Source: Manufacturer PR

CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES

GMR GRAND PRIX

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING REPORT

MAY 12, 2023

FELIX ROSENQVIST PUTS CHEVROLET ON FRONT ROW FOR THE GMR GRAND PRIX

• Arrow McLaren INDYCAR’s Felix Rosenqvist led Team Chevy drivers, qualifying second and starting from the front row for Sunday’s GMR Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
• Rosenqvist’s teammate Pato O’Ward joined him in the Firestone Fast Six.
• Rosenqvist and Team Penske’s Will Power advanced from Round 1, Group 1 in GMR Grand Prix Qualifying.
• O’Ward and Alexander Rossi advanced from Round 1, Group 2 in GMR Grand Prix Qualifying.
• O’Ward led the combined practice results, with his fastest lap time of 01:09.4981 at 126.340 mph in Practice 1.
• O’Ward led second practice for Team Chevy, with his fastest lap of 01:10.2604 to finish third on the leaderboard. Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden (sixth), Scott McLaughlin (seventh), and Power (eighth) followed, rounding out the top-10.
• O’Ward led the first practice session with his quickest lap of 01:09.4981, with McLaughlin next for Team Chevy in fourth. Rosenqvist (sixth), Power (ninth), and Rinus VeeKay (tenth) rounded out the top-10 for the Bowtie brand in the first session of Friday.

TEAM CHEVY TOP-10 QUALIFYING RESULT:

POS.   DRIVER

2nd     Felix Rosenqvist

5th      Pato O’Ward

10th     Alexander Rossi

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING:

Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Chevrolet at Team Penske:

“I had two laps of fuel which is pretty much what everyone’s going to do. I did an okay first lap. I was going for it. But you know at this point you can’t go through there with the yellow (from Benjamin Pedersen spin) and go quicker otherwise I’m was going to get a penalty so I backed off a little bit there. Then I decided to it because I thought that I could really go quicker on the whole lap. But, man I lost so much at the start of it that seemed irrelevant at that point. So it was unfortunate because that was the lap to really put it together. I would say it was bad timing again,  you know, what are we going to do? I mean, it’s not anybody’s fault outside of the timing.

“I’m not going to go back and like be mad at anybody or even myself, it’s just bad timing. You can’t predict that stuff but  I thought the car was good. Timing is going be more important tomorrow.  Thanks to Snap On and Team Chevy, we will just go for it tomorrow.”

Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Chevrolet at Team Penske:

“We changed a little bit in Practice 2. Nothing crazy. A little smidgen here or there. Just missed the ballpark. Anyway, it is what it is.”

On the Indianapolis track and how weather sensitive it is…

“I’m sure we’ll get a little bit of sprinkles. Something, but it wasn’t crazy. It’s just tight. INDYCAR is just so hard. It’s why you love it. We just missed it and unfortunately, when you miss it by just a little bit, you’re just too far off. We’ll work hard. We’ve got a great team behind us. Hopefully, we’ll come through at the front.”

Will Power, No. 12 Chevrolet at Team Penske:

“I just tried a different gear in turn 7 to see. We’re just so far off. That was everything I had. I screwed the first lap up so we’re probably going to be 12th. Certainly, we’re missing a half of a second. The car doesn’t feel that bad. I felt in practice we were pretty good, kind of hanging out in the top-10. Never P1 material, but we’ll just have to dig deep tomorrow. We’ve had some pretty good races, so we’ll see if we can get the Verizon car up there. I got a new Chevy engine this week, so got plenty of horsepower. We’ll see what we can do.”

Conor Daly, No. 20 Chevrolet at Ed Carpenter Racing:

“Obviously, we’re going to try and work our butts off to be quick tomorrow but, you know, it’s kind of been the trend of our season. We’ve slipped a little back at every track we’ve been at. We have to do a better job and, you know, we as drivers have to deliver the information as best we can, and we’ve got to work together to make us better because both Rinus (VeeKay) and I can’t be happy with where we’re starting. We just got to be honest with ourselves and we’ve got to be willing to get this to the next level. It’s a real, real shame because obviously, we’ve had a tough year. Hopefully, tomorrow, you never know what could happen. We’ve always raced well here so we’ll try to take this BITNILE.COM Chevrolet forward.”

Rinus VeeKay, No. 21 Chevrolet at Ed Carpenter Racing:

“Today was difficult with the weather being unpredictable. We are missing the balance for the new tires so we are chasing it a bit. A tough session especially when a tenth would move us into the second round. We can race our way forward tomorrow. Even when things are tough like today, we always can make progress. We have an extra set of red tires for tomorrow and the team will do everything they can.”

Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren INDYCAR:

“P5 for us today in qualifying here for the Indy GP. My Turn 1 on that lap definitely didn’t deserve pole today, but we’ve got a strong race car. It should rain overnight, so I think warmup will be interesting, then we’ll give it hell in the race.”

Felix Rosenqvist, No. 6 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren INDYCAR:

“It’s been a tough day to prefer. We’ve been quick since rolling off the trucks. But it’s always hard getting a lap in, and you know, traffic and things happening. It’s very tight, and one-tenth wrong, you’re out. It’s always hard to put it together here and it’s so tight. Big thanks to my Arrow McLaren team, SmartStop. We came together when it mattered in the end. That was our quickest run of the day. I did a little mistake in the snake on the final lap. I’m kind of beating myself up about it a little bit, but hey, we can’t be perfect. That was all I had for that lap.”

Alexander Rossi, No. 7 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren INDYCAR:

“That’s pretty much it, unfortunately. We just haven’t quite been able to unlock this car to the level that we need for qualifying. We’re just perpetually seeming to qualify from 12th through 10th which is getting frustrating. You just have to keep working at it. It’s hard on these quick weekends. It’s hard when you only have so many bites at it. We’re close, we just haven’t quite found that tuning tweak that I guess I need.”

Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Chevrolet at AJ Foyt Racing:

“We just had another electrical issue that really set us back. Obviously, I just didn’t put together the cleanest one-lap run because we were trying to fight traffic and not impede anybody. It is so tight here. This is the tightest track we come to all year. Everyone’s got a million laps here. Our car is just not in the window yet. We’re working on it. We’re doing the best we can. Nothing like starting from the back and trying to make our way through the field tomorrow, and I’m sure we’ll do that.”

Benjamin Pedersen, No. 55 Chevrolet at AJ Foyt Racing:

“Honestly, it was a really good lap. Unfortunately, we just don’t quite have the speed in the car. Definitely the best lap I’ve done in an Indy car so I’m very proud of that. I think P23 for tomorrow. We’ll see if we can’t work some magic on the strategy perspective and have a really good race and move forward, which is the big goal. First time here in an Indy car and loving it. Just trying to get better and better every day.”

Callum Ilott, No. 77 Chevrolet at Juncos Hollinger Racing:

“We’re just not in the right direction yet. Not easy. We tried so much stuff to make it work and we’re just missing something. We put the car into a good balance window, but I mean, I think it was seven-tenths to the front. Not easy, not easy. The race is a different story. We’ll see what we can do.”

Agustin Canapino, No. 78 Chevrolet at Juncos Hollinger Racing:

“We didn’t had the best qualifying, honestly. We made some changes. The car feels a little bit worse than practice. In practice, we were better, but it is what it is. We will do our best tomorrow. We’ll try to finish the race and take some points.”