Chevy PR

CHEVROLET INDYCAR AT INDIANAPOLIS ROAD COURSE: TEAM CHEVY RACE RECAP

Posted on by Steve Wittich

Source: Manufacturer PR

CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES
2023 GMR GRAND PRIX
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY ROAD COURSE
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE RECAP
MAY 13, 2023

PATO O’WARD AND ALEXANDER ROSSI PUT CHEVROLET ON THE PODIUM AT INDIANAPOLIS ROAD COURSE

Arrow McLaren INDYCAR Finishes All Three Entries In Top-Five

  • Arrow McLaren INDYCAR’s Pato O’Ward (second) and Alexander Rossi (third) give Chevrolet their 290th and 291st podium finishes in the 2.2-liter V6 twin turbo injection era (since 2012), the sixth and seventh of the 2023 NTT INDYCAR Series season.
  • Arrow McLaren INDYCAR teammate Felix Rosenqvist finished in the top-five, giving Arrow McLaren INDYCAR a strong finish and start to the month of May.
  • Arrow McLaren INDYCAR’s Alexander Rossi led the morning GMR Grand Prix Warm Up for Team Chevy, finishing the session second with his fastest lap of 01:10.4153. Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin finished seventh, and teammate Josef Newgarden finished eighth.

INDIANAPOLIS (May 13, 2023) – As the checkered flag dropped on the 2023 GMR Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course, Arrow McLaren INDYCAR’s Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi concluded a physically challenging and hot race to give Chevrolet their 290th and 291st podium finishes as a V6 engine supplier since the 2012 return to the NTT INDYCAR Series.

Earning the sixth and seventh podium of the 2023 season, O’Ward and Rossi were joined in the top-five by teammate Felix Rosenqvist, giving the Arrow McLaren INDYCAR team a strong start to the month of May at Indianapolis and momentum heading into the shift to the oval next week.

“We’ve always been really strong on Sundays,” said Rossi. “We just haven’t really gotten the results we deserve for the performance of the car. But the fact that McLaren got three cars in the top-five in this field, and this competition, that’s a huge testament to the organization and what we have going on here. It’s a big confidence boost in good momentum going into the most important race of the year.”

“For us, I mean, we were two, three and five as a team, that’s pretty freaking phenomenal,” reflected O’Ward. “The guys gave us a great race car. We were kind of just running our own race today. We were there fighting with (Christian) Lundgaard between all of us teammates. Once I got in front of him, I just had to try and minimize the gap I had with Alex (Palou), but I just think they were very strong today.”

“Overall, I’m really happy for the team,” stated Rosenqvist. “Top-five for all of us. That’s insanely good. That’s a very rare result in INDYCAR these days, so a big congrats to the whole team. Personally, I wasn’t certainly super happy with that race when we had some sense, but we lost a bit too much on the final lap in the sequence on the reds, and too much (degradation). Otherwise, apart from that, it was a pretty good race.”

Up next for Team Chevy is the prestigious month of May, shifting focus to the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval with practice starting Tuesday, May 16, 2023. The 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge takes the green flag live on NBC starting at 11 a.m. ET on NBC Sunday, May 28, 2023.

TEAM CHEVY TOP-10 RESULTS:

POS. DRIVER
2nd    Pato O’Ward
3rd     Alexander Rossi
5th     Felix Rosenqvist
7th     Josef Newgarden

2023 CHEVROLET BY THE NUMBERS:

  • 291: NTT INDYCAR SERIES podiums as a V6 engine supplier since 2012 return to INDYCAR.
  • 187: NTT INDYCAR SERIES races as V6 engine supplier since 2012 return to INDYCAR. 
  • 108: Wins in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES since 2012. 
  • 121: Earned poles since 2012. 
  • 7: NTT INDYCAR SERIES by Chevrolet drivers in 2023 so far.
  • 7: Manufacturer Championships since 2012. 
  • 7: Driver/entrant champions since 2012. 

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING (QUOTES):

Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Chevrolet at Team Penske:

“We unfortunately had a slow final stop. I think we had a slow plug in. I think we lost seven or eight seconds just trying to get that right. I think today was a third-place day. If we get the final stop all good, that’s probably where we land and we ended up seventh. It’s kind of been the story of the year, just not great timing on some of this stuff. Not a bad day. I told the team this was a good fighting day. Great fighting day with the Snap On car. Team Chevy did a fantastic job. I would have been really pleased if we left with a third but we’ll take the seventh and roll in to the big show and hopefully have a really, really good day.”

CONSIDERING YOUR TEAM OWNER OWNING THE SPEEDWAY, DO YOU NEED A REMINDER HOW IMPORTANT THE NEXT TWO WEEKS ARE?

“Oh no. We all know it. But it’s important to all of us. The pressure is always there. We want to do well. I want to do well as anybody, just as much as (Roger Penske) does. We’re ready. We’re as ready as we can be. Hopefully we can get it right.”

Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Chevrolet at Team Penske: 

“Obviously a little frustrated at how we qualified with the Odyssey Battery Chevrolet. After practice I thought we should challenge for the Firestone Fast Six. Then, after warmup, I thought we were better and starting on the red tires would give us a chance to make up a few positions over the start of the race. The first corner of this race is always a bit chaotic and it caught us today with some front wing damage that we had to come in and repair. Immediately that changes our strategy but we fought back and looked to be in a position for a top 10, which would have been acceptable considering. We’ll have to go back and look at why we got so low on fuel. Luckily the light came on in time for me to hit pit road and take on one gallon to make it to the end. Frustrating but we need to forget this result and focus on the 500.”

Will Power, No. 12 Chevrolet at Team Penske:

“It was good recovery. I mean, real pity about that incident to get spun out. Persona attack the rest of the day; but happy to get back to 12th. Now we move on to the big one.”

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

“Today seemed a bit odd. We made a lot of progress at the start and seemed like we were moving forward. I am not sure how the strategies ended up playing out so we didn’t end up moving forward as much as we wanted. We lost a lot of tire grip at the end, but we tried to make the best out of the situation and pass a lot of cars. It just didn’t seem to fall our way. I can’t wait to get to the oval and keep that good momentum that I have had here before going.”

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

“It was a pretty good race, but quite tough. We were just short on pace, but in every on-track battle I found myself in I was able to get the better spot. I did everything I could today and we were able to move up to 13th from 17th. Brought the No. 21 BITNILE.COM Chevrolet home clean, picked up some points and now am looking forward to the Indianapolis 500.”

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

“For us, I mean, we were two, three and five as a team. That’s pretty freaking phenomenal. The guys gave us a great race car. We were kind of just running our own race today. We were there fighting with (Christian) Lundgaard between all of us teammates. Once I got in front of him, I just had to try and minimize the gap I had with Alex (Palou), but I just think they were very strong today. We were just kind of hanging on there in the end trying not to destroy our reds and bring it home, bring some solid points.”

ON RACING IN THE HEAT WITH THE HUMIDITY AND THE AEROSCREEN, HOW ARE YOU FEELING WITH A RACE THAT MOSTLY WENT GREEN?

“Obviously, it’s one of the toughest races we have year-round, but I don’t spend all those hours in the gym to be struggling. I feel great.”

IT’S HARD NOT TO THINK ABOUT THE INDIANAPOLIS 500, HOW SOON TO YOU SHIFT WITH THE ROAD COURSE TO THINK OF TUESDAY AND THE INDY 500?

“Our 500 started weeks ago at the Open Test, so we come back on Tuesday, and we want to make it better. We want to make it the best we can, and come race day, we’ll try and give ourselves that opportunity once again and see where we stack up.”

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

“Overall, I’m really happy for the team. Top-five for all of us. That’s insanely good. That’s a very rare result in INDYCAR these days, so a big congrats to the whole team. Personally, I wasn’t certainly super happy with that race when we had some sense, but we lost a bit too much on the final lap in the sequence on the reds, and too much (degradation). Otherwise, apart from that, it was a pretty good race. I think me and (Alexander Rossi) passed each other six times our there, so I wasn’t generally quick in the beginning. It was quicker at the end of the stint, and I think that’s where it got him the podium in the end. Pato (O’Ward) did a solid sequence in the middle of the race as well, which leaped him up to the front. It was good. I mean, these days are rare, but you can always be better.”

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

“We’ve always been really strong on Sundays. We just haven’t really gotten the results we deserve for the performance of the car. But the fact that McLaren got three cars in the top-five in this field, and this competition, that’s a huge testament to the organization and what we have going on here. It’s a big confidence boost in good momentum going into the most important race of the year.

I think we’ve been there every race. Like I said, we’ve been there on Sundays all year. You know, we were we were we had a good day going in Texas. We were a lap away from finishing the top six in Long Beach. It’s just we haven’t quite executed completely. But you know, the pace in the car is there. It’s a really lovely racecar to drive. You just we got to find a way to extract a little bit more performance for optimal lap time.”

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

“Long day for us at AJ Foyt Racing. We were having a really solid day, and probably would have wound up with a pretty easy top-15. But that’s racing. A wheel nut just came off when we put the gun down, so that happens. That happens to the best of us. Other than that, the Sexton Properties Chevrolet was really strong. Looking forward to getting back out to the next road course, but now we’ve got the (Indianapolis) 500.”

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

“Tough day. We were super fast honestly. I think we were the seventh fastest average lap time the whole race, so unfortunately we went four laps down at the start due to the radio giving us issues. As a rule, we can’t be out there if the radio’s not sorted. Big bummer, just due to the fact we were really fast. I think the potential to be top-12 is there after starting P23, so we’re making huge gains from a driving perspective in car. That’s the most important thing. We’ve just got to get all the other little details for Indy.”

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

“Bit of a tough race. We had a first couple stints that wasn’t the best. Struggling a bit with the tires, and then managed to pull it back a bit at the end. Had some good pace but unfortunately was out a bit of position to make it easy to come back. Ended up P18 from P24. It’s been a tough weekend. I wish we could’ve got a little bit more out of it. Sometimes it’s like that. We just have to understand why and move on, and make it better for the next one.”