CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
GALLAGHER GRAND PRIX
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY ROAD COURSE
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
TEAM CHEVY RACE RECAP
AUGUST 12, 2023

PATO O’WARD PUTS CHEVROLET AND ARROW MCLAREN INDYCAR ON THE PODIUM AT INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY ROAD COURSE

• Finishing third, Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward earned Chevrolet the 21st podium of the 2023 NTT INDYCAR Series season.
• With his third-place finish, O’Ward also earned Team Chevy’s 305th podium finish since 2012 in the V6 2.2-liter twin turbo injected era.
• Chevrolet additionally finished with four in the top-10 of today’s Gallagher Grand Prix, including O’Ward, Alexander Rossi (fifth), Will Power (sixth), and Scott McLaughlin (eighth).

INDIANAPOLIS (August 12, 2023) – In what turned into an exciting, chaotic event from green flag to checkered, the Gallagher Grand Prix saw Chevrolet once again grace the podium at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Earning the 21st top-three finish for the Bowtie brand during the 2023 NTT INDYCAR Series season, Pato O’Ward, driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren INDYCAR Chevrolet also earned the 305th since 2012 in the V6 2.2-liter twin turbo injected era.

In what proved to be a demanding race for drivers, O’Ward reflected on the hot 85-lap event saying, “It was a very physical race and we had to work for that one. The team did an amazing job. It depends so much on the strategy and that was the right strategy for our car. We honestly wouldn’t have picked to do anything else. I’m happy with the work that I did. We’ve still got some work to do to catch up but solid points for us.”

With Chevrolet represented by four in the top-10, O’Ward’s teammate Alexander Rossi, driver of the No. 7 Arrow McLaren INDYCAR Chevrolet, finished in the top-five in fifth. “It was a good day for us. I think the biggest deficit that we had was that the best tire we had was the new alternate, and that was the tire that we started (the race) on,” said Rossi. “We weren’t able to open up as big of a gap on the primary runners as we would have hoped. That probably cost us a spot or two maybe. Ultimately, it was a good day for Arrow McLaren. Good day for the No. 7 car with two cars in the top-five. For us, it was a big win this weekend just finding our feet qualifying. It’s been our big weakness this year. Our race pace has always been pretty good, but we struggle on qualifying so to qualify third and finish with top-five is a good weekend.”

Rounding out the top-10 for Team Chevy, Team Penske’s Will Power, in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, as well as Scott McLaughlin, in the No. 3 Gallagher Insurance Team Penske Chevrolet, finished sixth and eighth, respectively.

“It was a good comeback. Just needed track position,” said Power. “I feel like we were the quickest car out there. It was track position, simply. Every time we got behind someone, we were faster than them, every time we’d go by and left them. Just need to work at qualifying here. It’s very hard to get it right.

The NTT INDYCAR Series next shifts back to oval competition, heading to World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis for the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023. The green flag waves live at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC, with additional coverage available through Peacock, INDYCAR Radio, and SiriusXM Channel 160.

TEAM CHEVY TOP-10 RACE RESULTS:

Pos.  Driver

3rd     Pato O’Ward

5th     Alexander Rossi

6th     Will Power

8th     Scott McLaughlin

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING (QUOTES):

Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Chevrolet at Team Penske:

“Just a very unfortunate start to this race, but this weekend was quite a challenge from the start. We came with a new package because we have struggled lately on the Indy road course, and we wanted to do everything we could to finish the season strong. It just seemed to be one thing after another for the Hitachi Chevy team, from the 10-minute practice penalty for me being late to weigh-in, to the engine change last night to the first lap incident. Clearly not the finish we needed for the championship, but this team knows how to fight. We are going to try and make everyone earn it over the last three races.”

Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Chevrolet at Team Penske:

“Just a disappointing day today on the Indy road course. I thought we had a really good start. The Gallagher Chevy was feeling great over the opening laps, but at the end we just have no fight here right now and we have to figure that out. Our platform needs to be better. We are getting closer but we are definitely not close enough. It’s frustrating but we still finished eighth today, our eighth top-10 in a row. A good points day and we’ll press on to St. Louis.”

Will Power, No. 12 Chevrolet at Team Penske:

“It was a good comeback. Just needed track position. I feel like we were the quickest car out there. It was track position, simply. Every time we got behind someone, we were faster than them, every time we’d go by and left them. Just need to work at qualifying here. It’s very hard to get it right.”

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

“It was a very physical race and we had to work for that one. The team did an amazing job. It depends so much on the strategy and that was the right strategy for our car. We honestly wouldn’t have picked to do anything else. I’m happy with the work that I did. We’ve still got some work to do to catch up but solid points for us.

This was the strategy that maximized what we had today. I’m super happy with what we made on that on those calls. I think in the pits, we were really, really good. I wouldn’t have really changed anything. I was very happy with my car balance, but we’ve just got some catching up to do. I definitely don’t think we would have been even close to being able to make this strategy that (Scott) Dixon to that extent in how he extracted the performance out of that. So good job by him. I know this is like his 300-something (race). So congrats, Scott (Dixon). We walk away in 2023 with two podiums at IMS. The (Indianapolis) 500 was a different story, but I’m happy with today.”

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

“Today was really difficult. I think we had a top-10 day. I had a pretty good first stint. I then struggled with the tires and was running in P9, P10. I had a mechanical issue mid-way through the race which was terminal, and we had to retire the car. I’m looking forward to the next round, but I wish we had a race next weekend so I’m not going into a break on a bad result. That’s racing sometimes.”

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

“It was a good day for us. I think the biggest deficit that we had was that the best tire we had was the new alternate, and that was the tire that we started (the race) on. We weren’t able to open up as big of a gap on the primary runners as we would have hoped. That probably cost us a spot or two maybe. Ultimately, it was a good day for Arrow McLaren. Good day for the No. 7 car with two cars in the top-five. For us, it was a big win this weekend just finding our feet qualifying. It’s been our big weakness this year. Our race pace has always been pretty good, but we struggle on qualifying so to qualify third and finish with top-five is a good weekend. There’s a gap there we still need to close to the best cars. We need to continue working on it. We have a couple of races to go still before the end of the season, and we just got to keep learning, keep pushing, and hopefully in the next three we can get a win to close out the year.”

Gavin Ward, Race Director at Arrow McLaren INDYCAR:

“We leave the second race of the season at the Indy road course with a podium, so as a team we’re proud of that. Pato (O’Ward) and the No. 5 crew did a great job to extract all they could from the car, and Alexander and his crew put together a good weekend as they continue to gel week after week, but we obviously wanted to get more after such a strong qualifying result. It was a tough ending for Felix with a mechanical issue that took him out of the race with under 20 laps to go. We’ll work hard to prepare for St. Louis and the final races of the season.”

Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 20. Chevrolet at Ed Carpenter Racing:

“I think we had a pretty good start today. Got up into 16th and was making lap time from there. The odd bit was we got passed by one car today and lost four spots. I didn’t see anyone else all day, no one else passed me, and we finished 20th. I’ll have to go back and look at pit cycles. The beginning part of the race was positive, I just had a hard time on the alternates at the end. I had to make do with what I had to survive.”

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

“We had a good race. We were somewhat competitive and we stayed out of the trouble. We did what we do best – race well! I’m pretty satisfied. I couldn’t really hold off (Marcus) Ericsson for a top-10 at the end. I was on scuff reds, he was on new reds. He also had 80 more seconds of overtake than I did! We really gave it all and it played out pretty well for us. Strategy was good – shoutout to the team for that and also giving me a good car! It was pretty hard to drive on the first stint but we really made good improvements throughout the race to make it fast on reds. Pretty happy, we did something good and ended pretty good!”

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

“Obviously, we knew it was going to be a long day. We definitely had a top-15 car. Just small mishaps in the pits. The hose got caught in the front win. I never saw it. I took off, and that’s when I saw it. By the time you roll back, get it out, and do the stop-and-go penalty, you’re a lap down in 23rd. Just tough. We’re definitely making progress with the car, that’s clear. Just go to be a little bit better, a couple less mistakes, and we’ll have a couple of good weekends.”

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

“Tricky weekend for the team to be honest with both cars. Couldn’t get the car in the right window to perform as we wanted to, unfortunately. For the race today we started four laps down with a technical issue. Not to reminisce on the last GP we had here, but it was the exact same situation, just slightly different. Tricky day because of that technical issue because we had to start a couple laps down before the race even started and tried to do everything we could to get some kind of recovery, but unfortunately that issue prevented us from doing that.”

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

“Our race was okay. Had a couple of difficult pit stops, I think, on the back of it. Pace, depending on the tires, sometimes it was okay, sometimes not so great. Overall, not a bad weekend. It could have been better. Just have to move on to the next one to see what we can do.”

PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN INDYCAR CHEVROLET – Post-Race Press Conference:

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everybody. Currently joined by Pato O’Ward who comes home third. Sixth podium of the season, 19th of his career. Now back in the top five in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES points standings.

Your thoughts on a hot afternoon here at the Speedway?

PATO O’WARD: That was physical. That was a physical race. Every lap was a push lap for me today. Reminded me a lot of Mid-Ohio this year.

But very pleased with today. I thought the team did a phenomenal job on my strategy, in the pits. I was very happy with my car balance. We obviously got some catching up to do in an area.

Yeah, I’m very happy with what we extracted from our tools today.

THE MODERATOR: We’ll start with questions.

Q. In a race like that, are you well aware of where you are, especially there near the end?

PATO O’WARD: No, absolutely. Midway through, they were telling me we were third. Scott and Graham, they were really quick. I mean, I struggled keeping Christian behind.

But, yeah, managed it very well.

Q. Pato, I know you’re disappointed with third place. Earlier today your buddy won the pole for tomorrow’s race. In a lot of ways you are pretty excited and happy to see that?

PATO O’WARD: Yeah, I’ll be mad if he doesn’t win tomorrow (smiling).

Q. Pato, what is your feeling about the reds and blacks?

PATO O’WARD: I think you were an outlier on blacks.

GRAHAM RAHAL: As far as what?

PATO O’WARD: You were just really fast on blacks. I was on reds, and I was maintaining. At that point you should be catching. You shouldn’t be maintaining. When I was on blacks and they were on reds, I was falling like a rock. I was miserable on them.

So, yeah, I mean, I was on the same boat as he was. I had two heat-cycled reds I had to use and a fresh set of reds. I was very pleased to see that even with those two heat cycles, they held up really, really nice. So I was very happy with that.

Q. Pato, I believe this is your sixth podium of the season. What’s it going to take to get over that little hump there?

PATO O’WARD: A fricking win would be great (smiling).

Yeah, I mean, I’ve been driving my ass off every single race. Like, there is nothing more than I want than to get wins. Obviously there’s been little things here and there that have got us out of contention and out of being able to kind of capitalize on that.

With like the performance of today, I’m very pleased. I’m just tired. I’m just very pleased with today, very happy with how the team and I attacked because I was playing around with Graham in the warm-up, and he was just stronger than me. I know he was. I knew it was going to be a tall ask, just from outright pace, to try and beat them.

But I was very happy with my car balance. I was very happy with every other call. Yeah, we just got to keep pushing.