JOSEF NEWGARDEN TAKES CHEVY TO VICTORY LANE

TEAM CHEVY RACE TWO

NTT INDYCAR SERIES

BOMMARITO AUTOMOTIVE GROUP 500 DOUBLEHEADER

PRESENTED BY AXALTA & VALVOLINE

WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY RACEWAY

MADISON, ILLINOIS

AUGUST 30, 2020

Josef Newgarden Wins Race Two, Closes Points Gap to Leader
Chevrolet scores top-four finishers, and five of top-eight finishers

Two-time and defending NTT INDYCAR Series champion Josef Newgarden took his No. 1 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet to Victory Lane in Race Two of the Bommarito Auto Group 500 doubleheader at World Wide Technology Raceway just east of St. Louis. It was Newgarden’s second victory of the 2020 season, and the second win for him and his Team Penske crew at the 1.25-mile track.

Newgarden led a brigade of Team Chevy teammates to the checkered. Pato O’Ward improved his podium finish from yesterday by one with a strong runner-up position. O’Ward, behind the wheel of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet, was matching Newgarden lap for lap to the finish. Completing the podium was Newgarden’s teammate Will Power in the No.12 Verizon Chevrolet.

Rinus VeeKay continued his impressive rookie season after an initial rough debut at Texas with a strong fourth place finish behind the wheel of the No. 21 Sonax Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet to again be the highest finishing rookie.

Conor Daly brought the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet to the finish in eighth position.

Newgarden led twice for a total of 48 laps of the 200-lap that ended under yellow when a car made contact with the wall on lap 197. It was the only yellow under competition. Lap one was under caution due to track clean up from a safety vehicle dropping fluid prior to start of race.

The win strengthened Newgarden’s hold on second in the standings and pulled him closer to leader Scott Dixon who finished fifth. O’Ward is solidly in third in the standings as the season continues winding down.

TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET
2ND PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET
3RD WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET
4TH RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET
8TH CONOR DALY, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET
16TH SIMON PAGENAUD NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET
17TH OLIVER ASKEW, NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET
18TH CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 4 TRESIBA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET
19TH TONY KANAAN, NO. 14 BIG MACHINE VODKA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET
21ST ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 U.S. AIR FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Josef Newgarden (Chevrolet)
2nd Pato O’Ward (Chevrolet)
3rd Will Power (Chevrolet)
4th Rinus VeeKay (Chevrolet)
5th Scott Dixon (Honda)

TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Race Winner
“This is all a pit stop win here for me. We got pretty dicey with Will (Power) and Pato (O’Ward) there on track. My guys have been amazing in the pits. Put me in the position every time. It was really fun racing Pato (O’Ward) out of the pits there. That was for the win there. He did an amazing job. He is going to do great things in this sport. Good job to him. I know it is a smaller crowd, we weren’t allowed to have as many people here. But thank you for coming out. I hope you had a great Sunday and enjoyed the race.

“But like I said, this is all down to my team. Team Chevy did an amazing job and good to have Hitachi on the car this weekend. They do a lot of us. But really proud of my team. They won the race. I didn’t win it, they did!

“We can’t give up on the championship yet. Yesterday was a pretty big blow. We’ve been bitten by bad luck this year. The yellows have gone against us in three or four of the eight races. But what are you going to do? Sometimes they come to you, sometimes they don’t. But that is racing. You just have to get on a good cycle. Maybe this will be a kick start as we head toward the end of the season.”

PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET – Finished 2nd
YOU WERE THIRD YESTERDAY AND SECOND TODAY. DO YOU WISH WE WERE RACING AGAIN TOMORROW?
“We had a great weekend. Our objective was to come in a try to score two podiums and we did that. It would have been great to score a win, but we were so close. This Arrow McLaren SP No. 5 Chevrolet was very strong. Right out of the gates we were super, super competitive. And we’re knocking on the door, man. I mean we’re very close and we’re going to keep pushing. I know our time will come so we have to stay there.”

FOR THE SECOND TIME IN TWO WEEKS WE ENDED UNDER CAUTION. WITH ABOUT FOUR LAPS LEFT, DO YOU THINK YOU HAD ANYTHING FOR JOSEF NEWGARDEN IF IT HAD STAYED GREEN?
“It would be great to say that I did but honestly I was really struggling. Whenever I got the countdown for 10 laps to go, I was pushing and pushing and pushing to try and get close to him to try and strike, but I just couldn’t quite do it. Today was, I think, harder than yesterday for passing. The asphalt on the track was quite a bit harder, so that makes it quite a bit tougher with big trains of cars. And we got to the back of the pack and just kind of got stuck there.”

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Finished 3rd
WE THINK MAYBE YOU’RE NOT A HAPPY PODIUM DWELLER AT THIS POINT
“Yeah, we had a very good car. I felt like we had the car to win. Obviously, it’s a traffic game. I’ve got to thank all the guys, and the Verizon 12 car Chevy was really strong today. We had great starts. A great car. The strategy certainly didn’t work out, obviously, at the end. But, I’m still very happy to get a podium.”

THERE HAS BEEN A LOT OF BAD LUCK RUNNING THROUGH THE PADDOCK. BUT THIS IS MAYBE SEVEN NOW WHERE YOU COULD HAVE WON IF THINGS HAD WORKED OUT DIFFERENTLY. HOW ARE YOU DEALING WITH THAT?
“Yeah, we’ve certainly had a lot of potential this year; and a very strange year. But I feel very fortunate that I get to drive the Verizon car and we get to do this, and we can actually have some fans here. It’s a fantastic job and I’d obviously would love to win but it wasn’t today.”

RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET – Finished 4th
TELL US ABOUT YOUR DAY AND THAT BATTLE YOU HAD WITH COLTON HERTA LATE IN THE RACE
“So, I started 18th. But the race pace was great. I had a really good first lap. I got around on the outside by a lot of guys and then it was just really a team effort after that first stop. It was strategy. A shout-out to the team for giving me such a good car. And then we were in the top three for that final time and at the end I got a little close with Colton. And you know, it’s tough. It’s really hard to pass here and it was really my only chance to pass Colton. So, I moved to the outside. And you know, there’s marbles. A lot of marbles. And they are dangerous here. So, I tried to stay out of them. And of course, you’re fighting for your position, so you’re not given a lot of room and I think this was just enough.

“It was a great race, one of the best races I have ever driven! Yesterday, I started 14th and finished 6th so today, starting 18th, I was aiming for a Top 10 finish. I had an amazing first lap, got around a lot of guys. The strategy was brilliant, so shout out to my team for making this possible! Those last few laps were very tough, everyone was all over the place. Just missed out on the podium but I don’t care about that right now, P4 was the best I could do!”

CONOR DALY, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET – Finished 5th
“It was a pretty good day for us today starting 15th. There was a lot of chaos at the front with the oil dry on the track, so that was hectic. We lost a little bit because we got stuck on the inside at the beginning, but we gained a lot coming back on the outside in turns 3 and 4 on the first lap. The No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet was just fantastic. We worked our way forward every stop and the guys did a great job in the pits. We were just so fast. We got all the way up behind Dixon, but just at the end we had a big moment of understeer on the last stint which put us back one position. To start the race in 15th and finish eighth here today and to have four of the five races together with Carlin all with top-10 finishes is just really awesome. I’m just happy and thankful to be here and to have had the opportunity to be competitive with this team and get so close to a podium so many times.”

SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Finished 16th
“Yeah, the whole weekend didn’t go well. Yesterday really put us on the back foot, and we didn’t get to really feel the race car. Today, Turn 1 just obviously got us shuffled and sandwiched and didn’t want to end my race in the first corner, so I slowed down and lost all momentum. It caused a freight train around me. We had a really good car the whole race; we were just stuck at the back. I was super happy with the Menards Chevy, but I think we had one of the fastest laps of the race. We just got stuck in the back, so let’s regroup and go to the next race. I guess it’s that kind of a season where you just have to take every race as it comes.”

OLIVER ASKEW, NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET – Finished 17th
“We just got passed by too many cars at the start. That made it really tough to get through the field. I feel like we had the car to maybe get into the top-10 or top-5. The No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet was fast in clean air, when we had it. Just disappointed with the start that made our race really difficult from there. Looking forward to hopefully getting back on a road course in a couple weeks.”

CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 4 TRESIBA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET – Finished – 18th
“Well kind of a tough day for the No. 4 Tresiba Chevrolet car. We started 21st, kind of ran around there, made a couple of passes at the start and then settled into our pace. I think everyone was really struggling with passing. There wasn’t a whole lot of over-taking but I know my guys in pit lane got me at least two spots that I know of, so big ups to them as normal. They did a great job in pit lane and we’ll learn from this and moved forward.”

TONY KANAAN, NO. 14 BIG MACHINE VODKA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET – Finished 19th
“Track position was everything. We had a pretty decent start, moved up a little bit but honestly, I think it was pretty boring race–but it was a boring race for everyone. Mixed feelings on my last one. I wish I could have given the boys and A.J. and Big Machine a better result but the rest of the day was fun. It was a good way to end it. I want to thank my fans, my team and everyone who has been involved in this journey, my family. It’s been good. I’m done for this year but hopefully not done totally but we’ll see. My fingers are crossed that maybe I could come back for a proper last lap with my fans but for now, drop the mic.”

ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 U.S. AIR FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET – Finished 21st
“I am pretty bummed out. Second race in a row that I’ve been representing one of the Forces, the U.S. Air Force this weekend. I was basically out of the race before it started, also for the second race in a row. Zach Veach is the current theme right now. He obviously didn’t see the yellow flag or the bright yellow car spinning on the track.”