Category: NTT Indy

CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
GENESYS 300
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
FT. WORTH, TEXAS
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 3, 2020

THE MODERATOR: We are pleased to be joined by the driver of the No. 59 Gallagher Chevrolet for Carlin, Conor Daly. Welcome to the call.

CONOR DALY: Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

THE MODERATOR: What are the emotions going through this week? Eagerly anticipating the race, excited, anxious? What has been going through your head?

CONOR DALY: Yeah, I mean, honestly just so ready to go. It’s been a long time. I think since like March 2nd or 3rd since I’ve been in a car. Since September on an oval, August, whenever Gateway was.

It’s going to be fun. A lot of variables, a lot of new things that we’re all going to have to adjust to pretty quickly. I feel bad for the rookies not having had the whole month of May getting up to speed on an oval, getting used to that style of racing.

It’s tough. I know for a fact. Texas is tough. Oval racing in INDYCAR overall is tough. But it’s fun. Hopefully, we can all be smart about everything and just have a great Saturday night.

THE MODERATOR: Texas last year was your debut with Carlin, if I remember correctly. In the year working with them on the ovals, what did you learn about the team that can help you jumping into a one-day show with practice, qualifying and a race?

CONOR DALY: Realistically I think we had a great run together last year. It was a lot of fun to get used to how they work, them getting used to what I need out of the car.

At Texas, we were thrown into the deep end. For me, I struggled a little bit with it at first. We actually had a pretty good race, were actually pretty happy with it come the end of the day.

By the end of the season together, or the oval season that we did together, we were fighting quite a lot at the sharp end in Gateway. I love that track, but I also really enjoy driving the car there, too.

It’s great to have the support of Gallagher still, have a great-looking car to drive on the ovals this year, albeit an interesting new schedule with the doubleheader at Iowa will be interesting and everything in general about this year will be different, but it will be cool.

I’m excited to get it going with these guys on Saturday night.

THE MODERATOR: We’ll open it up for questions.

Q. I wanted to ask you as a competitor embracing these challenges. Obviously, everybody is in the same boat going in. I’m sure you’re giving proper due to everything you have to that’s kind of unusual for this race. Is there part of you that is excited for these new changes, challenges, to test yourself and the team, see where you come out on the other end?
CONOR DALY: Absolutely. Oddly enough I’ve been in a lot of crazy and strange situations in my career so far. I really enjoy situations where there’s not a lot of information known about certain conditions. Like if it’s raining, I love rain races. I like showing up to new tracks. Gateway, when that was added to the schedule, loved that immediately. It was a lot of fun.

There’s just a lot, though, that we don’t know with what the Aeroscreen is going to do. There’s only three, four, five guys maybe that have driven with an Aeroscreen on an oval. We were obviously hoping to have most of the month of May to figure out what that’s going to look like, but we don’t. It’s going to be interesting.

I think the series has done a great job on trying to obviously understand what we’re all going to have to deal with on Saturday night. I think having the tire stints reduced a little bit, I don’t know if I necessarily like that, but obviously it’s done for a reason for us.

I was watching the race last year from my own onboard perspective. I was like, Wow, 55, 60 laps before we pitted or something. It’s going to change the race drastically when it comes to strategy.

Again, I think those types of things, you just want to be the guy who makes the least mistakes. I think when everyone comes together after having not run anything for a very long time, you just got to be the guy to make the least mistakes.

I think that’s our goal, for sure, is to start the season with a good, positive experience for everyone, then see what happens.

Q. I know Carlin wanted to have two cars, but they announced the other day it’s just going to be you. To have their full focus, does that help you in any way or does it hinder because you don’t have teammate feedback?
CONOR DALY: I think having information and more data, especially when the day is so condensed, that’s super important. And it is a shame to be missing a wing man, per se.

But the team is prepared for that. We’re all ready to give it our best effort no matter what. It’s an unprecedented situation, for sure. Everyone says that so often. But racing is a business. We got to do the best job that we can no matter what for the partners that the team has with Gallagher Insurance and everyone else that supports this.

I’m excited. There’s a lot of great guys and girls at that team. It’s going to be a lot of fun. We’ll be the Lone Ranger out there. We do have information from last year, which is great. For me, I do have a feeling of what this car was like last year. That’s the first time I really ever had that in my career, going back to the same track with the same team.

There’s obviously a few new things on the car. It will be nice to get back to work with those guys because we know where we want to improve coming off of last year.

Q. It doesn’t necessarily guarantee there will be a huge rating, but the potential is there, the fact this is going to be on NBC in primetime. How do you view that opportunity?
CONOR DALY: I mean, it’s great. We have a great TV partner in NBC. It’s going to be exciting to be able to start the season on network, NBC primetime. It’s our job as drivers to let all of our fans know and all of our social media reach know that, hey, this is going to happen Saturday night. You better turn on your televisions and you better tell all your friends, their families, everybody’s else’s friend to turn on their televisions because it’s going to be an electric show. It’s going to be a lot of fun to have live racing back in action.

I appreciate that, for sure. I think all of us drivers are definitely thankful this is how we’re going to get to start the season. Yeah, I think it’s pretty cool.

Q. The whole iRacing, Twitch situation. I’m sure your mind is past that for now focusing on this weekend. To go back to that briefly, how important is that for the future in terms of drivers trying to establish themselves in the likes of INDYCAR? Do you think it’s something that can help guys like you trying to establish yourself, it’s going to become a more important part of motorsport in the future, or we’ve seen a bit of a boom with everyone stuck inside? Is Twitch something that can help you establish yourself in the future?
CONOR DALY: I think eSports in general, having a Twitch channel is cool. It’s fun. It’s fun to be able to bring fans directly into my technology center upstairs, which is essentially a guest bedroom.

Yeah, it’s pretty cool to have that out to just communicate. Communication with our fans, with people that support us, is awesome. But for professional eSports, I don’t know really what it does. I hope that continues to grow because I think it’s awesome that there are guys and girls out there who are doing an incredible job behind the virtual wheel. They deserve to get their time to shine, for sure. That will be really cool.

I don’t know how many professional drivers will be doing much of that because we will probably get beat by the professional eSports guys. But I think for sure. Obviously right now we have so much to do with the real season now that it’s resuming, it is going to sort of fall a little bit by the wayside because we have real life to focus on now again. You know what I mean?

I think in the off-season it would be really cool to think about how we could expand INDYCAR’s role with eSports, that community. But obviously, for now, there’s a lot on all of our tables when it comes to the real-life action. It will be nice to get back to that.

I certainly will still be playing video games in the off-season, that’s for sure.

Q. How are you feeling about having no fans at the race? Will that be weird for you or will you not really notice or care about it?
CONOR DALY: You know what, it is going to be weird I think. But realistically when we line up on that grid two-by-two, we close the visor, that’s all that needs to be said. We’re going to be going racing. There’s going to be a pace car out there that’s going to be leading us around. Realistically all focus is on the job at hand.

I think it’s going to be strange basically before and after the race. But during there’s not a lot of time that you spend looking anywhere else other than the racetrack right in front of you. It will be interesting and it will be strange, but I think we’ll be able to do a good job with it for sure.

Q. I saw what you posted Monday, the heartfelt tribute to Chris Beaty. I’ve seen some other drivers post some things about the social unrest, other drivers talking about how they’ve struggled with how much they want to weigh in. Why did you decide to do that? Did it feel comfortable because you had a connection to Chris Beaty? What has been the reaction?
CONOR DALY: Yeah, I mean, obviously Chris was a pretty close friend of mine. Obviously what’s going on now is just tough to see no matter who you are, I think. I just wanted to say something because just how good of a person he was. I didn’t want to dive in to anything and create any big story about it or anything. I just felt like he deserved some words.

Obviously he was out there trying to help protect some people who were getting robbed. It’s incredible to see that level of a person that he was. He definitely deserved the respect that people certainly in Indianapolis are giving him.

Yeah, it’s a tough situation all across the country. But, yeah, he was a great guy and he’ll definitely be riding with us this weekend. He was a big INDYCAR fan, as well. That’s pretty cool.

Q. Is it difficult sometimes for drivers to figure out how to toe the line, weigh in on things that could potentially be controversial but important for them to speak out on?
CONOR DALY: I think so, yeah. There’s a lot of business aspects to this sport, for sure, that we have to be aware of. There are companies that support us, support our team, stuff like that.

But realistically you got to say what comes from the heart as well. I think it’s been great to see a lot of drivers saying what they have. I think it’s a pretty unified message between all the stuff that we’ve seen put on the Internet, for sure.

It’s good to see us as a community doing what we are doing. Hopefully we can continue to get some positivity going with our race this weekend as well.

Q. Obviously this year you’re driving for two teams. How beneficial is that to you as a driver in terms of your development going forward during the season?
CONOR DALY: Well, I mean, it’s strange obviously. It’s not how you’d like to do things ideally. But it’s a great opportunity to be a full-time INDYCAR driver again. So I’m going to look at it like that.

I got this shirt out of a pile of 16 shirts that I had upstairs from all the teams that I drove for last year (laughter). It was really interesting to go through that.

But, yeah, I mean, the Carlin guys are a great team that believed in me in 2011, and they still do now. It’s cool to be driving for them and hopefully continuing to get some great results together.

Would love to be able to hoist some trophies up for them this year because they deserve it. They’re putting in a lot of work. Trevor is an incredible owner. Chili’s is a great supporter of the series and the team as well.

It is going to be interesting. Obviously I was supposed to start the season with ECR, now I’m starting it with Carlin, then rotating into the ECR car after that.

I have to say the same for both teams: it’s incredible to be part of both organizations. I raced with Carlin before, so I know what that situation is like. I haven’t raced for ECR yet. I’m excited to start the journey with those guys because they also have done a fantastic job of welcoming me into the organization. I know they’re ready to go, for sure.

Q. The Aeroscreen, how are you going to adapt to that in Texas?
CONOR DALY: I have no idea how I’m going to adapt to it (laughter).

I think publicly I’ve said I’m not a huge fan of it. But I understand the reasons obviously why it’s been introduced. I respect what the series wants to do, the direction they’re taking obviously.

But, yeah, it obviously presents a lot of interesting variables. This week I thought I was going to use the helmet that I tested with in St. Pete. Apparently it had the air induction thing on the wrong side so that had to be changed. There’s so many different things now that we’re going to have to get used to when it comes to driver cooling, the tear-offs.

Yeah, it’s exciting because it’s all new, but it’s also like I don’t know what’s going to happen. It should be interesting.

Q. Dealing with two different teams, how hard is it to build momentum? You were starting with ECR, but now starting with Carlin. How hard has it been to build up that momentum that you would normally do before the season starts?
CONOR DALY: Well, ideally when we were looking at the regular season, it would have been quite nice. I had a couple test days with ECR, then we go to St. Pete, do the race, get the road racing going. We had two test days at Richmond with Carlin. That would have been nice to get everything flowing together. Now we’re just jumping in racing.

I think no matter what, me personally, I always try to just have a positive momentum streak going. That’s what we’re going to do. We got one race in June. June is going to obviously be pretty quiet. You definitely don’t want to sit through the weeks after Texas and think, Man, I wish that would have gone better.

We want to try to make it a great start so we can look at things as positive as possible heading into the month of July, where we have five races in 13 days or something like that, which I’ll be with both teams during that time.

I think this race in June is going to be kind of on its own, on a bit of an island because we have so much time before and after. Once we get rolling in July, I think things are just going to keep flowing together pretty well.

Q. Are there any plans of moving out?
CONOR DALY: Of what, my house?

Q. Yeah.
CONOR DALY: Not my house. This is my house. I live by myself. I don’t want to move. I think this is great.

Q. I guess I was under the impression you were living with your parents.
CONOR DALY: No, no, that hasn’t happened since 2014 (laughter).

THE MODERATOR: We will take the time to thank Conor for his time, wish him the best of luck this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway for Saturday night’s Genesys 300 at Texas Motor Speedway. The race is at 8 p.m. on your local NBC affiliate.

CONOR DALY: Thank you, guys. I appreciate everyone.

Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

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CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
GENESYS 300
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
FT. WORTH, TEXAS
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 3, 2020

THE MODERATOR: Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the first of today’s video conferences with participants from the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. INDYCAR is holding these in advance of the Genesys 300, which takes place Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway. The race will be on at 8:00 p.m. on NBC. We’re pleased to be joined this morning by the president of Team Penske, Tim Cindric. Tim, welcome to the call.

TIM CINDRIC: Good morning, guys.

THE MODERATOR: Tim, starting the season a few weeks later than we had hoped to in March, what kind of unique challenges has Team Penske faced as they get ready for the Genesys 300?

TIM CINDRIC: Well, I think everybody, knowing that we haven’t actually raced in, what, eight and a half months or so right now, has a bit of anxiety for how it’s going to turn out, and obviously going to Texas as our first race, yeah, it brings a lot of questions as far as how prepared we are and really how the season is going to start. Yeah, ever since Friday the 13th of March, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind up and down, and we’re just glad to be going racing again.

THE MODERATOR: As a team strategist, do the unique challenges of Texas and all the things that have been announced about tire stints and things, the one-day show, make it any more of a challenge for you?

TIM CINDRIC: Well, it’s something we haven’t experienced before, so honestly I wish it were the other way around because I think there’s probably more strategy involved in having the tire falloff and the degradation at Texas, and you saw that play out last year with Josef and kind of how that race went back and forth. Either way, I think it’s going to be really good racing. I am glad that we’ve got veterans in our cars right now because if I’m a rookie and I have to start at Texas as my first race, that’s pretty intimidating for sure, but yeah, thankfully they’re getting a bit of practice and not having to hop in and just race like NASCAR has had to do here quite a few times.

Q. In February you guys had the opportunity to take Scott McLaughlin to Texas to run some laps, so you have a little bit of data with the Aeroscreen on the car. Was that a helpful test for you guys?
TIM CINDRIC: I think it was really more helpful for him. At the end of the day, it was just him being able to get up to speed and be in a position to understand what an oval is like and how fast it really is, but any time you get a chance to run somewhere, it’s beneficial, but I think the windscreen and that type of thing, once we go night racing, I’m not sure really anybody has experienced that at this point with the current screen. I know that Scott Dixon did a few runs I think it was at Phoenix if I remember correctly, but when you do it for real, it’s going to be different.

Q. I actually wanted to follow up on a question up just asked regarding testing. Jay Frye announced earlier this week that teams for the rest of the 2020 season would be limited to essentially only testing on the grounds of trying to develop a new potential future driver down the road, and so when you guys have the opportunity to get that extra test in with Scott at the beginning of the year on an oval, I know as you mentioned, maybe not a ton that you could take out of that and you guys weren’t anticipating this whirlwind season going, but just that one extra day on an oval which not too many teams have gotten, if that’s the only data that you guys will have, does that give you any sort of an edge going down the road the rest of the year?
TIM CINDRIC: I think the perception is that it may. It probably depends on what side you sit on. But what we ran there with him was obviously something very different than what we would plan to race with our guys because you’re trying to give him the maximum level of comfort. He didn’t really run — I can’t remember even how many laps that he ran, but just getting to the point where he could hold the thing full throttle all the way around was a bit of a learning curve. You have to remember he’s never been on an oval whatsoever before.

But yeah, any time you go there — I don’t think we learned too much more than I guess we anticipated doing. I don’t really know how to answer the question because it’s all going to be really a matter of perception. Every team that didn’t get a run there is going to say that we gained all these big advantages and we’re going to say that really it wasn’t that big of an advantage. It was a bit of an inconvenience in some ways to go do it in the way that we did it right after the previous test, but we felt like we had him here in the country and it was a good opportunity for him to learn what that was all about.

In fact, he was actually scheduled to try and run the Richmond open test and the reason for the Texas test was that they weren’t going to allow him to run the Richmond open test with the other competitors unless he had run on an oval, so the background to why we actually went to Texas was it was the only oval that whoa could run, that we could actually get him cleared to do the Richmond open test.

Q. You mentioned your veteran drivers that you have in the car for this weekend. In such a breakneck season, especially in July that we’re going to have with I think about five races in 15 days or so, how important will that experience between Power, Pagenaud and Newgarden be for you guys as you try to navigate so many ever-changing things, a new landscape in such a short period of time for this shortened condensed season?
TIM CINDRIC: Yeah, I think when you look at the schedule, it’s so different than what we’re used to, and I think the competition in INDYCAR, you saw it last year and I think you’ll see it again this year, the competition just continues to get greater and greater. You see some of the guys that came on board last year like Rosenqvist that now has a season under his belt, Herta. Look at all these guys that are up-and-coming and then you combine that with the veterans that we have and the fact that we’ve all been running these cars — yeah, OK, the windscreen is a bit different, but I don’t think that’s really going to give us a whole lot of handling characteristic change; it’s going to be more about how you execute on race weekends. With the number of double-headers that we have, it’s going to be a very momentum-based season, and I think you’re going to have comers and goers, and you’re going to have those that are seemingly out of it, but all of a sudden are in it when they have a great weekend at Iowa or Elkhart Lake or anywhere else. You’re going to continue, I think, to see this championship all the way down to St. Pete.

Q. The fact that you’re also in charge of the NASCAR side of the operation, even though they were drive-to races, the fact that they got rolling back in May, did you learn any processes and things of that nature that will be helpful in getting the INDYCAR team set with the parameters we have with the COVID-19 situation?
TIM CINDRIC: Yeah, without a doubt. I think the fact that we’re running a NASCAR team out of the same building has probably given us a lot bigger edge on what to understand at Texas than maybe running Scott McLaughlin there for a few laps. But I’ve got to commend NASCAR and their aggressiveness in terms of getting back on track because I think they’ve really served as a catalyst for the rest of motorsports worldwide to show the world that it can be done, and there was a lot of risk in doing that in terms of being the first and taking the risks of, hey, what happens and what protocols you have to have in place and secondary procedures or whatever else. Without a doubt, we’ve learned a ton from the way in which it’s transpired within the NASCAR world.

I think honestly that the way they started the protocols, there hasn’t been too many changes. They had things pretty well covered from the very beginning, and it’s just been a matter of executing, and when you look at how NASCAR operates and whether it’s the pit stops or just how their haulers are arranged or how their communication happens relative to INDYCAR, relative to IMSA, everybody has their own little idiosyncrasies of how you operate as a series, so I think there’s some uniqueness there that’s going to continue to play out. But certainly, I think not only our team but I think motorsports in general has learned a lot from NASCAR.

Q. And also, how have you staggered the work schedules with the crew, and also, it’s going to be fairly ambitious for you to get to the races. You leave out of the Statesville airport Saturday morning and that’s going to be — you’re doing what the Indy guys are doing except you’re coming from a different part of the country. How do all those logistics come into play for you?
TIM CINDRIC: Yeah, it’s been frustrating for many, but it’s a part of life now, as everybody understands. Yeah, we’ve chosen at this point to work in shifts rather than have our entire workforce together. You have to remember we have almost 500 people in the building on a normal basis, so we’ve really been working to maybe a third of the workforce, if you will, on any given day, split into shifts. Our shifts have been six-hour shifts, so we’ve been working from 6:00 to noon, and then we’ve taken a two-hour break for sanitization and so forth, and then we’ve worked then from 2:00 to 8:00 with a different shift. That’s been across the board through all of our series, and we’ll continue that process here for the foreseeable future, and really it helps us maybe take less risk with our people but also put ourselves in a position to where we’re not as vulnerable should someone get infected.

Q. Tim, I wanted to ask you about what Bruce was asking about in terms of the itinerary of getting to Texas. I’ve heard that the Indianapolis teams are going to be leaving very early Saturday morning, getting back very early Sunday morning, a very long day. How will that work coming from North Carolina? Do you have any sense of what the itinerary will be? Are you leaving very early and expecting to get back very late?
TIM CINDRIC: Yeah, I think it’s the same really. The drivers are taking a different approach. The drivers are going in early just so that they get a decent night’s sleep there and can get acclimated, whereas the team, yeah, we’re going to leave before the sun comes up for sure, go through all of our screenings and protocols before we take off, and then yeah, go through that process just to get into the racetrack. It’s going to be a long day without a doubt, but wouldn’t trade it — don’t want to be home on Saturday. I’d much rather be at Texas.

Q. What are you expecting from the Aeroscreen? I’ve heard some sort of surprising takes on it like it actually might mean less downforce on the cars by a slight amount. What are you expecting in terms of how the cars will handle and how it might impact the racing?
TIM CINDRIC: Well, obviously there’s a weight distribution change, so on the road courses we’ve seen that. Everybody has had a chance to test those things at COTA or whatever else, and really from a physics standpoint, what we don’t understand is how we’re going to draft and how things are going to be in traffic. That’s probably a pretty unknown right now. When you’re running by yourself and what we thought was going to happen with Scott when we put Scott out there, honestly, it was pretty immune to the whole situation. There wasn’t a lot of unexpectedness. There was some drag. But yeah, it did maybe make a bigger hole in the air, but at the same time, is that helpful or not helpful in terms of drafting?

I think we’re not going to know until we get in a pack to really understand how it’s going to affect the race, so it’s yet to be seen, really.

Q. Are you expecting with the tire stints, will there be more pack racing than normal if you have 35 laps at a time?
TIM CINDRIC: You know, I don’t think we’ve raced this tire combination, so I’m not 100 percent sure. I do think that without having the falloff that we’ve typically had there where it starts to string out toward the end, I do think that it’s going to be pretty competitive there at the front and that the cars will certainly be closer and we’ll have less cars a lap down. When you look at only running 35-lap stints, you’re going to have more cars on the lead lap than what you would typically have in say a 70-lap stint or something that’s more normal for a place like Texas.

So I think the fact that you have more cars on the lead lap, you’re going to have less people moving over or they’re going to have harder racing for sure. So I certainly think it’s going to be a competitive night.

Q. I just wanted to start with Scott because you mentioned him a few times. Is there any update on his situation in terms of will he be racing with you this year and is there still appetite to do that because you’ve spoken about the benefit of having your experienced guys in the car, obviously, with having reduced practices. Is there still appetite to get Scott out there at some point this year?
TIM CINDRIC: Well, there’s certainly an appetite. Whether that’s reality or not is yet to be seen. Currently with the schedule that he has and the quarantine rules that exist within travel at the moment going to and from Australia, if those stay in place the way that they are relative to the schedule, I just don’t see that it’s feasible. It’s just not possible to be able to clear quarantine and actually have him continue with the Supercars schedule and the schedule that we have. Until some of that is lifted, I really don’t see him having an opportunity to be here, and obviously, from an economic standpoint, I think everybody is challenged on that front.

I think for sure there’s a huge appetite, and he understands the reasons why we need to be patience on both ends, but right now he’s focused on the Supercars series until really things change.

Q. We’ve heard from Jay Frye that they’re considering a staged introduction of the next chassis for INDYCAR. What are your thoughts on what you’ve been told as a team so far on the next sort of phase of the rules cycle? Is it something — the things that you’ve heard so far, is it something you’re behind, or is there anything you think needs to be ironed out? What’s your feeling about the whole situation at the moment?
TIM CINDRIC: Honestly, we’ve been so tied up in what’s been going on the last three months or so that I couldn’t give you too many details of even what’s been discussed. Our focus has been on today and how to get through today to get to tomorrow. This process that we’ve been through, it’s turned into three days a week, right. There’s today, tomorrow and yesterday. You forget what day of the week it is.

Been really struggling with trying to keep up with what’s happening on that front, and I think there’s been lots of discussion, and I think it’s really encouraging to hear that a manufacturer like Ferrari might be interested in the series itself. It tells you how far the series has come in a very short period of time here, and I think if we can get back on track, a lot of those things are going to be pretty exciting. But from today, I can’t honestly tell you that we have a very good perspective of even what’s been discussed just because we’re so focused on just getting through the next day.

Q. We’ve heard lots of stories about how people have been coping during quarantine, stuck at home, unable to go out. Just wondered if you’d share how you and your family have been coping and dealing, staying busy during the quarantine.
TIM CINDRIC: I haven’t had any trouble being busy. I think it was probably the first week after St. Pete where you’re trying to really understand what this all means for everybody, but from that point on, honestly, it’s been probably the most frustrating few months of my career because every day is a different day. Every day is changing, every day is a constant change of scenario, and what might or might not happen and really how you keep the workforce not only motivated but quite frankly employed.

When you look at all the different trade-offs that we have with not knowing what the series was going to do, what the schedule was going to be, there’s just so much uncertainty, and some of that still exists. I still think it’s a pretty fragile environment. The fact that we’re still not racing with fans and some of these other things, I think motorsports has done more than any other sport to be relevant, and we’re very fortunate from that perspective.

But for me personally, I think I’ve had as much time and energy devoted into my job than I really ever have here in the recent times. As much as I thought maybe the first week that this all occurred that I’d be catching up on my domestic list, I can’t say that I’ve really had a chance to do much of that. But on the other hand, there’s quite a few people that have kind of in some ways been at home too long, so you have to look at all the different perspectives of what it is.

The one thing I am thankful for is that my kids are old enough to where I didn’t have to home school any of them because that would have been a real trying thing for me to try and home school my own kids and keep my family intact. Fortunately, that’s beyond me as far as the age of my children, but as I see the others having to home school kids and all that, in some ways I’m really jealous that they spend the time that I didn’t really have to devote to my kids at that age, but in other ways I’m like, man, I don’t know if I could have got through that or not. It’s interesting times.

Q. How beneficial is it to you as a team going into Texas having won there last year, given that you’re starting new with the Aeroscreen this year?
TIM CINDRIC: Well, you certainly look at that race, and we weren’t really the dominating car until toward the end of that race. I think it gives us, yeah, kind of a check on the list to say we know what’s possible with the way the tire situation is probably in my mind going to be more influential than what the Aeroscreen scenario is, provided that the sightlines and the reflections and all the things that we really haven’t experienced yet don’t come into play more than what we anticipate. I think right now we anticipate all that being — based on our runnings at COTA and some other things, unfortunately, we didn’t get the chance to run the Richmond open test. That would have given us a pretty good perspective on how it is to run on the banking and the ovals and that type of thing, and I think we were going to be able to run there at night a bit.

But I think the bigger concern with the Aeroscreen honestly is just adapting to racing at night, and we really haven’t done much of that at this point in time as well as the tire combination that we have and the 35-lap – if that’s where we end up – regulation to how long you can run a stint or half stint on tires is going to keep the field pretty packed up the entire time, which with that many cautions or that many situations of pitting, if you want to call it that — the in and out laps is where I was trying to get to, they’re going to become that much more important. So when you look at the number of in and out laps or the pit stops itself, I think track position will still be pretty key.

Q. I wanted to ask how much your role has changed, not because of the pandemic but with Roger getting involved in the series and IMS, and also I wanted to ask if there’s going to be a lot more day clashes this year, given not only NASCAR but also IMSA is going to have to compress its schedule towards the latter half of the season, how your duties are going to change and priorities are going to change now that you’re kind of like leading the race team.
TIM CINDRIC: Yeah, well, honestly, he’s given me that rope here for the last 20 years in a lot of ways, so I think our relationship really hasn’t changed in terms of the way he and I operate.

Indy right now has taken probably more of his time, so he’s maybe a little bit distant in some weeks, and in other weeks he’s right on cue. But from a running-the-race-team perspective, he’s kind of always given me that ability to go do those things and has never really micromanaged what we do. I’ve always felt like I have an understanding of when to pick up the phone and when to make sure he’s in the meeting and when to make it happen, so I think that’s probably why I’ve survived here so long, because I think I understand that balance. Some days maybe I get out of check, but lately, I’ve felt more of an accountant and an HR guy than I have a racing guy here in the last two or three months, so it’ll be fun to actually be a racing guy here for a little while.

But yeah, my role within the team, I guess I refer to myself as the team guy. He’s got to focus on the series, and I really don’t have much influence in the series itself, except I probably have a seat closer to the table than I did before as far as being one that he’ll reach out and ask your opinion about a certain thing that’s happening or what he’s trying to achieve and maybe try and give some direction with who else out there might be a good sounding board for some of the things that INDYCAR or IMS is trying to be. But the quality of people there, he’s come to find that there’s a really good core within INDYCAR and within IMS, and his leadership has really brought that to another level, I think. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to see that.

I got a chance to actually go to Indianapolis a couple weeks ago. Hadn’t seen Roger really since the Daytona 500 was the last time that I saw Roger up until two weeks ago, other than these Zoom calls. He taught me what Zoom was, so he was ahead of the curve relative to myself on this Zoom business. He took the initiative to have my come to Indy and spend a couple hours with him on a golf cart going around the speedway and just understanding what’s transpired since he took over the speedway, and it’s amazing.

Having grown up there as a kid, I thought I knew that place like the back of my hand, and there’s so many places that I went to and that I saw on the outside of the racetrack that I had never seen before, and the best way — he said, “What do you think?” After I thought about it, I’m like, the best way I can tell you is that this whole place looks younger, the entire place, what he’s done, and I’m really interested to see what the die-hard fans have to say because the ones that — you know how it is. You know your little space. Like for us we know the garage area like the back of our hand, we know the men’s bathroom, we know exactly where the paper towels are, what all works, what used to be there and what’s there now, and you walk it and it’s amazing; you have LED lights in the bathrooms. Okay, people have made jokes about the bathrooms, but when you understand how many of them there are and the fact that that’s where everybody goes, you know, as part of it.

But when you look at what he’s done with — that’s one discussion. But what they haven’t really understood is just the sight lines, the video boards, the additional video situations that he has, and the overall customer experience, what you see as you drive in, what you saw as you walk in a gate, when you look at when you walk up — the actual grandstand that you’ve walked up for years, and you’ve had this particular seat for years. It used to be a rusty banister, now it’s not. It used to be this and it used to be that. It’s unbelievable what’s happened in a short period of time. It’s unfortunate we are where we are now, but in some ways, it’s good for the speedway in that they’ve had even more time to do some of these things. It’s quite an evolution, and I think it’ll continue here for a while.

THE MODERATOR: Tim, we appreciate you taking the time to join us and wish you and Team Penske the best of luck this weekend at Texas.

TIM CINDRIC: Appreciate you guys calling in, and hope to see you at the racetrack soon.

Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 100 countries and selling more than 4.0 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
GENESYS 300
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
FT. WORTH, TEXAS
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 3, 2020

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to today’s video news conference in advance of the Genesys 300 at Texas Motor Speedway. The race is on Saturday at 8:00 p.m. on NBC. Joining us on today’s video conference are Larry Foyt and Charlie Kimball of AJ Foyt Racing. Thank you for taking the time to join us.

Larry, I’m going to ask a question to you. You’re the first team principal we’ve had on this week on the call. How have you gotten AJ Foyt Racing ready for this Texas race, especially since you have teams based in Indy and Waller?

LARRY FOYT: Sure, from that aspect it’s no different, right, because we operate the two shops anyway. Some things we did do, we sent the Houston car up to Indianapolis for the engine to be started and some final prep to happen there, just so that guys weren’t having to travel. We were able to drive up and drive back, so guys weren’t having to travel to start that car. That was just something we wanted to help out everybody, because most people being in Indy it was just easier for everyone.

But no, I think we’re just excited to go racing. Obviously, with a one-day show, we have to make sure everything is prepared perfectly. Not that we wouldn’t anyway, but you just can’t lose any practice time. You want everything to be perfect. We’ve been doing a lot of extra time on pit stop practice because with the shorter stints in this race, we know pit stops are going to be very important. So that’s it.

I think everybody is just ready to go racing. We were ready; we were in St. Pete ready to go, so it just feels like we’ve had a little bit of a delay here, but now we’re ready to get back at it.

THE MODERATOR: Charlie, I know that last year as a non-full-time driver you had some gaps in the schedule. You were ready to go in March and then we had a gap in the schedule. Is it something that you’re kind of used to, or do you still have anxiety, or are you excited about getting the season started at Texas?

CHARLIE KIMBALL: Well, I think I have a little bit more practice than I would like. I’m not sure that you ever get used to being out of the car when other cars are running. The strange thing about the last two and a half months has been that no one has been running. So I am really excited for this weekend. I’ve really enjoyed working with the AJ Foyt crew digitally and virtually, and popped into the shop last week to make sure while the Houston car was up in Indiana, get in, make sure the head pads fit because we were all ready to go for St. Pete on a road course street circuit, and then going into Texas this weekend with the superspeedway we had to take care of some of those other details that we would expect to have a week and a half to sort out in Indianapolis with this being an oval. With this flipped-up schedule, one-day show like I already talked about, making sure that we take care of all the details so that when we get there Saturday we can just focus on making the car go fast and getting the best results.

THE MODERATOR: Charlie, you’re the track record holder at Texas Motor Speedway, so starting the season on an oval has to be something to give you some confidence knowing that you can go around Texas fast.

CHARLIE KIMBALL: I feel like we have unfinished business there, definitely, having sat on pole in 2017 and not seeing that checkered flag that day, whatever position we finished. I do remember that feeling and what it was like to lead the field to green, and this year the goal is not to lead the field to green but lead the field to checkered.

Q. Larry, I know in talking with Jay Frye yesterday, he announced that there would be very little if any testing outside of developmental purposes for potential new drivers for the remainder of the 2020 season, and I imagine for a team like you guys that has so many drivers in the fold and with this very, very different schedule than you guys initially anticipated for 2020, I’d be curious to know just how a lack of in-season testing would potentially affect you guys moving forward and what your goals are for the remainder of the year.
LARRY FOYT: Well, I guess what I would say is yeah, it’s tough, but like going into this first oval, I’m glad we’ve got Charlie and Tony, two guys with a lot of experience, even though we haven’t had the car with the Aeroscreen, the windscreen on an oval yet. It is a lot of unknowns going into this. But what I would say is we’re all living in some really difficult times right now, and as long as it’s the same for everybody, I’m fine with that.

You do feel bad for a kid like Dalton (Kellett) who hasn’t had a ton of time in an Indy car, and he’s probably going to have some races where it’s quick weekends, and he’s got to do the best he can and learn how to drive an Indy car as quickly as he can. So that’s going to be tough for him. But it’s tough for everybody. There are other rookies in the series.

But like I say, I feel a little bad for Dalton because I know some more testing time would have been good for him, but we’re all going to have to do the best we can.

CHARLIE KIMBALL: From my side, it’s nice to have the experience showing up at Texas having run there for nine years and having had some results and having had some experience. But the limited testing, it’s hard, but at the same time, I’d much rather — I’d rather be in the race car, but if I had to choose between racing or testing, I’m glad we’re going racing. It’s about putting on a show for the fans, especially these first few races at home, on TV — or Texas this weekend on TV and then figuring out what the landscape looks like beyond that and figure out what it looks like for next winter and heading into 2021 and the future beyond that.

Q. Charlie, when you guys come to Texas this weekend for the season opener on a track that is very exciting but oftentimes has the potential to lead to pretty large accidents when you combine just that lack of testing these last several months, this being the first race of the year, getting several rookies and some first-time drivers at Texas used to that track, how do you approach just the totality of this race in terms of wanting to probably be aggressive and being excited at the start but maybe at the same time wanting to be a little bit cautious given the surroundings and circumstances?
CHARLIE KIMBALL: I think there is a healthy balance between taking care of the car, the equipment and my team. But also making sure to maximize the opportunity, and when it’s time to be cautious in the race, I hope I know and understand the situation to be cautious and make sure that I pick my way through those incidents, and then when it’s time to wake up and be aggressive and go for that result. Part of that comes down to the help I get from the timing stand, the voice of Larry in my ear, my spotter from the top, but also that experience. I think that’s one of the places where experience really bodes well is you can read what’s happening and read the character of the race.

I was rewatching last year’s Indy 500, I think as a lot of people were on Memorial Day, and I remembered how because of the threat of rain being around, instead of the last 50 laps that wick turning all the way up, the aggression turning up in the race, it felt like that knob was at 10 from lap 75 through to 200. But you feel that in the car. You feel that with the other drivers, so understanding that, having that experience, it leads to that balance to maximize but also not overextend.

Q. Larry, as a businessman, team owner, this is going to be a challenging season anyway. It’s your first in quite a while without ABC Supply as a sponsor. How challenging and difficult has this time been with the shutdown to kind of keep everything rolling?
LARRY FOYT: Yeah, perfect storm for us, obviously, ABC having been with us for 15 years. They’re still with us, they’re still going to do the Indy 500 with us, but yeah, as a primary for the whole year, certainly it was tough. But being able to bring on a company like Novo Nordisk was huge for us. It was great. They’ve been great to get to know and a great partner so far. We’re looking forward to getting on track with them. And that’s just what we do in racing.

A lot of teams have to do this every year. We had a long run, and I think it shows well of the type of team we are to work with, and we want to keep making more — we hope we’re with Novo Nordisk for many, many years. It’s tough. I think everyone in this business, everyone in the world is facing a lot of uncertainty right now, so we’re just trying to be smart with our business, take care of our people, take care of our sponsors, and I’m glad we’re finally getting racing because this is what we need to be doing.

Q. And for Charlie, the iRacing experience was valuable for a lot of reasons. One is a lot of people now are used to the view of what the Aeroscreens look like, but one of the things that it didn’t replicate necessarily is what that’s going to be like with sun glare. How big of an issue do you see that being Saturday night?
CHARLIE KIMBALL: I can probably better answer that come Sunday morning, but I don’t know that it’ll be a huge issue. I think we’re going to pay attention to it in the afternoon and in qualifying, and then be ready for whatever we need to do adjustment-wise on the Aeroscreen to make sure that the blanking around the top is blacking out as needed. I’ve got multiple different visor options.

Like Larry and I talked about at the beginning of the call, we’re just trying to answer as many questions and think about as many scenarios as possible before we get to the racetrack so we’re just ready to go to work and if needed put those in. So we’ll see what it looks like, and I think I’ll tell you after 200 laps Saturday night.

Q. How much hydration will you do because it is going to be a pretty hot night.
CHARLIE KIMBALL: Yeah, I mean, it’s Texas in June. It’s not going to be cool. Larry knows that better than I do, I think, living down there. But the hydration is something that I started a couple of weeks ago and I will make sure that I’ve got my drink mixes ready to go and the drink bottles prepared. I’m actually bringing down ice cubes on the plane with me of my drink mix and water so that the drink bottles are ready and the mechanics don’t have to worry about rushing when they need to be taking care of the race car.

Q. You guys are both new fathers. Has it been kind of nice the last couple months to be able to spend some time at home and get to know your young ones?
LARRY FOYT: It really has. I mean, that’s been, I guess, a blessing to come out of this, getting to watch a lot of his first year that I would have missed if we were racing all the time. But I’m also looking up at my calendar and what we’re going to have in July, August and September so we’re going to be gone a lot, so going to probably shock him a little bit. It’s part of what we do, and I’m sure Charlie, all of us, you guys, as well, who travel a lot following the series and things, you kind of know it going in, but it’s been super nice to have some time at home with him.

CHARLIE KIMBALL: Yeah, I’ve called it a bit of an unexpected paternity leave, the chance to spend these last 10 weeks, 11 weeks at home with our daughter and then our new son. It’s been really, really cool, honestly, a really, really nice silver lining to this whole situation. I think I’m going to look back on this time, and no matter how strange or challenging it was, the fact that I got that time at home with those kids is something that I will always appreciate, and as Larry says, I know that come the beginning of July through the end of September I’m not going to have nearly as much time, so I’m trying to soak it in as much as I can.

Q. Charlie, you spent a couple years in Indy Lights and the announcement yesterday that the series will be taking hiatus for a couple years and the plan is to bring it back stronger. Do you have any ideas that would help with that?
CHARLIE KIMBALL: I’ve been thinking about it, and nothing has really come to mind that I would say this was a silver bullet, and I don’t think it takes a silver bullet. I think it’s going to take some incremental changes in a few ways. I know costs had elevated. I liked the fact that the seat made in Indy Lights transfers directly into an INDYCAR chassis. Things like that are really important, especially for a ladder series like the Indy Lights championship. But coming back next year, if we as racing can find a way to make that Indy Lights field bigger and more competitive, a little deeper — obviously the cream of the crop has been great. You see that with Colton Herta, Oliver Askew, Pato O’Ward coming out of Indy Lights and into INDYCAR recently, but if we can make that a little bit deeper so there’s a little bit more chomping at our heels in INDYCAR, I think it would be better for the whole series.

Q. I had a question for Larry first. We’ve heard from some of the other teams that in order to minimize risk, they are going to fly the team in on the morning of the race, do the practice and qualifying, do the race and then fly the teams back home late that same night. Is that going to be the case with your team, as well, and if so, are you taking any extra steps to mitigate mental errors that are going to happen by the time the race takes place in the evening?
LARRY FOYT: Right, so we were unable to secure enough seats on a charter for the Indy guys to get down. We met as a team from — so they are going to fly commercial. They’re going to come on in the night before and get a good night’s rest because it’s going to be a very long day on Saturday, sure. The Houston guys, we talked about driving up and trying to do it in one trip, and the more I just thought about it, I thought it was much less risky to get there Friday evening, have a night in a hotel, be well-rested, and we are going to drive back Saturday night after the race, but I felt like driving in Saturday morning, doing the race and coming home was just way too much. So definitely going to get up, get a good night’s sleep. I think they’ll be fine. Obviously, INDYCAR has plenty of protective measures in place, and I think everybody will be very safe.

Q. For you, Charlie, you’re going to go to the track this Saturday, have a full day of racing behind the wheel and then it’s going to be a month again before you’re back behind the wheel in Indianapolis. Is it almost going to feel like you got a taste of it and then you’re back sitting and waiting some more?
CHARLIE KIMBALL: A little bit. I think that the month of June is going to be hard, but the fact that we get to come back to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the GMR Grand Prix on that 4th of July Brickyard weekend is something to really look forward to. So to have those three weekends off in June — we’re still going to be plenty busy. I mean, like I said, two kids keeps us running ragged no matter what. Between that and the fact that June 1st I was able to get back into the pits at the training facility starting yesterday and move out of my interim garage gym for my fitness and training over the last three months, it’s nice to be back in the facility, so I’m sure I’ll be spending plenty of time in pit fit during the month of June getting ready for July and August, September, as fast and furious as that’s going to be.

Q. Charlie, after Texas, since no spectators are allowed, is it going to feel weird having no spectators, or is it going to not really bother you?
CHARLIE KIMBALL: That’s a great question. I think the perspective for us as drivers and for me as a driver, the fans are really what drives the energy on race day. You see that at Indianapolis for the 500. You see that at places like Long Beach with hundreds of thousands of people, 100,000 people on race day, and that energy, you can just feel the buzz in the racetrack building up to the green flag, and so it’s going to be very different, and I think as a driver, I’ve already been thinking about how to ignore what’s happening in the grandstand or in this case not happening in the grandstand and know that driver introductions and the parade lap and those sorts of things, the anthem are going to be very, very different than what I’ve experienced in the past, and really focus on what the competition is going to look like and know that there are going to be millions of people watching on primetime, on NBC, at home on TV but not there at the grandstand.

It was really interesting, I watched the first NASCAR race back, and when he got out of the car and was talking about how quiet Victory Lane was, I think getting out of the car at the end of the race and not hearing that buzz from the grandstand is really where I’m going to notice it because that’s when I’m not focusing on the race ahead, I can get a chance to soak in the atmosphere a little more.

For me, if we can do it safely, getting fans back to the racetrack, it’s a big part of what motivates us as drivers and teams is that support that we get from around the country and around the world from our fan base.

Q. Larry, down here in Houston we’re always thinking about AJ; I wanted to ask you how AJ is doing?
LARRY FOYT: Thanks, he’s doing really well. He stayed out on his ranch at Del Rio for about the first 45 days and stayed apart from everybody, just him and a tractor, so he’s doing well out there, but I think he was ready to get back to Houston and check on my mom.

Yeah, he is back now, but he’s being really smart. He’s still working on some of the ranches he’s got out here and he comes in the shop and says hi to us but stays back. He’s doing well. He’s not going to make this race, but he’s planning on probably coming to the Indy GP.

Q. In all these challenging times that everybody is going through and the race team is going through, are you able to lean on any knowledge that he’s given you throughout the years and just making it through trying times like that?
LARRY FOYT: Oh, sure. He’s just — he’s seen about everything you can see, right, but I think even this is something that none of us — I was looking back as we were — the cars were leaving to go to St. Pete, and who would have thought three or four days later we still haven’t turned a wheel on a racetrack. It’s been unbelievable. We’ve been pretty blessed down here in Texas. I think our county here where the race shop is, we haven’t had any deaths and the cases have been minimal, so I know some of the more populous areas are having more issues.

So far we’re all safe. Our team has been safe, and that’s all we can pray for, and I think he knows that we’re ready to get racing, and he’s ready to go racing. Yeah, just glad that we’ve all been safe so far and we’re ready to go.

Q. Charlie, knowing that it’s a one-day show but compared to NASCAR you guys will actually have the practice session before qualifying and the race, how vital is it going to be for you guys to get as much track time in that limited amount of time?
CHARLIE KIMBALL: It’s critical. We haven’t run this car with an Aeroscreen on an oval yet. I haven’t driven an AJ Foyt Racing car on an oval. For me, every lap we can turn in practice, as Larry said, the preparation is critical. The work I’ve been doing with the engineering staff and the mechanics to make sure that everything is buttoned up and ready to go, we’ve talked about communications, we’ve talked about responsibilities, we’ve talked about role. We had a pre-race meeting on Monday where we talked about how the day was going to flow because when we step off that plane or walk through that health screening Saturday morning at the racetrack, it’s going to feel like warp speed until the checkered flag flies and then some. So we have to be ready to be — to take advantage of that track time and every moment we have at the racetrack.

But at the same time, having said that, I have every confidence in our ability to go out and get a great result. I feel really good about the engineering staff, my lead engineer Mike, my performance engineer Dwight, my data engineer C.J. and Larry on the stand. I have no questions about that. From my crew chief Thomas through the whole crew, all of my pit stop guys, the little interaction I’ve had, the little time at the racetrack, the feeling I get and the atmosphere within this team is rock solid, and I can’t wait to get on track and have that atmosphere turn into results.

Q. Larry, how beneficial is it to you to have two experienced drivers going into the first race at Texas in Charlie and TK?
LARRY FOYT: Well, going into this race it’s huge. Like you say, especially with the one-day show everything is accelerated, and going to a big track like Texas, having a guy like Charlie sit on the pole there, knows his way around there, and obviously TK is very good there, as well. It’s a little bit of peace of mind for sure. Anything can happen, but the engineering group has been working really well together. We’re really hopeful we’re going to unload and get these guys some good cars out of the box. That’s the plan.

Q. Charlie, how excited are you to be working with TK again given your relationship from Chip Ganassi Racing?
CHARLIE KIMBALL: It’s fantastic. Tony has so much experience, and I feel honored to be a part of his last lap in INDYCAR at AJ Foyt Racing. We’re friends off the track. We train together. He’s gotten me addicted to riding a bicycle on a computer game, but also our wives are friends, and I think our families when we can get together and the kids can play, I think they’re going to interact really well. I’m excited for his daughter Nina to spend some time with our daughter. So that relationship is there. That friendship is there. And the experience — I mean, he’s taught me things and I’ve learned a lot from him about how to restart on ovals and what you can and what you should and shouldn’t do and what he still does. So that experience is invaluable to me to continue to learn and get better, and like I said, I just feel really honored to be his teammate during his last lap, especially when we get back to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Indy 500.

THE MODERATOR: We will thank Charlie and Larry for their time this afternoon. We wish them the best of luck this weekend at Texas, so good luck, and thanks for joining us.

Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 100 countries and selling more than 4.0 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

Despite being on the front row for the final round of the IndyCar Challenge, Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin wasn’t really in contention until late in the race. In fact, McLaughlin had to dodge a couple of wrecks that involved the leaders on the last lap to score the win in the First Responder 175.

“I was hoping there was going to be one wreck, and there was two,” McLaughlin said to NBC Sports about the victory. “I thought we were going to get third, but we were in the right place at the right time.”

The First Responder 175 was action packed from the start. Formula 1 star, Lando Norris was back in the field and was on the front row. He would lead lap 1. The yellow flag didn’t take long to fly either. The first yellow of the race occurred on lap 5, where drivers Alex Palou and Tony Kanaan got together. In doing so, this allowed some drivers to play pit strategy and pit early.

After the restart on lap 11, Scott Speed, Will Power, and Graham Rahal were the top three with Norris in fourth. Power was able to take the lead a few laps later after an almost near collision with Speed and Rahal. Rahal had slight contact with the leaders, giving him some wing damage. During those incidents, Colton Herta also spun out by wrecking in the fence, but there would be no yellow.

Due to the early accident, Kanaan retired from the race on lap 16 and was credited with a last place finish.

Just 10-laps before halfway, green-flag pit stops began to shake the field up. Oliver Askew pitted on lap 27, while James Davison pitted on lap 29, and Power, Norris pitted from the top two on lap 33, two laps before halfway. IRacing veteran, Sage Karam was making his scheduled stop at the halfway mark, before having a collision with the pit road wall.

With around 30 to go, the green-flag pit stop cycle ended and Power was back in the lead with Davison in second, and Norris rounding out the top-three. Four-laps later, Power would pit from the lead, and eventually Davison pitting. During the cycle, Norris took the lead for a short while.

Up until that point, there was a long green-flag run. However, that was ended by a caution with 18 to go, as Stefan Wilson and Davison wrecked on the backstretch after contact from Scott Speed. Under the caution, several drivers such as Scott Dixon, Conor Daly, Josef Newgarden, Karam, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi made a late race pit stop for fresher tires.

There was a one-lap restart, before another yellow was flown with 13 to go, as Newgarden, Karam, among other drivers were involved in another incident. This saw 2019 Indy 500 winner Pagenaud as the leader for the next restart. Though as the normal saying, ‘cautions breed cautions’ was in play and Pagenaud was the next victim, as he would have an accident with eight to go.

From there, a late-race restart saw some wild action toward the end of the race. Norris, who was up front early, was taken out of the race with four to go as he had accidentally spun himself in the back of Pagenaud while coming down to pit road.

On the last lap, there were several incidents that involved multiple leaders. First, there was a wreck going into Turn 3 and 4, and finally, there was a wreck with the leaders coming to the checkered flag. However, V8 Sports Car ace and IndyCar newcomer, Scott McLaughlin was able to avoid those incidents and take home a virtual win at the virtual Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

This was the final round for the IndyCar Challenge. Despite their not being a champion awarded, IndyCar will get to make a $30,000 donation of their partner charities.

There were three cautions for nine laps during the virtual First Responder 175.

Official Results

1. Scott McLaughlin
2. Conor Daly
3. Santino Ferrucci
4. Oliver Askew
5. Pato O’Ward
6. Sebastien Bourdais
7. Ryan Hunter-Reay
8. Zach Veach
9. Felix Rosenqvist
10. Scott Dixon
11. Marcus Ericsson
12. Alexander Rossi
13. Graham Rahal
14. Scott Speed, one lap down
15. Will Power, one lap down
16. Helio Castroneves, one lap down
17. Marco Andretti, one lap down
18. Jack Harvey, one lap down
19. James Davison, one lap down
20. RC Enerson, one lap down
21. Lando Norris, one lap down
22. Josef Newgarden, two laps down
23. Max Chilton, two laps down
24. Rinus VeeKay, three laps down
25. Simon Pagenaud, four laps down
26. Alex Palou, 10 laps down
27. Sage Karam, 11 laps down
28. Ed Carpenter, 12 laps down
29. Stefan Wilson, 12 laps down
30. Takuma Sato, OUT
31. Dalton Kellett, OUT
32. Colton Herta, OUT
33. Tony Kanaan, OUT

Up Next: With the virtual racing now complete for the IndyCar Series, series officials will hope to get back to real-life racing at Texas Motor Speedway that is currently scheduled for Saturday June 6. However, the schedule remains fluid due to the on-going COVID-19 situation.

CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR IRACING CHALLENGE
FIRESTONE 175
VIRTUAL TWIN RING MOTEGI, JAPAN
TEAM CHEVY RECAP
APRIL 18, 2020

Simon Pagenaud nabs second consecutive victory in the virtual INDYCAR racing world
Chevrolet remains unbeaten with four wins in the six-event NTT INDYCAR IRacing Challenge

DETROIT (April 18, 2020) – For the second consecutive week, Simon Pagenaud captured the victory in the NTT INDYCAR IRacing Challenge besting a hard challenge from Scott Dixon and a fierce wheel-to-wheel battle with teammate Will Power.

A relative novice to the virtual world of IRacing, the 2019 Indianapolis 500 winner. was exhausted but happy after he captured his second consecutive win, both on ovals.

“That was a hard race. I had to battle with my teammate Will Power and then (Scott) Dixon there at the end.” said a tired but jubilant Pagenaud who piloted his No. 22 DXC Technology Chevrolet. “I work hard all week to be competitive and I think I am catching up and I think I am getting there.

“I also have great help from my real race engineer Ben Bretzman. He is a great help on race strategy and pit stops. I’m having a lot of fun, but it is still stressful. We are lacking a lot of feedback and having to learn a new way to race. But is is fun. I’m having a lot of fun in these iRacing events, but it can be stressful as I continue to learn this style of racing. I hope all the fans enjoyed it because I had a blast!”

Dixon finished second followed closely by Pagenaud’s Team Penske teammate Will Power in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet.

Power led a significant amount of laps, but contact during the fierce battle for the win in the closing laps relegated him to the final spot on the podium.

“Man, I was really hoping Scott (McLaughlin), Simon (Pagenaud) and I were going to have a great fight for the win,” said Power.
” It’s frustrating that a lapped car kept us from doing that. It really hurt Scott but I’m happy that Simon was able to get the win for Team Penske eSports. The Verizon Chevy was great out front and it was nice to lead a lot of laps, but we didn’t lead the one that matters.”

After winning the pole, Robert Wickens was involved in a multi-car melee early in the race, but recovered to finish fifth in the No. 6 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet.

Next Saturday round five of the INDYCAR IRacing Challenge will be at the Virtual Circuit of the Americas.

Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 100 countries and selling more than 4.0 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.