CHEVROLET NTT INDYCAR SERIES
HONDA INDY 200 DOUBLE HEADER
MID-OHIO SPORTS CAR COURSE
LEXINGTON, OHIO
TEAM CHEVY RACE ONE RECAP
SEPTEMBER 12, 2020

TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet
2nd Josef Newgarden, No. 1 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet
8th Rinus VeeKay, No. 21 Sonax Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet
11th Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet
13th Conor Daly, No. 21 U.S. Air Force Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet
18th Simon Pagenaud, No. 22 DXC Technology Team Penske Chevrolet
19th Oliver Askew, No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Will Power (Chevrolet)
2nd Josef Newgarden (Chevrolet)
3rd Alexander Rossi (Honda)
4th Graham Rahal (Honda)
5th Ryan Hunter-Reay (Honda)

WILL POWER TURNS POLE INTO WIN

It was a good day for Will Power. Not only did he win his 60th P1 Award in the NTT INDYCAR Series , it turned it into his 38th Series’ win. It was also his first win at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course

Power, the 2014 Series’ chamion and 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner, led 66 of the 75 lap race. It’s the third pole, but first win of the season for Power. It is his 8th win of the season.

Defending and two-time champion Josef Newgarden, No. 1 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet, finished second and gained 20 points in the championship battle. He is now 76 points down to leader.

Giving Chevrolet three of the top-eight was Rookie-of-the-Year points leader Rinus VeeKay, No. 21 Sonax Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet.

The NTT IndyCar Series season continues on Sunday September 13th with Race #2 of the Honda Indy 200 Doubleheader at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. NBC will telecast the race at 1:00 p.m.ET. Live coverage can also be found on Pennzoil INDYCAR Radio Network affiliates, Sirius 211, XM 205, IndyCar.com and on the INDYCAR Mobile app powered by NTT DATA. Live coverage of NTT INDYCAR SERIES qualifying is available on NBC Gold, XM 205, IndyCar.com and the INDYCAR Mobile app at 10:15 a.m.

TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – WINNER:
YOU FINALLY GOT IT DONE BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, YOU GUYS JUST PUT TOGETHER A COMPLETE RACE. IT LOOKED FLAWLESS. WHAT DOES THAT DO FOR THIS TEAM MOVING FORWARD?
“It’s great. It’s been a pretty trying year. Obviously, for everyone it has. I mean, the circumstances are very tough with COVID-19 and all the social distancing that we have to do. But the fact that we’re out here racing, and we have some fans is fantastic. We love to do it; we love to entertain, and we love to drive. I’m so happy to have the Verizon No. 12 car in Victory Lane. And this is probably the first race, I reckon, in about ten years that I haven’t just gone hard. Every other race we save fuel and play a strategy game. Today I just said hey let’s just go hard, man. Screw this. We don’t want to get caught by a yellow. Let’s just run hard and use my raw pace and see what happens. And we won the race, so it was a great strategy.”

YOU MADE IT LOOK SO EASY. BUT BEHIND THE WHEEL, WERE THERE ANY MOMENTS THAT KIND OF GOT YOUR HEART RATE UP?
“No, it’s just putting down good laps, lap after lap after lap. I’d get to someone I had to lap, and I’d get past and I’d push hard. It was just a flawless day. That’s what you’ve got to do to win races in this series. The whole team did a fantastic job and to see Verizon in Victory Lane again is fantastic because it’s been a while.”

A COUPLE OF MILESTONES TODAY INCLUDING YOUR 60TH CAREER POLE, SECOND ALL-TIME. YOU ALSO PICK-UP YOUR FIRST WIN HERE AT MID-OHIO. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE sCHECKING SOME OF THOSE BOXES AND MOVING UP ON THE ALL-TIME WINS LIST, AS WELL?
“It’s just great to tick the Mid-Ohio box. I have finished on the :podium here five times; on the front row, I think we counted like nine times, and finally converted one. So, I’m absolutely over the moon.”

THIS IS A VERY PHYSICAL COURSE. HOW DO YOU PREPARE TO COME BACK FOR THE SECOND RACE HERE EARLY TOMORROW?
“I’ll definitely have an ice bath and a bit of massage and then try to sleep. It’s hard to get the ole ticker to stop when you’ve executed like 75 hard laps. But we’ll be all right. Everyone is in the same boat. I’m pretty fit. And I feel good.”
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JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 PPG TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Finished 2nd:
“It was a pretty straightforward day. We kind of finished where we started, I was lucky to get by Ryan Hunter-Raey at the start. We missed the chaos. It would have been amazing if this rain would have come 10 minutes sooner. I don’t think I wanted this necessarily made a difference for us today, but it would have been fun to watch. Congrats to Will. He is still Will Power. He’s been knocked down a little bit and has had some tough times. So really happy for him.

“I wish our PPG car could have been a little better. But I think we were a couple of tenths slower today each lap. I could kind of tell all race I was fighting for second. Team Chevy obviously did a great job so super proud of that. Having PPG here in Ohio is always good.

“Tomorrow we just need to be a little bit sportier than we were. In the beginning it was kind of evident we couldn’t run with Will. If we can pick up a couple of tenths a lap I think we can race with him. We did make up some points like you said. One place higher would have make it even bigger. We will do our best.

“I was tired after the hour and 15 minute practice which just shows you the physical toughness of this track. So to do another 75-lap race and get-up on the wheel to get something. I wish it would come through how tough these cars are to drive. Everybody up and down pit lane is working hard.”

RINUS VEEKAY, No. 21 SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET- Finished 8th:
“Good race! I struggled a little bit at the beginning to get around slower traffic. Once I figured it out, it was really enjoyable. It definitely wasn’t a perfect race, but I’m happy with what we made of it and the speed we had. I think we can do even better in qualifying tomorrow, which will make the race easier!”

PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET – Finished 11th:
“Yeah, we had a really messy day today. Not starting toward the front doesn’t make your life any easier. We had some clutch issues in the pits which caused us to stall. That made it really difficult for us to get out of the box. We made up as much time as we could on track. We were very fast and I think the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet was one of the best cars out there. We just didn’t quite perfect the little things that get you to the front today. We will work on that for tomorrow and we should have a good race.”

CONOR DALY, NO. 20 U.S. AIR FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET – Finished 13th:
“We had a really good start, got up to 3rd, which was nice! We struggled with the balance a little bit, but once we settled into 4th we held our position. It was tough to nail the times we needed on the out laps. Running out of fuel, these things happen sometimes. It was a shame because we would have been in the Top 10. Hopefully, we can work on some race pace for tomorrow and thankfully we have another day.”

MAX CHILTON, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET – Finished 16th:
“It was a tough race for us. We had a fairly decent run at qualifying earlier today finishing sixth in our group and just barely missing out on a top-10 start for the Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet in Race 1. We lost a few spots at the start of the race and then after that it was just tough to get around anyone and get those positions back. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t go forward like we would’ve liked especially with how well we qualified and how quick the guys were in pit lane. We have some things to look at tonight, but thankfully we get another chance tomorrow to do it all again and we’ve already shown in qualifying that we have the speed to be battling with the guys in the top 10.”

SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 DXC TECHNOLOGY TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Finished 18th:
“Frustrating day for the No. 22 DXC Technology Chevrolet. We had some good pace, but with no cautions and the mistake at the beginning of the race, it was hard to make up the track position. Just spun out and stalled the car and couldn’t get it refired. We tried to short pit and gain some track position, but without any cautions, there wasn’t much else we could do. Hopefully, we can go out there tomorrow and do better.”

OLIVER ASKEW, NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET – Finished 19th:
“It was a tough day for the entire team. You’re always going into the race on your back foot when you don’t qualify toward the front. The No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet felt strong during the race but it’s always tough to pass at Mid-Ohio and we just couldn’t make up ground. The entire team will put in the work tonight to figure out how we can be better and faster tomorrow. Looking forward to getting another shot at it.”

DALTON KELLETT, NO 14 K-LINE USA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET – Finished 22nd:
“Not the overall finishing position we’d like, but I think we found some easy time to gain in qualifying for tomorrow so hopefully we should be able to qualify a little further up the grid and that will definitely make it a little easier because when you’re starting at the back there, by the end of the first lap you’re already a significant chunk behind the leaders and it’s a short lap so then with the pit cycles you end up kind of risking going a lap down and getting caught in a pack that’s at a different speed than you so that can be a bit difficult. So really the goal for tomorrow is qualifying further up, that will make our lives easier and keep working on the car. I think we’ve made the car better from practice to qualifying to the race and definitely learned some good lessons today that we can take into tomorrow.”

CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 4 TRESIBA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET – Finished 21st:
“It was a really tough day honestly. We missed it a little bit in qualifying and I feel like we missed it a lot in the race. The 14 car looked a little more competitive in the race so we’ll look at what they did and come up with some ideas. The nice thing is that we get to do it all again tomorrow, so I have a lot of faith in the No. 4 AJ Foyt Racing crew. We just have to sit down, put all our heads together and come up with something to start tomorrow.”