CHEVROLET RACING IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES

INDYCAR HARVEST GP

INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY ROAD COURSE

RACE 2 RECAP AND QUOTES

OCT. 3, 2020

Power, Chevrolet complete INDYCAR Harvest GP sweep
Race 1 winner Newgarden within 32 points of title lead; Chevy scores 199th win

INDIANAPOLIS (Oct. 3, 2020) – Will Power led all 75 laps of Race 2 of the INDYCAR Harvest GP on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course to claim his second victory of the season in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet and 39th of his NTT INDYCAR SERIES career.

Chevrolet swept the doubleheader as reigning NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Josef Newgarden, driving the No. 1 Team Penske Chevrolet, won the 85-lap Race 1 on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course on Oct. 2.

Chevrolet has registered 88 victories in 148 NTT INDYCAR SERIES races since returning to manufacturer competition in 2012. Overall, Chevrolet has 199 wins in Indy car racing (under AAA, USAC, CART, Champ Car, IRL and INDYCAR sanction):

Chevrolet 2.2-liter V6 twin turbocharged direct-injected engine supplier – 88: INDYCAR (2012-present)

Chevrolet V8 engine supplier — 104: CART (1987-1993) and Indy Racing League (2002-05)

Miscellaneous victories credited to Chevrolet — 7: USAC and CART (1965-81)

“Just so happy to have Verizon, Chevy in Victory Lane again,” said Power, who won by .8932 of a second over Colton Herta in the caution-free race. “We had two Hondas trying to attack us (toward the end of the race), but the Chevy had very good power and drivability, so I’m over the moon to get another win.”

It is the ninth time in his career that Power has won from the pole, including four times on the IMS road course (2015, 2017, 2018 and 2020). The win tied Al Unser for fifth on the all-time Indy car victory list.

Earlier in the day, Power claimed his fourth NTT P1 Award of the season and 61st pole of his career. Power, who has earned 37 of his career poles since 2012 in a Chevrolet-powered car, is six behind leader Mario Andretti on the all-time Indy car list.

Chevrolet has amassed 98 earned poles (102 counting poles based on entrant points when qualifications were canceled because of inclement weather) in the 148 races.

Newgarden finished fourth and Pato O’Ward, driving the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet, placed fifth. Simon Pagenaud rounded out the Team Chevy top 10 with a 10th-place finish in the DXC Technology Team Penske Chevrolet.
Newgarden closed to 32 points of front-runner Scott Dixon in the chase for the driver championship heading into the heading into the season finale Oct. 25 on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street circuit in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Firestone GP of St. Petersburg will be telecast by NBC at 2:30 p.m. ET. Newgarden won the 2019 race, which was the season opener.

CHEVROLET UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1 Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet
4 Josef Newgarden, No. 1 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet
5 Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet
10 Simon Pagenaud, No. 22 DXC Technology Team Penske Chevrolet
17 Rinus VeeKay, No. 21 Sonax Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet
18 Sebastien Bourdais, No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet
19 Max Chilton, No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet
20 Conor Daly, No. 20 U.S. Air Force Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet
21 Helio Castroneves, No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet
23 Charlie Kimball, No. 4 Tresiba AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet
24 Sage Karam, No. 24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Oil2Soil Chevrolet
25 Dalton Kellett, No. 41 K-Line AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1 Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet
2 Colton Herta, No. 88 Capstone Andretti Autosport Honda
3 Alexander Rossi, No. 27 AutoNation Andretti Autosport Honda
4 Josef Newgarden, No. 1 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet
5 Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – RACE WINNER: “The tires had gone away and it was a tough battle and I had to work very hard to keep him behind. I am just so happy to have Verizon and Chevy in Victory Lane again. We had two Hondas trying to attack us there but my Chevy had very good power and drive-ability, so just over the moon to get another win, especially at this place.”

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – FINISHED 4TH “We were a little shy of where we needed to be. If we had a phenomenal day like we had yesterday, we would be in really good shape. We were just mediocre today. I think we had a car to compete with Will and Herta and Rossi up there but we just didn’t start up there high enough. With the start, I got kind of buried on the inside and I tried to get as much as I could on the outside but then Santino came in running tight – but he was fine. It just got tight and I got pushed back a little too far. The key for us was being up higher earlier today. I just had to work for a lot just like Scott did. If we had a cleaner qualifying run, I think we really would have had a better day. I’m really thankful to Team Chevy. There were two wins for Team Chevy here this weekend. They did a phenomenal job, and obviously having Hitachi support is always big for us. Look, we’re in it with a shot. We’re going to go to St. Pete and try and win this championship. I just wish we were in a little closer position.”

RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET – FINISHED 17TH: “Way different race than yesterday! I wish there had been some kind of yellow so we could have done something! Two stints on blacks, that was tough. We were not quick on the blacks yesterday and that did not change for today. The last stint on reds was pretty okay, we just had some unfortunate things happen today. I wasn’t completely happy with the handling of the car, but we didn’t get the set up quite right – it happens! Everyone gave 100%, including me, and that just wasn’t enough today. Let’s head to St. Pete and send it!”

MAX CHILTON, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET – FINISHED 19TH:  “It was a really tough day out there today. We had an issue on the start where we got blocked and lost quite a few spots, but thankfully we were able to make them up throughout the race. We just really struggled on blacks. The reds were manageable, but the blacks had zero grip. I just didn’t feel like I could be as aggressive today as I was yesterday, so unfortunately we weren’t as competitive as we were in Race 1. Even with the fuel saving, we were still able to make up positions throughout the race especially when we were on the reds. Obviously I wish we could’ve improved today and gotten a top 10, but it just wasn’t in the cards for us.” 

CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 4 TRESIBA CHEVROLET – FINISHED 23RD: “Honestly kind of a frustrating day. We made the decision strategically to do something different than the 14 and something different than the 41. We started on used alternate Firestones. The pace just wasn’t great. The second stint on our first set of primes (tires) we just really struggled to find lap time, so from yesterday to today we seemed to have gotten a little outside the window. I don’t know if it was weather conditions, track conditions or just the tires we had left after using a little more on yesterday’s race but going for the three stop we had to make really good lap time and we struggled with a little bit during the second stint of the race. But at the end the lap times weren’t bad on the third and fourth stints. We just need to figure out how to make the car better in qualifying so we don’t have to throw Hail Mary’s.”

DALTON KELLETT, NO. 41 K LINE USA CHEVROLET – FINISHED 25TH: “Definitely not the way we wanted to end the season for the No. 41 K Line Insulators USA crew. We thought we were looking pretty good going into the race with the two new sets of Firestone alternates (tires). When we went to sticker reds, we didn’t quite have the pace and it just seemed like the car couldn’t quite take the extra little bit of aggression to try to get that next few tenths out of it. Had a couple mistakes in (turn) 1 trying to push the brakes out a little bit deeper but getting front lock up, so that really hurt us having to take the run off road there. At the end of the day we didn’t quite have the pace or the consistency to pull off the strategy that we were trying to go for which was a bummer for the team. I think we’ve worked really hard all season and we’ve definitely made improvements but obviously today showed there’s some work that we have to do. We have to sit down and think really hard over what’s been good about the changes that we’ve made so far and what hasn’t worked and come up with a plan from there. ”

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 14 AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET – FINISHED 18TH “It was a pretty trying weekend, not where we want to be but it’s just the beginning of the relationship. We’re hoping to build something and prepare as best as possible for next year. In some respects we achieved that. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us but if it was easy I may not be here. We have a lot to think about, a lot to go through and analyze and see what may explain what we’ve experienced this weekend. Starting from where we started today makes things very difficult but we were on the right strategy with the two-stopper because everyone who had a halfway decent day was on the two stop strategy. Passing was once again extremely difficult. Just a shame we got caught up in some guys’ messes when they tangled and got back on track like Ericsson running off the track and making us lose a couple of positions. We never could recover from that because passing was so difficult. At the end of the day, live and learn. Everybody tried real hard, the mechanics did a great job throwing all the changes that we wanted to try at the car and that was quite a bit all weekend long. We’ll keep working at it and move forward

CONOR DALY, NO. 20 U.S. AIR FORCE CHEVROLET – FINISHED 20TH: “As made a move into Turn 1 on Lap 2, we had a glitch and lost the throttle for a couple of seconds. I had to fall back to last, but honestly from then on, we had really good pace. Our second stint on new reds was great, we got up to 14th from dead last. We were making great progress but couldn’t maintain the speed on the last set of used reds. The 41 car blocked us pretty aggressively and was not very sportsmanlike, which was a shame. We just had to hang on to the finish.”

HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN CHEVROLET – FINISHED 21ST “The result doesn’t show how much work everyone from Arrow McLaren SP put into this weekend to make sure I was comfortable. We tried a different strategy, and even if the strategy wasn’t right, it was right for me because I could push and understand more of the car on reds. I wish we could have another qualifying and race tomorrow. I can’t thank Sam, Ric, Zak and Arrow McLaren SP enough for an amazing job. The car is in one piece which is great. Great experience. Hopefully Oliver continues to look after his health.”

PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET – FINISHED FIFTH “We ended up where we started, we didn’t go backwards, we didn’t go forwards. I think we maximized absolutely everything we could out of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet. Our black tire pace was where we really lost our chance at a podium. We have some work to do, but there’s one more race to go. We are going to try and get a win before the year ends. We are going to give it hell in St. Pete.”

SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 DXC TECHNOLOGY TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – FINISHED 10TH: “It was a big weekend for Team Penske. Will did a great job today and congratulations to him for the win. We worked hard today for a top-10 finish with the DXC Technology Chevrolet and it was a good way for us to end the weekend. With another good finish today by Josef, Team Penske has a chance to race for the championship at St. Pete so we’re all looking forward to the finale and a good result there..”

SAGE KARAM, NO. 24 DREYER & REINBOLD RACING OIL2SOIL CHEVROLET – FINISHED 24th: “While the results didn’t show it today, our Oil2Soil Chevy was much better in qualifying and the race from Thursday and Friday. We made some changes overnight that helped the race car. It’s tough out there. We ran P3 in qualifying today and, I pulled into the pits and looked at the time sheet, and I’m 11^th. Wow, this series is very difficult. In the race, we tried the Firestone red tires and the car wasn’t as good as on the Firestone blacks. Later in the race, I was running very competitive laps but we lost a lot early. Our pit stops were very good today. The big thing for the DRR team, who is just getting back into road racing after a seven-year layoff, is that we learned quite a bit with the doubleheader race weekend. We lost some valuable time on Thursday in practice when we had a fuel pressure issue. But we will take the info and study it for the future races.”