Source: Manufacturer PR

2023 ACURA GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH
STREETS OF LONG BEACH
LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE RECAP
APRIL 16, 2023

• Four Team Chevy drivers capture top-10 finishes on Streets of Long Beach
• Will Power – 6^th
• Felix Rosenqvist – 7^th
• Josef Newgarden – 9^th
• Scott McLaughlin – 10^th
• Santino Ferrucci moved from 18^th to 11^th for season’s best finish
• On-track contact relegated Pato O’Ward to 17^th place finish after starting in third row, and to second in the standing
• Newgarden remains fourth in points
• Next on the calendar is The Children’s Hospital Alabama Grand Prix on April 30, 2023.

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING (QUOTES)

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:

“I’m sad for my team, honestly. We had a phenomenal race car. Really great. We were chipping away all weekend. It’s been tough to put the laps together all the way up from qualifying and I felt like that was kind of our weakness was just getting everything together. We had good peak potential but just couldn’t realize it. In the race, we really had it together. That car was absolutely phenomenal. Team Chevy did great job for us. The whole No. 2 car with team Hitachi did amazing. Fate didn’t really go our way in the beginning. For our strategy, the yellow did not help us one bit. If there wasn’t a yellow in the beginning, and would’ve gone green a little longer, we would’ve been really pretty. But even with the yellow, we were making the most of it and I still think we had a shot at winning that race, but something else did us in and made the end pretty brutal. I’m not 100% sure yet, but something we had to overcome.”

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 SONSIO TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:

“Yeah, well, you know, honestly, it was the race-it actually cooled the tires off because I was saving fuel on them, and we just got caught in the wrong spot. Ultimately a really good start and got to P4 was looking really good in the first exchange and I think we just got the wrong end of when were on those tires.   I mean, ultimately, if you had a crystal ball, you’d start on greens because they are very temperatutr dependent. The blacks were better to look after fuel and all that stuff, but unfortunately don’t have that hindsight. But I think I think you know, we maximized as much as we could.  It was a tough second stint because I picked up some rubber and that’s where I lost all my time. The Sonsio Chevy was good. I definitely think we deserved more but it is what it is. We’ll look forward to the Indianapolis test and then on to Barber.”

WILL POWER, NO 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:

“It was good fuel save and tire conservation, there. We said in our strategy meeting if we got a yellow around lap 20, that’s the worse for us starting on black tires. It’s very common just on the restart and everything not to slip the tire. Just tried to look after it best I could and get the number, and that’s what we did. Drove as hard as I could like doing a qualifying lap. Every lap you’re lifting early to conserve fuel.”

On fuel conservation…

“It’s right in my wheel house. I’ve been doing it for so many years. It’s a very big part of INDYCAR racing, is saving fuel. I’m pretty happy when I hear the whole fields’ got to get this number because usually we can go a bit quicker and get the number at the same time.”

Is this a little bit like hearing last year in your head?

“It’s the only way to tackle it. You can’t even think about who’s ahead of you, or what, just what you’re doing in the moment. Just extract the most out of it and make good decisions. It’s as simple as that. Lucky to have Verizon resign and Team Penske re-sign me. We’ve got a very good group of people around me. Very fortunate. I have a lot of fun doing this. It’s fantastic.”

PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN CHEVROLET: 

”It’s just one of those weekends. You’ll have great weekends, you’ll have decent ones and you’ll have miserable ones. Today didn’t start off too bad, but the race result is completely on me. I’m sorry to let the team down. I had a great race car. In the second half of the race, we didn’t have anything to fight with because of how much we were saving fuel to make it to the end. Definitely one to forget, and on to Barber – one of my favorite places.”

FELIX ROSENQVIST, NO. 6 ARROW MCLAREN CHEVROLET:

“P7 here at Long Beach. We came from P10, so it’s a good day. It’s not a fantastic result, but we’ll take it because it brings us back in the game in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship. It was a bad day for my teammates. I felt bad for Alexander and Pato. It was a big fuel-saving race, and we got stuck a little bit in the first stint, but in the second and third we were really strong and made some good decisions. It was fun in the end, good racing and happy to be back in the points. Now, we move on to Barber.”

ALEXANDER ROSSI, NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN NTT CHEVROLET:

”Supremely disappointing. The car was fantastic for the race. I think we finally found what we’ve been missing so far this year from a performance standpoint in the warmup. It was a good race, and then what happened at two laps to go is unfortunate. Ultimately, it’s really disappointing because the car was so good. The team did a great job, and we’ve just got to take the positives from this and move on to Barber.”

CONOR DALY, NO. 20 BITNILE.COM ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET:

“The first stint was going great. It felt good to able to pass a few guys. The second stop, we had an issue getting the car up in the air and that really hurt us. The things happen in motorsport, it was a shame to see both cars struggle with something today. We have to be better next time and we know we are going into a few tracks were we have been fast at in the past. We just have to look forward!”

RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 BITNILE.COM ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET:

“It has been a tough weekend, but we made good progress so we have more of a direction to go when we come back next year. I think we really found something overnight and I was doing pretty well actually but it was tough to pass. I was hanging well with the cars around me and should have been in the Top 12, at least. It’s hard to not get good points. At one point, I was running six to eight miles an hour slower on the straightaways than everyone else. We stopped before we did any damage to the engine, we tried to think long-term. We’ve got Barber coming up and Barber is fun!”

SANTINO FERRUCCI, NO. 14 SEXTON PROPERTIES/ AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: 

“Solid day here at Long Beach. Our first actual result as a team, P11. All things considered, I think we did a great job, the team did a great job on pit road. Passed a bunch of cars, moved forward for a very long green race. I’m worn out, but I’m just happy we are improving and better. Everything feels better, so on to the next one.”

BENJAMIN PEDERSEN, NO. 55 SEXTON PROPERTIES/ AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET:

“Unfortunately, not a very smooth race for us. Started out great, though, in warm up today. We were very competitive, P15. Very honest lap time in terms of how much Push to Pass we used and everything. The race we just had a lot of internal issues with a couple of things with the car, etc., and an unfortunate penalty. Onwards. We’re going to take what we learned. On the bright side, we had very good pace in the race. Top-10 pace for sure. We’ll just keep working really hard and get the kinks fixed, and onwards to Barber.”

CALLUM ILOTT, NO. 77 JUNCOS HOLLINGER RACING CHEVROLET: 

“So overall made a couple of positions finishing p 19. Yeah, we picked up a puncture on I think a lap one then had a horrible pitstop to change it. So it was then put a lap down we managed to get the wave by on that first safety car. Then had another bad pitstop on top of that and then came out in front of the pack and just tried to stay in front and then at that point we had good pace on that second spin saving fuel it was it was the right and then the third stint we had another bad pitstop and then drop back into the pack so then I was a lap down and we were on used tires managed to stay about one pays for some of them but was not a great race. Not a good weekend kind of on the backfoot since the crash Yeah, not not an easy one. Sometimes it’s like that. But it was just a combination of things adding on and adding on. So a bit disappointing. We knew this was gonna be a tough one for us anyway, car wise. So it’s quite nice to move on to barber and back where we’ll be stronger. But yeah, it’s a weekend full of disappointment.”

AGUSTIN CANAPINO, NO. 78 JUNCOS HOLLINGER RACING CHEVROLET:

“So unfortunately we come back but like with the moment when I reentered the race I lost an interval time with Callum because he went out with the cold tires and he lost time. The moment Castroneves tried to overtake me and I didn’t know he was one of down and in this moment touched the car towards the wall and I broke in the car. It is a shame because we had a good car today with the black tires. But this iteration this thing can happen and now we are trying to learn for the next race.”

2023 CHEVROLET BY THE NUMBERS

• 185: NTT INDYCAR SERIES races as V6 engine supplier since 2012 return to INDYCAR. 
• 107: Wins in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES since 2012. 
• 121: Earned poles since 2012. 
• 7: Manufacturer Championships since 2012. 
• 7: Driver/entrant champions since 2012.