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 13TH
“I’m ready to get to Iowa and get the Menards Chevrolet back up front. This was not our best weekend, but I have to give it to my guys, they never gave up and worked really hard all weekend long. Both days, we tried a lot of different strategies to try and gain back the track position that we needed from qualifying further back in the field. Yesterday, we should have had a top-10 and today we gave it all we had. Just had to play the cards we were dealt and try and make it up through pit strategy and fuel savings. At times, the car was a handful and at times we were as fast as the leaders. Time to shift our focus to Iowa Speedway. There are a lot of points we can make up with another doubleheader weekend.”

RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 14TH:
“It was a really tough weekend. We were struggling for speed, but we worked super hard to make the best out of it. I did everything I could, I drove the Direct Supply car the best I could! I’m really ready to try again in Iowa.”

MAX CHILTON, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET, FINISHED 15TH:
“It was a bit of strange race with all the different strategies so it was difficult to see where we actually were throughout the race, but we were consistently making passes and hitting fuel numbers. Honestly it just boils down to how tight the INDYCAR field is. We really weren’t that far off of the leaders with the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet. Obviously we would’ve liked to qualify higher and finish the race higher than 15th, but when you really take a look at the race as a whole it’s a lot easier to see the positives and potential. Also the guys did a great job this weekend – they didn’t miss a beat coming into such a busy doubleheader weekend. This weekend was definitely a learning experience for us and we just keep getting stronger and stronger every race. It’ll be a few weeks before I’m back on track at Mid-Ohio, but I’m really looking forward to cheering on the team next weekend and seeing what they can do in Iowa.”

CONOR DALY, NO. 20 U.S. AIR FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING, FINISHED 18TH :
“We were the victim of a start stack up. We had a good start, everyone started going but then they all stopped. It’s a circumstance of starting in the back. We had some damage immediately and once we got that fixed, we just tried to make something of our race. We didn’t get the yellow that we needed to catch up. On reds there at the end, we were really fast. That was encouraging and we were able to make up some spots. Obviously, it was a tough weekend. Overall, I’m thankful for the work that were guys did to get us back out there. We’ll rebound at the next one for sure.”

DALTON KELLETT, NO 14 K-LINE USA AJ FOYT RACING, FINISHED 20TH:
“We’re wrapped up here at Road America. It was a great race weekend, lots of learning for me with the doubleheader, lots of experience gained. The team gave me a great car to learn and keep on progressing, so working with the 14 car crew and Charlie and the 4 car crew, we got some great data. We’ll be debriefing after this. We want to keep getting better, keep progressing. Obviously we don’t want to be coming home 20th, we want to be fighting with the pack. I think we’ve got some good information coming out of this weekend and going into Mid Ohio – it’s one of my favorite tracks – so it’s going to be a fun weekend. We’ve got about three weeks to think about things so we should be able to regroup and come back strong then.”

OLIVER ASKEW, NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET, FINISHED 21ST:
“Looking forward to putting this behind us. Our race was compromised from the beginning after being hit in the rear. Lost a lot of downforce from the under wing and also had a gearbox issue so we were way behind pace and focused on finishing the race. Really unfortunate circumstances, and definitely a weekend to put behind us. We are taking this as a learning experience and moving on to Iowa next week.”