Category: NTT Indy

CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
INDIANAPOLIS 500
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
TEAM CHEVY TOP-12 QUALIFYING REPORT
MAY 21, 2023

FOUR TEAM CHEVY DRIVERS MOVE ON TO FIRESTONE FAST SIX

INDIANAPOLIS (May 21, 2023) – The Fast-12 round of qualifying provided an equal amount of drama and excitement as the first round on Saturday.

Four Chevrolet-powered drivers are moving on to the Firestone Fast Six to contend for the pole of for the Indianapolis 500: Arrow McLaren drivers Felix Fosenqvist (1st) and Pato O’Ward (6); AJ Foyt Rading’s Santino Ferrucci (2nd) and Rinus VeeKay from Ed Carpenter Racing (3rd) will make their final run later this afternoon.

Four Team Chevy drivers will start in rows three and four for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing: Alexander Rossi and Tony Kanaan, both from the Arrow McLaren Chevrolet stable will start seventh and ninth respectively. AJ Foyt’s Benjamin Pedersen will roll his Chevrolet off in 11th position, and Will Power of Team Penske will start 12th, on the outside of the fourth row.

ROW THREE AND FOUR DRIVER QUOTES:

ALEXANDER ROSSI, NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 7THFOR INDIANAPOLIS 500:

“It was a great lap. It’s tight-the field is tight. It always is tight. It was a great team effort. There we just didn’t quite get the balance right for these conditions, which is an excuse, you know, six other cars did but you know, seven is a good starting spot. And we’ll see. We’ll see what next week brings but you know, overall, just a huge effort from Arrow McLaren and hopefully, one of the cars lands on the pole.”

TONY KANAAN, NO. 66 ARROW MCLAREN CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 9TH FOR THE INDIANAPOLIS 500:

“First, I had to get to the other guys to help them out because we want to put this team on the pole. The drop off was big, but we have between the three cars, a responsibility to help my two teammates with the track changes so that they have a chance to change stuff on the line. That last run was okay. Now this part is over.”

BENJAMIN PEDERSEN, NO. 55 SEXTON PROPERTIES AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 11TH FOR THE INDIANAPOLIS 500:

“We did the best we could and I was happy with what we ran given the conditions. Hats off to all team members for working so hard making sure every little detail is as a Indy 500 special as possible. All the engineers, everybody is working together. So, yeah, I’m very fortunate to have the car like I do for being a rookie. We’re here we’re in the Fast 12 run. Now we get ready to race.”

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON 5G TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 12TH FOR THE INDIANAPOLIS 500:

“We had a big push on second lap and I got close to turn one wall and had to lift. But apart from that it’s pretty solid, maybe got the gear wrong shifted down a gear too early, but I got the lights for it. So maybe too much soft limiter is looking like it’s gonna be super tight. the car has been really good in race trim. There’s a lot of other guys that are really good too. The car has been really good in race trim. There’s a lot of other guys that are really good too. Really even, just as tight. But in qualifying it was the same

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Indianapolis, Ind. (21 May 2023) – Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) drivers Helio Castroneves (No. 06 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda) and Simon Pagenaud (No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda) cemented their positions in the field for next Sunday’s 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500 through four-lap qualifying at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday.

Castroneves used a strong mid-afternoon run to claim the 20th position for Sunday’s Memorial Day Classic, with his four-lap average of 231.954 mph putting the Brazilian in the middle of row seven at the start of his 23rd Indianapolis 500.

Pagenaud also used a second qualifying run to improve his time, posting a four-lap average speed of 231.878 mph to claim the inside position of row eight for the 200-lap battle at the historic 2.5-mile oval on May 28.

The MSR duo started its day early on Saturday as low-number lottery spots put both Castroneves and Pagenaud on track in the opening hours of Saturday’s qualifying. Usually a coveted time slot, early runs yielded slower times among much of the 34-car field, encouraging most teams to make follow-up qualifying runs as temperatures climbed later in the afternoon.

Castroneves, who is chasing history by becoming the only driver to win five Indianapolis 500 crowns, gained more than 1.5 mph on his second run, vaulting him into the 20th spot on the grid. Pagenaud was also faster during his second run, but the result didn’t effect his 22nd starting position. Both Castroneves and Pagenaud did begin one final qualifying attempt in the last hour of the session, but did not complete the run as the times didn’t promise any improvement.

The MSR drivers will have two final practice sessions next week on Monday and Friday as they prepare for Sunday’s 200-lap Indianapolis 500. Fans can follow the practices on Peacock. Sunday’s race will air on NBC on Sunday starting at 11am ET. SiriusXM will also host live IndyCar Radio coverage on XM Ch. 160.

Meyer Shank Racing Driver Quotes:

Helio Castroneves:
“It wasn’t really a strong day for us, but we feel that we are strong for the race. We were very consistent over each run, but the speed just wasn’t there and sometimes that’s just the way it goes. The MSR team and crew have been working really hard and I know we will come back for the race and be strong – it’s going to be a fun one.”

Simon Pagenaud:
“What a thrilling day it is every year, it’s incredible. Going 243 mph and turning into Turn 1 is always such a special thing. I must say, I had a great car. We had the least tire degradation over the four laps, but unfortunately we just don’t have the speed to create a big average lap time. First lap and last lap are very similar for us which is a very good sign of an amazing race car, but it’s just not allowing us to get into the Fast 12. It’s a very tight field and I know we have a great race car which gives me a lot of hope. I look forward to getting back into race trim and come back in good form for the race.”

RC Enerson Set For First Indy 500 Start

(May 20, 2023) SPEEDWAY, In- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

First-time Indy 500 entrant ABEL Motorsports of Louisville, KY, and rookie 500 driver RC Enerson of New Port Richey, FL combined today to beat long odds and qualify for their first Indy 500 start next Sunday, May 28.

ABEL Motorsports, with its race shop in Speedway, Indiana, near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, is making its first foray into NTT INDYCAR Series competition by competing in the 107th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge. Enerson will make his 6th career INDYCAR start in this year’s 500.

Enerson went out 16th in the qualifying order in Saturday’s opening round of 500 time trials. His four-lap average speed of 231.129 MPH earned RC and the ABEL squad 29thstarting spot in this year’s 500. But there was much more to the story than the four strong laps Enerson posted midday Saturday. That’s due to the unique qualifying format for the 500 when more than 33 cars are entered. The top 30 cars are locked into the starting lineup on day 1 of qualifying with the remaining 4 cars this year set to battle it out for the last 3 starting spots on Sunday afternoon.

With Saturday’s success, the ABEL team and RC Enerson are automatically in the race and can watch the final row shootout from a comfortable perch.

“It’s a big stress reliever, that’s for sure. It went right down to the wire” commented Enerson.

“I think we had something left in the tank if we’d had to go back out, but it’s super awesome to be in the show. I’m so excited for this team. They’ve worked extremely hard for the last few months to put this car together and in the 500. Now we can concentrate Monday on getting the 50 car right for the race, and we can look forward to Carb Day Friday. I’ll definitely be celebrating tonight!”

Team Principal Bill Abel was emotional at seeing a dream fulfilled today. “I’m so proud of our guys. We have had so much help from so many in the paddock. It’s encouraging and gratifying to have that support and to have the team we’ve been able to assemble. I hadn’t even let myself get to the point of believing we had a shot to make the race. And now we have. It’s just amazing. The support we’ve gotten from Chevrolet has been invaluable. They’ve believed in us and we couldn’t have done this without their trust in what we wanted to do. They’ve provided so much support, it’s been awesome.”

Team Manager John Brunner was relieved and exhilarated knowing his car would be in the field for the 500. “I’ve been knocking on wood all week, because this car we’ve prepared has not had a single issue. This thing hadn’t even turned a wheel at all until practice Wednesday. It’s crazy. I’ve been here with a lot of teams, and you always have problems.

“But not this team We have some of the very best people in the sport on our team, and we’ve added some guys with tremendous credentials and experience to the group for the 500. I’m surprised we qualified on Day 1, but I’m not shocked. These guys have built a great car and we’ll be ready for next Sunday.”

This Sunday meanwhile will be a well-earned break for ABEL Motorsports and RC Enerson. The team will be ready to roll Monday, May 22, when pre-500 practice opens at 1pm. Monday’s session will run until 3pm at the Speedway.

CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
INDIANAPOLIS 500
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
TEAM CHEVY PRACTICE REPORT
MAY 20, 2023

CHEVROLET QUALIFIES EIGHT IN THE TOP-12 ON SATURDAY AT INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

• Arrow McLaren INDYCAR’s Felix Rosenqvist topped the leaderboard in his No. 6 Chevrolet with a four-lap average of 233.947 MPH.
• Rosenqvist’s last run of Saturday was the third fastest four-lap qualifying average in Indianapolis 500 history.
• Rosenqvist’s teammate Alexander Rossi, in the No. 7 Chevrolet, finished his four-lap average second with a speed of 233.528 MPH.
• Chevrolet captured eight of the top-12 positions at conclusion of the Saturday’s Indianapolis 500 qualifications.
• The two entries by AJ Foyt Racing, Santino Ferrucci and rookie Benjamin Pedersen, continue to shine, qualifying in the top-12 and setting up to start amongst the first four rows of next week’s Indianapolis 500.
• Pedersen’s qualifying attempt of 232.739 MPH was the second fastest four-lap average by a rookie behind Tony Stewart in 1996.
• Pedersen also clocked the fastest single-lap speed by a rookie with his first lap at 233.297 MPH around Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
• A record number of 84 qualifying attempts were made by the 34 vying for a qualifying spot at the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500, breaking the single-day record of 73 set in 2019.

TEAM CHEVY TOP-12 QUALIFYING RESULT:
Pos. Driver

1st Felix Rosenqvist

2nd Alexander Rossi

4th Rinus VeeKay

6th Tony Kanaan

8th Pato O’Ward

9th Santino Ferrucci

11th Benjamin Pedersen

12th Will Power

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING (QUOTES)

Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Chevrolet at Team Penske:

“We’re just trying to make it into the next show tomorrow, and the Fast 12. Unfortunately, I think that’s just what we had today. We really went aggressive, about as aggressive as you can go, and it just wasn’t there. I’m really proud of the team for really giving an effort. You’ve got to do that. You’ve got to try. We were close enough to give it a try, and unfortunately, we were a little short. I think we’ll have a great racecar. I’m really proud to drive the Shell car. Everybody is fueled by Shell in this field with a completely renewable fuel because of Shell, so it’s a big deal in the INDYCAR series, be the first U.S.-based motorsports championship to say that. Proud of Chevy too. I think Chevy has done a great job this weekend. Just bummed we’re not going to be there tomorrow, but we’re going to work towards next weekend.”

Will Power, No. 12 Chevrolet at Team Penske:

“I can’t believe how tight this qualifying session was today. Before our last run we trimmed the Verizon 5G Chevy and changed gears, and ran basically the same speed. It’s an incredibly fierce field. This No. 12 team has done a great job, but it’s a very competitive field. It shows just how tough INDYCAR is, and I think it’s great.”

Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Chevrolet at Team Penske:

“I think we lacked a little bit of downforce. I tried to hold on as flat as long as I could and everyone was pretty solid, you guys you guys would be all over the replays. The Pennzoil Chevy was tight but you got to hold it in Indy 500 qualifying and it was fine. We will go back out and try to get cranking speeds in the car. It’s amazing.”

ON SECOND RUN: “When I was on the first lap, I thought we had something but then every lap, it was just too stuck (too much downforce). We had to go for more speed to make it in the Fast-12, but it was not there. We had four really fast and consistent laps but it wasn’t there.”

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

“Definitely a super strong run and that’ll be enough to get to the top-12. Not saying we’re not going to come back out and see we can make it a little bit better for preparation you know for tomorrow. But that was a really, really solid run–very happy with that. The winds are getting a little gusty here and it started getting a little wiggly there in turn four but I’m very, very happy with that.”

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

“Man, it did (surprise me). I have no words. Phenomenal run. Big thanks to Arrow McLaren, Team Chevy. Every time we’re out there, we’re learning something. The first run wasn’t optimal. I wasn’t super happy with it but it was clearly quick enough. We said let’s go out again and learn something for tomorrow and kind of be the same conditions, or hotter. I thought it was good experience, and then like I couldn’t believe what I saw. It was unreal. We trimmed the car out a little bit and tuned up the balance. But I had no idea I was going to be that quick. Definitely puts a smile on my face.”

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

“This is INDYCAR and knowing how this works probably not another run for us. An amazing team effort from Arrow McLaren and Chevy brought some amazing horsepower this month which is which is awesome and the balance every day it’s been getting better and better. This team is unbelievable. So happy with that first one for sure. We’re in the show.”

“An amazing team day. I don’t have enough to say about the whole group. To get four cars in the top 12 – I can’t put into words how challenging that is. It’s really special to be a part of. Tomorrow’s going to be an amazing day, and hopefully one of us can be on pole.”

Tony Kanaan, No. 66 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren INDYCAR:

“I don’t know if it’s a drama. We started the day a little bit more conservative. We just kept digging. I need to thank definitely my teammates for it. They’re all in. They kept supporting me, asking me, You got to do it again, you got to do it again. We finally on the last run nailed it. Great team effort. It was nice. It was unexpected, especially I don’t think I’ve ever done that many qualify attempts in this place. I guess because it’s my last one they kept sending me out, so it paid off.”

Gavin Ward, Race Director at Arrow McLaren INDYCAR:

“Saturday qualifying for the Indy 500 is, I think, the coolest day in motorsports. It can go either way on you. Today was a good day. We wanted to give each of our cars a shot at the pole, and we’ve got that – all four in the top eight and the two quickest of the day. Tomorrow is the day that counts, though. Strong day for the team. Let’s have some fun tomorrow.”

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

“Fast enough. I mean, we’ve got good cars three good cars. Pace, as usual, is just faster than us. So tough to say. But I mean, it’s the most comfortable I’ve been here in a while qualifying. So we got to run again and try to get our way in there. But I’m not sure how much more raw speed there is in the car. Yeah, so we’ll see. What differences can you make? What changes? What are you looking for? For that second round, it will just be small changes. And you know, you got to drive it out of control here to be fast, so we just have to get it more out of control.? It was most comfortable because we just dialed in the balance but the problem is comfortable, too slow. So we got to be able to control and we got to add a little bit of a headdress that was coming out to during that run so hopefully we can tie it all together when we get back in the car.”

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

“To be honest, I’m most happy when it’s over. But I mean, this team gives me gives you a great car where, you know, I was barely making any adjustments. It was all in all very, very detailed work. But that was a great car to drive. I’m very happy and yeah, I mean, look at Chevy, you know, they’ve upped their game, so, yes, really good day. I think we’re hanging in there confidently. today. So, you know, you want to drive the least possible especially me, maybe the team wants to go out but I don’t think so. Anyway, great job by the team great performance and yeah, very proud to drive the car. It’s always nice to have them around and they are as excited as it gets, especially my dad. You know, I’m, I’m afraid his heart’s gonna stop sometime because it’s blood pressures through the roof. But you know he’s the best that I could ask for at the racetrack. And of course, my mom was there to calm him down. But now they’re the great parents. Very solid.”

Ed Carpenter, No. 33 Chevrolet at Ed Carpenter Racing:

“I think there was one awkward shift there that did it. So that’s how tight it is right now in the NTT INDYCAR Series. I am disappointed for my team and BITNILE.COM. This isn’t what we are accustomed to, but – got a ton of confidence and what we’ve been doing the whole month-just keep doing those things. The race cars are really good. I felt as strong as I have in a long time. I’m just gonna have to do some more work this week. We have Rinus (VeeKay) in the Fast-12, so we will all focus on helping him advance to the Firestone Fast Six. Then Monday, we all go work on our race cars and the final two practices.”

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

“Good run for us. I will work to keep our momentum rolling! Driving for AJ Foyt I think it makes it even more special. It’s a relief to be honest. you know, I’m just happy where we are today. I think it’s a huge testament one day at a time for this team, but I will tell you right now, I think we have a better race car than we do a qualifying car. That will make it more exciting for us. So I think we will go out again around 4:00 PM because I guess that’s what you are supposed do.”

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

“It’s helpful but at the end of the day, you’ve got to get in the race car and go. But man, it was a pretty good car. You know, there’s little things where I could have done that a little bit better. But honestly, it was a really good run and yeah, it’s it’s fast. It was my first but my best ever qualifying here but that’s because it’s my first ever qualifying here. So the presence here is amazing. The vibe everything AJs presents being right over my shoulder with running on track is very special.”

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

“We made the race. First of all, great. But it was looking a bit difficult, especially a week ago, coming here. Not easy, and we’ve been through some wars. We had to change the chassis last night, then a big unknown going into today. Bit of an impossible task, but we pulled it off. Obviously, there’s a bit more to achieve. We’ve got to get the racecar in a good window, but yeah, I’m super happy to be making the race. It’s a lot of hard work that everyone behind the scenes has been working to achieve, and thanks to Juncos, big thanks to Chevy.”

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

“We have finished qualifications on the first day. I am very proud of my team. I am very, very happy to be in the Indianapolis 500 for the first time in my life. Now, we’ll focus on the race. We’ll do our best to finish in the best possible position.”

Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 23 Chevrolet at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing:

“Qualifying was harder than I thought it would be with the first run. Usually, it’s pretty straight forward. Not sure why we slowed for the second two laps. I didn’t see that coming with the handling. The whole car just took off to the wall in turn three. That wasn’t a clean run for us. We lost the consistency in the balance of the car. That really hurt our average speed. We will wait and see how the other speeds go throughout the day. We found a problem with the first run. So, we fixed it and the second run was much more consistent. We picked up six sports. Maybe we’ll go later in the day if conditions remain the same. We wanted to run four consistent laps and get an overall faster speed for qualifying. It’s a lot of work with a new team and new crew. This team is very good, but everything is new for me. And I am new for them. It takes time to blend everything throughout the month of May.”

Stefan Wilson, No. 24 Chevrolet at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing:

“I was very nervous going out later as the track was getting hotter. Sun was beating down on the track. It was a good run, but I made a slight mistake on the third lap. I thought we would have the No. 24 DRR/Cusick Motorsports/CareKeepers Chevrolet higher on the speed charts today. The car felt great and I’m ready to go out for another run soon. It seems so easy to just be turning left for four laps, but there is so much going on in those four laps for a driver. You are always making adjustments during the qualifying run. I’m very proud to be part of Team Chevy this year. This is my third year with a Chevrolet engine. Seems like every year Chevy just gives us more power.”

Dennis Reinbold, Team Owner, Dreyer & Reinbold:

“We know we have good race cars after this week’s practice runs. We were a little disappointed in our first qualifying runs for both drivers. We had some speed fall off in the last two laps for both guys. We know what happened there, so we look to run again with those adjustments. We believe we can be more consistent with all four laps again and improved our four-lap averages.”

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FELIX ROSENQVIST, NO. 6 ARROW MCLAREN CHEVROLET, SANTINO FERRUCCI, NO. 14 AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, NO. 66 TONY KANAAN, ARROW MCLAREN CHEVROLET, AND CALLUM ILOTT, NO. 77 JUNCOS HOLLINGER RACING CHEVROLET – End of Day Press Conference:

THE MODERATOR: We are going to go ahead with our news conference, wrapping up day one of qualifying. Felix Rosenqvist P1 today, as well as Tony Kanaan, Santino Ferrucci, and Josef Newgarden will also join us.

Already joining us here up on the stage is Callum Ilott, qualified 28th. That’s where he’ll start.

THE MODERATOR: Also joined by Tony Kanaan, sixth quick after some late drama in qualifying. Also joined by Santino Ferrucci.

Tony, some drama there for you, got kind of emotional as well.

TONY KANAAN: I don’t know if it’s a drama. We started the day a little bit more conservative. We just kept digging. I need to thank definitely my teammates for it. They’re all in. They kept supporting me, asking me, You got to do it again, you got to do it again.

We finally on the last run nailed it. Great team effort. It was nice. It was unexpected, especially I don’t think I’ve ever done that many qualify attempts in this place. I guess because it’s my last one they kept sending me out, so it paid off (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: We’ve never seen this many qualifying attempts before. Today set a record for single day qualifying attempts for the Indy 500.

Also joining us Felix Rosenqvist. Felix, P1 today, which is great. Doesn’t mean anything for tomorrow. But you advance to round two tomorrow.

FELIX ROSENQVIST: Yeah, I think it’s still a pretty big day for us. I mean, we’ve been good here the last couple years. Today to have all the cars in the top eight, in this competition, it’s really hard. We saw with Tony today, even if he’s doing a perfect job, still things that can outside factors that can play in, it can become really difficult in this field.

Super proud of the whole team for executing. That last run we did was just phenomenal. Almost in a 234 average. That was pretty mind-blowing how we found so much speed. We weren’t super happy on our first run, so we had two or three reasons to think we were going to go quicker. We kind of put them all together, wow, what a run.

Team Chevy as well, great job. Yeah, just a fun time to be in Arrow McLaren right now. Everything kind of resets for tomorrow, but we definitely feeling good right now.

THE MODERATOR: Callum Ilott, after the drama yesterday, you’re in the show. How much of a relief is that?

CALLUM ILOTT: Yeah, I mean, I don’t know where to start with that. It’s been a tough week, a tough month actually from the open test. We changed chassis middle of yesterday. I was kind of given an almost impossible task from what some people said. Just tried to keep the confidence high.

The first run wasn’t great. I don’t think my engineers would even look at the video because they were scared to watch it. We just managed to turn the car around into something that was fast, managed to scrape four laps out of it.

THE MODERATOR: Santino Ferrucci joins us, getting into round two, the top 12. How excited is the team and you?

SANTINO FERRUCCI: Yeah, I think it’s a pretty impressive feat for the team. To see the 14 up the front, my teammate right there as well who went earlier in the day, it’s been pretty awesome. To see us up there is pretty sick, man.

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

Q. Santino, when we talked to you out there in the bullpen, you were trying to get in on the Fast 12. Now that you’re officially in the Fast 12, to have an A.J. Foyt Racing driver in the Fast 12 at the Indianapolis 500, how big of an honor is that? How much do you feel you want to go the extra distance and get it for A.J.?

SANTINO FERRUCCI: Yeah, definitely. Like I said, the goal here is to bring home A.J.’s sixth win, sixth 500 victory. I actually feel a lot more comfortable in the race car than I have been in the qualifying car. To be in the Fast 12 and have a shot at pole tomorrow I think is huge.

Our car definitely has some more in it. It’s getting really tight up top there. Inches are going to make the difference. I’m excited to see what we can do tomorrow.

Q. What did A.J. say to you when you got out of the car?

SANTINO FERRUCCI: I think he’s really happy to see that car up on top. I think he’s more thrilled that both cars are equally competitive. I think he believes in what we’re doing. He believes in the program. It’s just one of those things where he’s ready to see what we can do on race day.

Q. T.K., you’re a McLaren guy now, but you’re a former Foyt driver. How big a deal is this?

TONY KANAAN: C’mon, it’s a big deal. The team doesn’t have the budget of all the other big teams. They work really hard. It’s a big family there. They’ve been through some tough times lately with some personal stuff.

I’m glad to see. Really happy to see them there. I’m pretty sure A.J. is laughing pretty hard, but going to give Santino a run tomorrow again so he better be on his toes.

Q. It seemed kind of effortless that Arrow McLaren has been able to put all four in the Fast 12. Can you describe what it’s like being on the inside watching that happen?

FELIX ROSENQVIST: Yeah, I think the team is really maturing. We’re still a fairly new team as the current structure. But you really feel a difference. There’s a lot of young guys. When I joined the team, a lot of young guys on the team now becoming pretty experienced, being up front for many years, still not a championship, but we’re up there lurking all the time now.

You really feel that the confidence is growing in the team, I think both on the engineering side, driving side. Now especially with Tony and Alex joining, it’s just a good environment.

We’re having fun. I feel like we’re able to attack. When we have tough days, we’re pretty good at bouncing back quickly which normally puts us in the mix. To do it four cars as well. I think already on the 7 car this year with Alex, it’s really impressive with what they’ve done because it’s pretty much a completely new group. Then you have Tony’s car on top of that. I think a couple of months ago we were like, what people are we going to use for running these cars? Here we are in the top eight, all of us. It’s really remarkable.

As I say, it feels not effortless, but it feels like we’re vibing, it’s a fun group.

TONY KANAAN: Yeah, I mean, it’s a tough job. I mean, I was in the shop in January, and we didn’t have probably between the 7 car and my car half of the people yet. I walked in, Where is everybody?

They said, This is everybody.

I’m like, Whoa.

It’s a big challenge. It gives a lot to Gavin making a best out of people, Barnhart, all the group there. It’s a really good environment. They give you the freedom. Gavin is really good picking up who is good at what. Doesn’t mean if you’re not good at one thing he will place you somewhere else. I think it has shown how strong this team is.

I think between the driver lineup, it’s the same thing, we have an awesome combination. We have two young kids, they’re fired up. Alex is there with his experience, then I come. It’s a really good environment. They’ve been doing it.

It’s not a surprise. Look how strong they start the season. It’s a work in progress. It’s not easy, especially adding a fourth car. It’s remarkable. I think it’s something. Props to everybody there.

THE MODERATOR: Also joined by two-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Josef Newgarden.

You went for it there at the end, trying to get something to happen for you.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, no doubt. I couldn’t be more proud of my team. This is what Indy is all about. We had to go for it and try. Unfortunately we just weren’t good enough. I really wish we had just a little bit more. We were really, really going for it.

I felt like we were as aggressive as we could reasonably be at the end there. We definitely gave it a good attempt. It just was still not quite strong enough.

Unfortunately we got to work towards the race now. Feel really confident that we can put together a good day next Sunday. Just sad that we’re not going to be in the fight tomorrow. But we are where we are.

We’ll be working towards hopefully a great race day with Shell and Chevy. Team Chevy did a phenomenal job today. I don’t think we were lacking anything there. Really proud for the whole group.

Q. Callum, after the first run you said as long as you could get some clean laps. 231, that’s where you ended up. Did you pretty much have the second run just fairly smooth?

CALLUM ILOTT: First two laps were good. I think I put two 232 twice, then dropped off big-time, just super loose.

We kind of undershot it the first time with the car, then overshot it the second time aero-wise. Made it quite difficult. I got it across the line, so…

Q. For the Chevy drivers, it definitely has a Chevy heavy day today. Marco Andretti, one of the first things he said was that Chevy was holding something in their pocket all week. Do you feel you are the advantaged engine right now?

TONY KANAAN: Yes, the grass is always greener on the other side.

I think it’s pretty tight. I’m talking about it because I’ve driven a Honda a year ago, then I switched. I really think both manufacturers have advantages and disadvantages in some areas.

I really think it’s pretty tight. It’s not like we are holding things up. We did not. Maybe we did a better job at ballast. If we look at how tight this field is, how many attempts of qualifying, how close we were.

One thing I would love people to realize, if you would convert that to lap time, you will see how close it really is. I don’t see it. But I’m not good at math so…

Q. Santino, you told us the other day you didn’t like qualifying. Have you changed your tune on that? Felix, how do you celebrate this?

SANTINO FERRUCCI: I’m still never a fan of qualifying. I’m a racer through and through. Getting these four laps out of the way was amazing for us and the team to be as fast as we are. It’s incredible, a major feat. To have to go out and do it again tomorrow against once again the same super competitive top 12, obviously it’s something that I’m looking forward to as a team because it’s something new for everybody.

Personally as a driver, yeah, it’s definitely something I’m happy to check off the list, happy I don’t have to pass as many cars come Sunday. But, yeah, I’m more looking forward to the race than anything else.

FELIX ROSENQVIST: I mean, I think in this field when you get a run like that, it’s always special. We’re fully aware that this doesn’t get any points. It gives some good memories, though. I think it was a phenomenal day for us as a team. I think we have the right to celebrate for a couple of hours, then kind of resetting tomorrow.

Tomorrow, the wind might be different, the humidity, the track, the engine. Everything changes. I think that’s the beauty of it. Also everything that goes into every time you’re out there, I only did two attempts today, but some poor guys, like this fella, had to go out like five, six.

CALLUM ILOTT: I only did two (laughter).

FELIX ROSENQVIST: It sucks if you have to do that.

TONY KANAAN: I think my engineer was trying to make me match every single qualify I’ve done in this place in one day. We’re doing 26 today (smiling)?

FELIX ROSENQVIST: All the commitment it takes, when you get a run like that, you’re pretty happy with it. We wake up tomorrow, it’s a new day.

Q. Josef, where do you feel like you sit after the end of today? As a team, how do you feel it’s gone today? How can you reflect on that?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Well, perhaps as the rumors have stated we’re just holding something in our back pocket. It’s a very interesting strategy I guess, but…

Look, there’s no place to hide. We’re just not fast enough. We really weren’t. It’s unfortunate. I feel terrible for our team because I’m front and center of being able to witness the amount of effort that has gone into this place. It is just not from a shortage of effort.

We’re obviously just missing something else. I don’t know how we’re missing it. We’ve worked hard, all of us collectively. We’ve tried to have no ego about it. It’s just not enough.

I think we’re still short. Unfortunately the weird thing was I think we were more in the mix yesterday. I think the wind plays a big factor into that. Maybe we’re missing something in these type of conditions that we saw today.

Any way you want to slice it, we just weren’t good enough. We’ve got to go back and really assess again. Unfortunately we’ve been doing that every single year here. What’s most important now is we’re going to focus on the race. I do believe with how tight the field is, as Tony talked about, there’s opportunity anywhere. If you qualify for the race, there’s opportunity anywhere to win this event. We have to put our focus to that now and be able to collect ourselves after the 500 and see what we can do better. I have strong confidence we have great race cars and can be in the fight on Sunday.

Q. Santino, four Ganassis and four McLarens in the top 12 in qualifying. You’re making it up with them. Does that give you any sort of boost or enjoyment that you’re up there with those guys?

SANTINO FERRUCCI: It’s pretty funny. You sit there going against two four-car teams that have an insane budget, up front like this for a long time. McLaren is new, but you guys have been doing a fantastic job. To compete with them is definitely something special.

I think we’ve definitely been there more on the racing side of things, at least I have in the past few years. To see us up there on raw car speed is pretty cool.

Q. Callum, the last 24 hours has been a whirlwind. What can you share that you’ve talked to your crew about in the run you had today?

CALLUM ILOTT: Sorry, the last part of your question?

Q. What did you say to your crew and everyone that put your car back together?

CALLUM ILOTT: To be honest, I obviously was there when they were rebuilding it. This morning it was a big thank you. Then it was hard work, trying to stay in it because it wasn’t easy. It wasn’t a nice car to drive at first. But we managed to make it drivable and fast. Then at the end there when we knew we made it through, that was another big thing. I’ll buy them dinners at some point soon, but I’m going to have a quiet one on my own and destress a bit.

Q. How important is the Monday practice going to be to get your car ready for the race?

CALLUM ILOTT: Yeah, I mean, today included, we just found so many little quirks with this car that we obviously didn’t experience with the other chassis that we had or we never got to experience because of how bad it was.

That’s going to be interesting to fine-tune as we come to the race with different speeds and that. But again, even though it wasn’t perfect this morning, I was so much more comfortable with it than what I had. Honestly I think we know where to target now, now that I’ve got something.

Credit to Agustin because he’s kind of had to do what I did the whole of last year, which is go on your own and go for it. He led us into our starting point this morning. Yeah, it wasn’t perfect, but we didn’t stray too far away from it and that was more because of the quirks of our car.

Hopefully now we can build as a team, and Monday and Friday get a quicker race car.

Q. Felix, talk about the last run a little bit, how hairy was it.

FELIX ROSENQVIST: I mean, it was one of those runs where you have kind of like a perfect balance. You feel the rear sliding, but you’re not reacting that much on the wheel. You’re just putting in less wheel. You get a perfect arc, which is great. You’re not shaving off speed on any axle really. I was kind of able to keep that balance for the whole run. Got a little bit spicy on the last lap.

The speed was just there. Actually when I looked down at my dash the first time on lap three, I saw a 33.7, I actually thought it was stuck from lap one. I didn’t even know I had done a 234 at the time. My steering wheel was like a Christmas light for most of the run, which normally means you’re going quick.

Yeah, that’s just awesome. It’s fun. I wish I broke into the 234, but we can try that tomorrow.

Q. A lot of athletes when they’re getting ready to end their career, they want to still have something on the table rather than the sport necessarily. Pretty obvious you still have a lot left on the table.

TONY KANAAN: Yeah, I mean, I guess, but I never doubted I could still drive. To come back next year, the following year. But I think it’s time. I have other goals, other projects that I want to pursue.

Every year, let’s face it, it gets tougher and tougher. I had a really good year last year, then I got this opportunity. Once I did that, I was like, Hmm, maybe let me call it before somebody else decides that.

I’m not leaving or quitting INDYCAR racing because I don’t think I’m competitive or anything like that. I just think it’s time. I love being with the team. I’m enjoying other parts of somehow a new role. I still get to race all the type of cars.

Yeah, I mean, I’m okay with the decision. I am not coming back, so people keep making fun of me.

TONY KANAAN: Yeah, somebody can come with an offer. That’s what happened last year.

Q. Josef, you mentioned you have tried the last few years to get back in. McLaren second straight year has all their cars in. Do you feel as the Chevrolet camp, have they passed Penske?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think there’s no doubt that they’ve done a tremendous job. They’ve just excelled. We fell short today. There’s no hiding it. We did not do a good enough job. I can’t speak highly enough about Chevrolet. I think they’ve been tremendous this whole season, particularly tremendous today.

You can see that by evidence of everybody that was up there. We weren’t missing anything from that side. They’ve been a great partner for us.

We seem to be able to figure out most situations, but for whatever reason this cruel mistress, she’s just tricking us. I don’t understand how so. I think all of us don’t fully understand it.

You don’t stop working. I think for us, we’ve just got to continue to put in the work and not have an ego about it. We weren’t good enough, let’s figure out why. Indy is not easy. This is not an easy place to just succeed. I don’t care how many Indy 500s you have, what team you are, there are no guarantees when you show up here.

We don’t have an ego about it. We have to work hard, come back, do a better job.

Q. Tomorrow as close as it is, how do you balance making even a subtle change between now and tomorrow?

SANTINO FERRUCCI: I’m having a good dinner, go to bed (laughter). Driving the same car tomorrow. Nothing I’m changing.

Q. Callum, given the courses of the last 24 hours, to know now you’re going to race tomorrow, does that make this entire experience a little bit more special for you knowing it was not a guarantee 24 hours ago?

CALLUM ILOTT: Last year was the first experience for me at the 500. There was no Bump Day. It was quite an easy process. Made life a lot more relaxing. You still want to do better. Made it easier.

48 hours ago, I even put bets that I wasn’t going to make the race basically because you just knew it wasn’t going well. At that point then it becomes a pit of a panic, desperation. For sure for me, I was probably the first to be quite desperate as soon as I drove the car on Wednesday. But we had time to work with it.

Coming into today, I was really confident. Honestly I just knew if we just got a clear couple of runs, the car had pace.

So yeah, super special. In some ways it’s kind of one of those never-give-up situations, prove people wrong on that side. At the end of the day kind of feels like a win even though you’re 27th or something. That’s life sometimes.

Q. Santino, A.J. Foyt Racing looks good. You and Ben are in the Fast 12. He’s a rookie, you’re done this many times. How is that dynamic?

SANTINO FERRUCCI: It’s actually been a pretty interesting couple of days this week between the two of us. We both rolled out really good. He was a lot happier in the open test than I was. I wasn’t comfortable. Things weren’t going well. Came here, it was a complete reset. Rolled off the trailer, car was super comfortable.

We made two, three changes this entire week. We’ve just been there. The car has had pace all three days. Benjamin has actually had pace all three days. He’s trying to get his footing in traffic, which is understandable as a rookie. Today was no exception.

He rolled out first and I was actually relying on his comments, feedback. Everything felt good for him. He was actually a little stuck. I went out with exactly the same car, conditions obviously changed slightly, the air got a little bit thinner. I was able to go quicker.

If you put the cars back to back, they’d run the same time.

About Chevrolet

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in 79 countries with more than 3.2 million cars and trucks sold in 2020. Chevrolet models include electric and 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.

INDIANAPOLIS (Friday, May 19, 2023) – Takuma Sato lived up to his “no attack, no chance” motto on “Fast Friday” at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, turning the fastest Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge practice lap since 1996 on the eve of the start of qualifying.

Two-time “500” winner Sato led the six-hour session with a lap of 38.3382 seconds, 234.753 mph in the No. 11 Deloitte Honda fielded by Chip Ganassi Racing, the ninth-fastest practice lap in Indy 500 history. The eight fastest practice laps at Indy were turned in 1996, led by Arie Luyendyk’s speed of 239.260.

Sato’s best lap came during a four-lap qualifying simulation early in the six-hour session that he had to abandon after coming within a hair’s width of touching the SAFER Barrier in Turn 4.

“The beginning of the run, first time today, was really too light,” Sato said. “The middle run, we had more downforce, and I was getting more comfortable. By the end of the day, I think I wanted to try to find the limit again, so we went to a little bit sketchy one (setup) again, so I had to lift in Turn 4. But overall, I think we were very satisfied with our performance.”

This was the second time this week Sato was the fastest driver, as he led the first day of practice Wednesday at 229.439. Speeds climbed today, as extra turbocharger boost added approximately 100 more horsepower to the Honda and Chevrolet engines. That boost also will be available during PPG Presents Armed Forces Qualifying on Saturday and Sunday.

2020 Indy 500 pole sitter Marco Andretti was second today at 234.202 in the No. 98 KULR/Curb Honda fielded by Andretti Herta w/Marco & Curb-Agajanian. Rinus VeeKay was third at 234.171 in the No. 21 Bitnile.com Chevrolet fielded by Ed Carpenter Racing.

Reigning “500” winner Marcus Ericsson took the fourth spot at 234.029 in the No. 8 Huski Ice Spritz Honda fielded by Chip Ganassi Racing. Pato O’Ward rounded out the top five at 233.796 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.

All 34 drivers spent the entire session on the 2.5-mile oval in four-lap qualifying simulations to prepare for two days of pressure-packed qualifying. Sato also drove to the fastest four-lap average speed of 233.412 during the sims.

Three other drivers produced four-lap qualifying sim average speeds of 233 mph, with Ericsson at 233.112, two-time series champion Josef Newgarden at 233.085 in the No. 2 Shell Powering Progress Team Penske Chevrolet and reigning series champion Will Power at 233.070 in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet.

Saturday’s action starts with practice from 8:30-9:30 a.m., separated into two groups. Qualifying takes place from 11 a.m.-5:50 p.m., with spots 13 through 30 in the field of 33 determined.

2014 Indianapolis 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay drew the No. 1 spot in the qualifying order Friday night, gaining the advantage of cooler air and track temperatures as being the first driver to attempt to qualify Saturday morning. Sato drew the 25th spot in the qualifying order, when temperatures could be higher and the track slicker.

The 12 fastest drivers Saturday will return Sunday to compete for the coveted NTT P1 Award through two rounds of qualifying, while the four slowest cars also will be back on track Sunday to grab one of the final three spots in the field in Last Chance Qualifying.

Public gates open at 8 a.m. Saturday.

The 107th Indianapolis 500 is scheduled for Sunday, May 28 (11 a.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, Universo, INDYCAR Radio Network). PPG Presents Armed Forces Qualifying is Saturday, May 20 and Sunday, May 21.

CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
INDIANAPOLIS 500
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
TEAM CHEVY FAST FRIDAY PRACTICE REPORT
MAY 19, 2023

RINUS VEEKAY AND PATO O’WARD LED TEAM CHEVY AT CONCLUSION OF FAST FRIDAY AT INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

• Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay led Team Chevy on the Fast Friday leaderboard, finishing the day overall third with his top speed of 234.171 MPH.
• Pato O’Ward, driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren INDYCAR Chevrolet, was second of the Team Chevy drivers, finishing the day fifth with his best speed of 233.796 MPH.
• VeeKay led the Bowtie brand on no-tow speed and finished third with his best speed of 233.781 MPH. Arrow McLaren INDYCAR’s Felix Rosenqvist finishing next in sixth with his fastest lap speed of 233.396 MPH.
• Early into today’s session, within the first hour of Fast Friday practice, Pato O’Ward clocked a Turn 3 trap speed of 243.143 MPH.

TEAM CHEVY TOP-10 PRACTICE RESULT:
Pos. Driver
3rd Rinus VeeKay
5th Pato O’Ward
6th Josef Newgarden
7th Santino Ferrucci

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING (QUOTES)

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

“I think in the first run, I wasn’t very happy with the balance. It was just not good for me. We changed it up in the second run. I asked the ECR team, and they delivered. Really, for us, it’s great. But anyway, very happy.”

On a day like today, when you’re happy early in the day but you never want to get complacent, right? What is that balance with the team? How do you extract what you can with the team?

“It’s small changes at this point. The team’s base, where we start with the start set up, it’s so close to perfect. We did a few balance checks on qual downforce, basically, with the lower boost. We had to make a little tweak but we’re right there. We might make small little adjustments for the temperature tomorrow, but I think it’s just going to be all fine. You don’t want to take too much risk today.”

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

”Happy Fast Friday for us today. We did three outings, and every outing we just got better and better. I think we’re in a good spot in terms of balance. Tomorrow we’ll be ready to go out into qualifying, have a solid first run and hopefully that’s all we need to do. If not, we’ll go back out and make sure we get this thing into the top 12 to fight it out on Sunday.”

Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Chevrolet at Team Penske:

“It was a good final run. We had a really disastrous first run. You always come out of the gate feeling really excited for today. The boost is up, and it was a bad first run. We just missed the balance. Came back, and had a pretty good second run. We knew we really needed to do one more and get it really right. I felt like the Shell car was pretty solid. Look, it’s hard to say today. I think today indications look better today than they did on Fast Friday last year. This is going to be more of a fight to get into the top 12 this year. When you look at the cluster of people that are really tight together, it’s much trickier than it looked like last year. We gotta be really on it. We have to nail our run tomorrow. I think the first run is always critical depending upon where you draw. So far, so good. I think Team Chevy has done a stellar job as always, and I hope we can have a good fight to get this into the Sunday show.”

On sticker tires, or bailing on the second run – did it turn into a balance check?

“We needed a balance check on an additional config for tomorrow. It’s good to be able to get that in, especially depending upon what you’re going to do in the morning tomorrow. It’s just nice to get that final balance check on a different look. That’s what today is for. We tried to keep the miles the car and we didn’t have to run too much. I think we got all of the information we needed, which was critical.”

On what happened in T2…

“It was that last lap. I wasn’t flat that last lap, and I think our average could have been what we showed there. We can fix it. It was just a small detail, and the details are going to add up. I think tomorrow is going to be obviously very different complexity with the temperature. But we’ll just clean it up more and be that much better.”

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

“Our first run I thought was good. I think if we would have finished it out, we probably would be P2 or P3 or close to there. Maybe just two spots up. It’s insane how a couple of degrees of track temp and things change. Our entire balance shifted with a quarter-turn of front wing. It’s insane how much that does. I think we know we’re fast. Rinus’s (VeeKay) car is extremely fast, really impressed with what they can do. Thankfully we have that data to look out. It’ll be interesting to see how we progress. All three cars are, we’re close. We’re all similar in what we want whereas last year I would say I was on a bit of an island myself. So, thankfully I’m kind of following the fast guys here in qualifying.”

On weather in qualifying tomorrow…

“It’s going to be colder tomorrow. Colder is faster. If we can go out in the morning, it’ll be like 60 degrees when we go out. It’s much hotter today. We’ll see. Honestly, the weather we know here can always be a crapshoot. Whatever you get, you get.”

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

“Fast Friday done. I felt pretty sporty, I have to say. The last run we did we got everything together with the balance and we made some good changes. We had some minor issues before noon today that we kind of solved, so it was nice to get a clean run before qualifying. It looked pretty quick, as well. I think we’re third-quickest on the four-lap average, so we’ll take that. It’s probably better than we thought we would be. So far, I’m happy.”

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

”A very solid day. I think we’re somewhere in the top five on the four-lap average. This is always a weird place because you can end happy and then the conditions are going to change tomorrow, so you don’t really know. The car is good. The car has been good all week, so we just have to keep staying on top of the changing conditions. Hopefully we get a good draw tonight, and that will make our lives easier tomorrow morning.”

Tony Kanaan, No. 66 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren INDYCAR:

”This day is always hectic. You always think about what you got and what you didn’t get, but I think we’re OK. Tomorrow is really going to be about the drawing, the wind and everything else, but I think we have a pretty good car. All four cars are pretty similar. I’ll have some teammates going out before we do. We’ll see what’s going to happen.”

Ed Carpenter, No. 33 Chevrolet at Ed Carpenter Racing:

“Anything can happen around here. I won’t feel good until Monday practice and we know we’re in the race. It’s crazy competitive right now. I don’t know, I think the Saturday, tomorrow night at the bell is going to be as chaotic and as much jockeying as ever because there are so many people capable of making the top 12 right now. It’s going to be stressed out a little.”

With the track as good as it is in the middle of the day. Would this be a year where the draw may not matter as much, and then you will see people going back and forth and never feeling safe?

“I think the draw is going to matter more than ever because it’s not going to be cloudy tomorrow. In my opinion, track temp always trumps ambient temp around here. The track temp is going to be climbing on the last forecast I saw, which they’ve been inaccurate all month. It’s going to be sunny tomorrow so I think it’s going to throw everything a little bit of a wrinkle from today, plus with wind direction. There could be some volatility but it’s going to be tight no matter what. There are a ton of competitive drivers and teams here. We got a sunny track, so I’m cautiously optimistic for the BITNILE.COM Chevy, that we’ve got something for them tomorrow. Obviously, my teammates really quick, Rinus (VeeKay), right now. We’ve got a lot of decisions to make with a bit of all the things we were doing today. Optimistic we’ll at least have a chance for Sunday.”

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

“I feel good. I mean, today was pretty solid. We’re close to the top on the charts for most of the day. It cooled down, so many went quicker. We’ll see if we make the fast 12 tomorrow.”

On the great couple of days and chances of top-12?

“Yeah, I know. Honestly, it’s kind of shocking but we’ve worked really hard on this car, and everybody’s put in a lot of time for this. When it’s got raw pace, it’s nice to be able to top the board three days in a row.”

With Benjamin’s (Pedersen) car coming to life today, do you feel you’ve helped the program, he’s helped you, that kind of thing?

“Honestly, we’ve been on the same cars the entire three days. We’ve made a couple of changes here and there. Stuff that’s really small to help us get comfortable, but our cars are almost the same.”

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

“Really good day for my first ever Fast Friday, being a rookie this year. We did our first run, which was pretty okay. We were lacking a bit of grip but I just told the engineers what I was feeling, and then we went out for our second run, and the car was hooked up right away. Super, super fast. I think we’re eight at the moment on no-tow. The car is feeling really good. My teammate (Santino Ferrucci) is right there as well with us. We’re right on top of each other with performance. Our day concluded pretty quickly. Looking forward to tomorrow’s qualifying.”

Larry Foyt, President of AJ Foyt Racing:

“Well, (Fast Friday has) been really nice and calm. Honestly, when your cars are fast, it just helps you slow everything down. You’re not scrambling, quite as much so, so it kind of been a been a nice day. I think both drivers are really happy. The Chevy power feels great. So we’re excited for tomorrow. Just trying to make sure all the i’s are dotted and T’s are crossed. But no, it’s just it just feels great. You know the Sexton Properties car and the Homes for Troops car, it’s just nice when you got speed in your car. So engineering has done a great job. mechanics have put together some really clean racecars and now it comes down to tomorrow and putting the four laps together because I think that’s what you’re seeing everyone’s so tight. You know with that first lap a lot of people are fast, but you got to get four laps together.”

Would you guys consider a third car, and have some people calling to inquire about that? Just maybe the decision to really stay with those strengths and use those two numbers you always have?

“There is a little bit of talk obviously. Some people have called and you know, it’s it feels like every year I promise the guys I won’t do it and then I think they were gonna just beat the hell out of me if I were at three this year. They’re pointing at me now. So yeah, we just it was like hey, let’s focus on the two and so it’s good and that’s what we’re doing and it’s nice and yeah, like I say just want to get tomorrow over with hopefully have to in the fastball 12 and give it another go.”

On team chemistry…

“It’s been really nice. I mean, Santina really knows what he wants here. He loves this place. He has a really good idea of what he wants out of the car. So that’s been super helpful. And Benjamin, I mean, I’m just really impressed. He’s just been so calm and cool for his first time here. And, you know, put up that run today. And that was just really nice. I mean, it we haven’t run a lot today, but he feels really confident as far so it’s been I’d say it’s been good. It’s not over yet. And this place can always throw you throw the loop, but we haven’t changed a lot and my engineering has put some good cars together. So, we’re excited.”

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

“My first Fast Friday for the Indy 500, and oh my god what a feeling. Honestly, we’re in a good position. We started rather badly in last positions, but we were improving through the day. We finished in a good position, I think. We will see what happens tomorrow, because everything changes with the weather. We will see what happens.”

Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 23 Chevrolet at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing:

“Today was our first day really going after the qualifying trim with the added turbo boost. It was a trial-and-error day for us. We found things we didn’t like. But, at the end, we did find things we did like and what I needed out of the car. We were in the top 15 in the four-lap average today, so I’ll take that and move on to the first day of qualifying. You really couldn’t dial too much into it today with wind increasing later in the afternoon. You get to the point where it’s going to be so much different on Saturday that we need to see what we have right now. It’s going to be cooler, and the wind direction is going flip 180 degrees. The good deal is my son, Rhodes, drew number one for qualifying. So, we are the first qualifier tomorrow morning. That’s the best we can ask for entering qualifying.”

RC Enerson, No. 50 Chevrolet at Abel Motorsports:

“I think today was tough. I think there were a lot of people off their game early, especially those who were a lot trimmed out today. A lot’s going to change for tomorrow. We learned a lot today, and we’ll probably come with a whole different downforce setup for tomorrow. But overall today that last run was decent and now we’ll just go back to work for tomorrow morning.”

PATO O’WARD, No. 5 ARROW MCLAREN CHEVROLET – End of Day Press Conference:

THE MODERATOR: Joined by Pato O’Ward, third best overall speed today, 13th best when it came to the four-lap average.

Happy with your day today, Pato?

PATO O’WARD: “Yeah, we did three attempts today. Didn’t finish the first one. Second one was slightly better. Finished it not in the best of ways, I guess. Then we found a very happy balance there in the end.

Yeah, Sato San was quick today, very, very fast, as we were expecting the whole Ganassi camp.

Yeah, I have to reiterate a bit of what Josef said. It’s going to be tight, really, really tight, like to get into the Fast 12 is probably going to be the tightest it’s been in the last few years for sure.

It’s good to see that we were able to put it in the mix there with our cars today. Yeah, tomorrow it seems to be a bit colder ambient, sun is going to be shining, so the track temperature shouldn’t be too cold, fairly similar to what it was today. Obviously, the wind is shifting a bit, that makes things a bit more interesting.”

Q. Pato, I think it was 243 miles an hour into turn three. Were you aware of that? Is the speed on your dash? What happened after that?

PATO O’WARD: “I wasn’t aware of what we hit in the trap speeds until I saw it online. It’s fricking fast. Like before I went out, I was seeing the guys that were doing the runs before me, you can tell the difference.

The engines sound way beefier, it look just fricking fast, and it feels fast (smiling). It’s cool.”

KYLE KIRKWOOD: “Does it feel fast?”

PATO O’WARD: “So fast. I was waiting for that question (smiling).”

Q. (No microphone.)

PATO O’WARD: “Yeah, I don’t have an answer for you. It feels fast. That wall approaches very fast. If you have a bit of a…”

Q. When you go in there 240, you can tell the difference, right?

PATO O’WARD: “I’m more focused to feel what the car is telling me so it doesn’t catch me off guard kind of thing, yeah.”

Q. Seems like most people have that hot lap the first time, then things degrade. Has there ever been an attempt to go maybe a little bit conservative on the first lap? What is the rule of thumb there?

PATO O’WARD: “I guess that’s when you start playing with downforce. You load it up a little bit more if you want to be more consistent. It really depends on what balance you have. Obviously, there’s going to be dropoff, at least that what it seems like today. Not sure what it will be like tomorrow.

Yeah, I mean, I think for tomorrow if you want to be in the Fast 12, your first lap has to be in the 234s. If you want to complete your run well, you can’t fall out of the 232s, high 231s if you want to get a solid average.”

Q. Pato, about Josef saying it was going to be so tight to get into the Fast 12, does the draw make it even more important?

PATO O’WARD: “Yeah, I’ve never drawn my own. I think today Pato fan is going to be doing the draw for me. Positive vibes for him drawing a good number. I don’t know his name. You’ll probably find out later.

Yeah, I mean, I think we were the first one to qualify last year. The previous year we were somewhere in the top 10. Obviously if you get some cloud cover, it’s obviously good. You can be 25th in line, but if you get a cloud cover for your run, you’re fine. It continues to creep up.

I don’t know. We’ll see.”

Q. Pato, given we have six Chevys, six Hondas in the top 12, do you feel Chevy has the power to kind of take it to them?

PATO O’WARD: “Yeah, man. I mean, for sure I feel like we won’t really know until tomorrow. It looks good from today. I think it looks very well-mixed there, a very good mix. The speeds are very tight, yeah.

But I think tomorrow we’ll probably get the better idea of who’s coming out swinging.”

About Chevrolet

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in 79 countries with more than 3.2 million cars and trucks sold in 2020. Chevrolet models include electric and 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 IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
107TH RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500
TEAM PENSKE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

MAY 19, 2023

WILL POWER, SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN, JOSEF NEWGARDEN, TIM CINDRIC, and RICK MEARS, met with the media prior to NTT INDYCAR Series Fast Friday practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Press Conference Transcript:

THE MODERATOR: Good morning, everyone. So many great traditions here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and these Fast Friday news conferences have become among them. We’ll start with Team Penske.

Joining us today, Tim Cindric, who is the president of Team Penske.

Josef Newgarden, driver of the No. 2 Shell Powering Progress Dallara Chevrolet.

Scott McLaughlin to his left, driving the No. 3 Pennzoil Dallara Chevrolet.

To his left, Will Power driver of the No. 12 Verizon 5G Dallara Chevrolet.

And of course to his left and far right, the legendary Rick Mears, four-time Indianapolis 500 winner for Team Penske.

This marks the 49th year for Team Penske at the Indianapolis 500, the first one coming back in 1969 with the late great Mark Donohue driving a McLaren.

Team’s first win came with Mark just three years later in 1972. From there, names like of course Rick, Unser, Hornish, De Ferran, Power, Castroneves, they’ve all won 500s for the captain.

13 different drivers have won the 500 for Team Penske. Team Penske earned its 17th and 18th Indianapolis 500 victories in back-to-back fashion Will Power in 2018 and Simon Pagenaud in 2019.

Josef Newgarden has finished inside the top 5 in two of his last four starts in the 500.

Scott McLaughlin will make his third Indianapolis 500 start this year in the iconic yellow submarine livery. Think about this, the team has a combined 711 years of INDYCAR experience this year, 711.

Of course Team Penske coming off a historic season in which they became the first team to win both the NTT INDYCAR Series Championship and the NASCAR Cup Series Championship in the same year with drivers Will Power and Joey Logano.

Quite a year last year, and it’s already turning into a great season here in 2023.

Tim, earlier this year it was announced you’ve got a big honor coming up, something about the Hall of Fame, which is well deserved. Not bad for a kid who grew up in Indianapolis and hit the garage with your dad all the time. Now here you are on the world’s greatest stage in INDYCAR.

Are you looking forward to the week?

TIM CINDRIC: “Good morning, everyone. Thanks for being here so early. No doubt, as a kid growing up here, it’s not something that I ever thought was possible, to have that honor from your peers, and the rest of it is really just a testament to the people that have been around. Whether it’s the drivers or the crew or guys like Roger and Herb Porter and some of these people that I hung around with.

Yeah, to be part of that club is going to be really cool.”

THE MODERATOR: If it’s not Indy — honestly, it’s not Indy if Rick isn’t hanging out with us. It’s great to have you back here in 2023. Your first season with the team back in 1978. You’ve always been a fixture here, which is tremendous.

What do you think as you watch the season unfold this year, the quality of racing, the parity that once again exists in this series? Just your overall thoughts about 2023.

RICK MEARS: “I think it’s great, and thank you to everybody for being here. I think it’s great. Just like I think that’s what INDYCAR has always tried to do, is get that parity. That’s what we always strive to try to make happen.

But I think really, these past years with the rules, the way they’ve been lately, with the new less downforce package and all that, the proof is in the numbers.

It’s been stable for so long that everybody is figuring it out, which makes it tighter across the board.

When you start to look at the numbers, I look at one of the road races here a couple races ago, there was like seven or eight cars in the same tenth, 24 within a second.

So I think everything being stable and everybody playing with the same — it’s probably the easiest time to get into the series and be competitive with the cars and being able to establish yourself, get the right people, because you’re getting the same blocks everybody is playing with.

Now it’s figuring out how to stack them. As people learn how to stack them, it gets tighter and tighter.

I think it’s great across the board, and I think it’s going to continue on that way.

One thing about it I say it’s probably the easiest time to get involved. On the other hand, it makes the competition probably one of the toughest times to win in that respect.

But that’s what it’s all about.”

THE MODERATOR: We’ve had some of the tightest qualifying Firestone Fast Sixes in the history of INDYCAR racing lately.

Will, congratulations to you. An outstanding year last year. You talk about wins, the championship, poles, and so on and so forth. Bottom line, here we are at Indy. What is it going to take to win another 500 for you?

WILL POWER: “Yeah, we’ve worked extremely hard in the off-season development-wise. Just sort of two days in of running I feel like we’re in a pretty good place, definitely in race work.

The no-tow laps look good right now, but you never sort of can rely on that. I think today we’ll get a pretty good idea of where we stack up pace-wise.

It’s like Rick said, there’s so many good team-driver combinations now, people — all these teams turn up, they just improve every year, and the car doesn’t change. So there’s a ceiling.

I think Ganassi was the top, and everyone is sort of getting up there now. I think it’s going to be one of the tightest qualifyings in history here, especially to get in the top 12.

I think we’ve done the work and I think Chevy has improved a bit, and I’m really hoping all three of us are in that top 12, and if everything goes really well, fighting for a pole.”

THE MODERATOR: Josef, for you, you haven’t been shy about talking about the whole team needs to up their game a little bit when it comes to the 500 to get that first win for you and the group.

Was there a change of approach that was needed? Or maybe not? What will be the key, I guess, come a week from Sunday in the 107th running of the 500?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: “Well, it’s great to be back. I feel really good this week headed into this weekend with the No. 2 Shell car, Powering Progress, and I don’t know necessarily change of approach.

I think Indy, there’s a lot of recipes that can work here, and I think our approach of trying to get the details right has always been true at this team. I don’t think we’re going to change that.

But sometimes there’s different elements that we may not look at the right way, and we go back and we look at them again and say, can we look at them differently.

I think that has been a core thing for us, just trying to reassess every little detail in the way that we’re examining it, and hopefully we’ve got a better recipe this time around.

I think our approach is similar to always; this race, this team knows how to win this race. They’ve won it the most of anybody. They’re very successful at doing it.

I think the core principles need to stay the same as always, but we know we need to elevate our game with regards to speed and we’ve been chipping away at it. There’s been a tremendous amount of effort from everybody. There’s no shortage of effort.

We’re excited for this weekend. Hopefully we’re going to have enough, and then obviously the big show is next weekend, so let’s see where we land.”

THE MODERATOR: For Scott, Tim has always talked about year three being the year to show the most improvement. For you, where is that room to grow this year.

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: “There’s always room to grow. It’s been an up-and-down few years, but obviously last year was fantastic in terms of my development, and then this year having a win already before coming to Indy is a nice feeling.

But as the guys have said, I think as a team, I think we’ve really worked together well between the three drivers, between the engineers, between everybody that’s behind the scenes and put in the hard work to make sure we get speed.

But also, it’s not just here. It’s all the other tracks, as well. I think we’ve really worked together and the camaraderie in the team has been great.

From a personal perspective, there’s always times where I can find a bit more of myself, and I’ll continue chipping away at that. New stuff will pop up every year, doesn’t matter if it’s third, fourth or the tenth year.

I feel like I’m in a good place right now, feel comfortable in the car, feel comfortable here at this place, and hopefully that bodes well for the rest of the month.”

Q. It used to be we would come to Indy and we could expect to see the established teams fighting for the pole, fighting for the front row, but it really seems like now there could be a couple of surprises that get up there. Is there anybody in particular that you expect that we’ll see a variety of teams in the first couple of rows this year rather than the two dominant teams?

TIM CINDRIC: “I guess when you look at the past few years, there hasn’t been a dominant team, obviously, in qualifying here. Ganassi and Carpenter have been the ones at least we look at as having the most consistent speed here in what I call the wind screen era.

Prior to that, I think you could look at us and a few others.

But it’s been something that for us every little detail is really, really important in qualifying, and every condition, as it’s closer, the conditions and when you run and what you do there are that much more important, at least getting into the top 12.

Once you get into the top 12 and you go through that process, it becomes — for who actually gets the pole, typically the fastest car is the one that gets the pole here.

I think over the years, when you look at the past few years, you’ve got to start up front when you look at who’s won the race and where they’ve started from the past three or four years.

It’s much tougher in the race to get to the front from the back. It’s really, really important for everybody to at least get to that top 12.”

Q. For Rick, should Scott Dixon get the pole this weekend, he would tie you for most poles in Indy 500 history. He would also become the first driver to ever win three poles in a row. Obviously you have a lot of respect and admiration for Scott Dixon, but when you look at his ability to qualify well here, he’s the best that’s been here since you.

RICK MEARS: “Yeah, if it happens, it happens. That’s the old saying, records are meant to be broken.

Obviously would I like to hang on to it? Sure. But if he gets it, he’s earned it. The job he’s done to be able to get to that position, I definitely respect that.

In one respect I’d be happy for him for the job he’s been doing, but in another respect I’d rather keep it.”

Q. Ganassi was the class of the field last year, and I know that it’s only two days of running here, but I presume it was mostly race setup the last two days and speed charts and everybody out there kind of indicated they’re still really good. How do you guys assess it? Do you feel like you’re closing the gap or do you feel more confident this year? Do they look good?

TIM CINDRIC: “It’s so close right now. Draft speeds, we can go do a 229 if we hang back far enough the past two days, so I think that’s circumstantial in the past few days. I don’t really think that it’s a big indicator until you get to Friday. Today you’ll start to see a bit more of that and then over the weekend, obviously.

I think it’s early days. Certainly they’re going to be tough without a doubt, but as far as assessing where we are, I think the past couple days are more about getting the confidence for these three guys in race trim and being able to actually pass the cars that probably aren’t as fast as you.

I think here it’s really, really difficult to pass the fast cars unless they’re leading. But the key for the race really is to be able to get by the ones that are struggling a couple miles an hour slower than you are, and we couldn’t do that the past couple years confidently.

I think they can talk to that a bit, but that’s kind of where our focus has been as far as how you can follow and how you can pass rather than kind of what the overall lap time is.

I think most cars out here given the right tow can go 229 in the past couple days.”

Q. Josef, what you were saying about how you go through all those minute details and go back and look at things, on Bruce’s podcast last week you said that you guys had maybe gone on the wrong path of development here last year. When did that process begin to change that and get on a new path for this year, and do you feel like you’re on a better path this year than last year?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: “I thought we were on a much better path last year. I think unfortunately we didn’t get to show the full potential of the work that went into last year. I really think we should have had a couple more cars in the Fast 12.

Generally, not just saying that for trying to paint the picture better, but we made a lot of progress last year, and I think this year is more of an evolution of what we did last year.

We can go back and pick apart 2022 and we can make it look a lot better I think if things go differently, but we can’t. We landed where we did. Just to reiterate, I think we made a big step, and we’re just evolving within that step again this year. We obviously need a little bit more than where we were last season, and we’re going to find out this weekend if we fully get there.

I feel pretty confident at the moment that we’ve done a lot of good work to get there, and we’ve just got to execute now.”

TIM CINDRIC: “What he’s really trying to say is the guy that drew for qualifying spots last year, which was me, did a really bad job in the conditions, and that had a lot to do with it.

We’ve got new guys that are going to draw for where they start this year.”

Q. (No microphone.)

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: “He’s making us go do it.”

TIM CINDRIC: “No, no, no. You guys volunteered to do it.”

Q. (No microphone.)

TIM CINDRIC: “I think if you were there, I would have. I booed myself.” (Laughter.)

Q. Tim, a technical question for you. Tomorrow for qualifying the booster is up, then it goes back to normal for race day. In principle could you run the whole race distance with a higher boost?

TIM CINDRIC: “I think the answer to that is yes. At those levels, the engines have been able to achieve that in the past, but there’s a whole circumstance that goes behind that in terms of how many engines you could use in a year, what the cost would be, all those different things.

I’m sure the engine guys, given the time and the funding to run this level of booster power throughout the race could figure that out.

Could you do it with the engine as it exists right here? I doubt it, because it’s pretty much optimized for what you have and the circumstances you’re given.

It’s not as simple as just saying, let’s turn up the boost for race day and race it at this boost level. But certainly we’ve run that level of power, if you want to call it that, here in the past.

But there’s circumstances that you’re trying to work within, and that’s really what the challenges are.”

Q. Going off of what Tim said earlier about how tough it is to pass fast cars when they’re not leading in a line, where do you guys ultimately feel for the drivers, feel like you need to qualify this weekend to feel comfortable going into the race that you can have a shot to do some work and potentially win from there?

WILL POWER: “Top 12. I think that’s — you can come from the back. It’s just very difficult. You’ve got to have a very good day and yellows fall your way, but top 12, you can definitely work from there.”

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: “Yeah, I’ve seen the 20s, I’ve seen the teens, and would love to be in the top 12 for my third.

But like Will said, it’s definitely doable, but a couple things fall your way, and if you’re got a fast car, you can come from wherever you want.

But certainly it would be a lot easier at the start when you can get into a fuel mileage deal and look after your car before you get into the nitty-gritty stuff towards the end of the race.”

Q. We’ve seen the last couple years this move toward the end of the race that Marcus executed in terms of weaving up and down the backstretch and trying to break the draft and it seems like it’s a pretty hard thing to combat. Is there any way that you guys have over the past year in looking at it, is there any way to try to combat that or maybe defend is not the right word, but if you’re the guy in second place these last couple laps, get around that and have a shot at winning, or is that a pretty unbeatable move?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: “There was a guy that had a shot to get around it last year, so I think it’s not the end all, be all.

They’re all going to shake out differently, too. Last year I’d be surprised if it’s the same scenario, exactly the same.”

Q. Question for the drivers. This race has a very particular qualifying format. If we compare to any other race in the world, two days, a lot of hours’ session. Can you explain the process and the psychology for the drivers and the development of the car doing all these hours of qualifying in Indy?

WILL POWER: “Yeah, I mean, the cars are so finicky, like when you’re getting down to the last little bit of speed you’re looking for, I mean, you’re trimming little bits of downforce off. It takes a lot of time to be able to do that, to understand what the car will do over four laps.

You’re trying to get clear track, as well. So that’s why we have so much time. You’re looking for — you don’t even want to see a car because that disturbs the air, and it’s hard to judge what gears to run because you’re getting a little bit of help.

Around this place, everything — there’s just the smallest of details, smallest of changes. You can’t make a big change at once. That’s why you need a lot of time.”

Q. Curious your thoughts, Rick, and maybe the drivers, out of the four laps here you’re on the razor’s edge. Which is the most important one to land right to qualify better here? Which of the four laps?

RICK MEARS: “That would vary all the time with the setup. One year you’d have tires that maybe the fronts would go off more than the rears, and vice versa the next year. That was always part of the plan that you started working on early in the month to get a feel for what kind of change you were going to get through the first four laps to adjust everything.

You might need to start the car out so loose you can’t drive it the first lap to get it to kind of come into its own in the middle, and then it’s the opposite direction at the last lap.

It was something that’s always changed.

I think today the cars are more consistent in that respect. It’s not as big a change.

I used to run for laps and never run one corner the same way twice in four laps. I was having to adjust the pattern and everything due to what the car was telling me from a previous time through.

It was just a continuous adapting, so it was always about — I think it’s more consistent today, but still, like you’re saying, attention to detail and the finer things, and everything is just a lot tighter.

It’s relative, but still a little different today.”

Q. TC, you’re the son of an engine builder, and Rick, you’re the greatest qualifier in Indy 500 history. Do you guys miss the days when you used to have the qualifying engines that you would put in just for the weekend? And from a team standpoint or a manufacturer’s standpoint, how much does it really save the budget to do it the way they do it now?

TIM CINDRIC: “Yeah, Roger and I were talking about this the other day, not only the engines but backup cars. You were required to run backup cars pretty much on the second week, because if your primary car was eliminated you didn’t start the race or whatever else.

Anyway, to your question, I think those days are over, you know, relative to the way it used to be. We used to put an engine in every day, and to ask the mechanics to do that kind of work and the budgets that went into that. We talk about running three or four engines a year through the whole season right now; we would use that many engines in one week.

These engines were 50-mile engines, 100-mile engines with really short fuses. It was fun to a certain degree, but it was also risky from a driver standpoint, because you saw a lot more failure back then. I think throughout the month you would have one or two accidents just due to blown engines. Fortunately we don’t see that today.

I think those days are gone. But in terms of funding, it was unlimited, so it’s hard to really put a number to it.”

RICK MEARS: “From the driver standpoint, it was always a lot of fun. You always wanted to see numbers you’ve never seen before as far as rpms or speeds or whatever the case may be. But it’s all relative. You do the same thing and try to accomplish the same thing no matter what horsepower range you have.

You’re still trying to trim it enough to get it on the limit and hold your breath longer than the other guys or get it freer or whatever the case may be, so you’re still hanging on.

It’s all relative in that respect, but it was always fun to have a little more and see some numbers you haven’t seen the whole month.”

Q. For the drivers, it started in ’19 with Pagenaud doing the weave to prevent Rossi from passing him and winning, and it seems like now whenever there’s a late restart at the end of this race — Ericsson did it last year, doing the dragon, or whatever, weaving back and forth. Would you guys do that? Is that just what you have to do if there’s a late restart? Would you expect that’s the way you’re going to have to win the race, and should INDYCAR do anything to prevent that from happening because it looks so weird and because there could be a safety element to it?

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: “I think you do anything to win the race within the rules. But I think that for me, the only thing that’s nerve-racking about that is maybe coming off 4, and if you’re going sort of head on into the attenuator, or you go below that, sometimes you just can’t see that. You’re following the guy in front of you.

But one thing that Pagenaud did really well in 2019 was he had a car that could just hold really narrow, and he broke the tow straight away. And then as soon as they tried to come back down he went back up, so he wasn’t necessarily below the white down the back straight.

Yeah, that’s the only thing that makes me nervous about that.”

Q. (No microphone.)

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: “I don’t know.”

WILL POWER: “The rule is you can’t move in reaction to, so once a car is close to you, by the rules, you shouldn’t be able to do it. Any other race it would be a penalty for moving in the reaction to the car behind because you’re — yeah, I don’t think it makes that big of a difference, honestly.

I mean, you’re scrubbing more speed out front, plus you have more drag, and if the car behind anticipates well — it’s hard to say or quantify whether that actually makes a difference.

I mean, with this downforce level you could almost not be leading, you could be second coming off a last corner and probably get by the start-finish.”

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: “I would just add it’s not that unique to Indianapolis. People do this everywhere. Texas — it’s more dramatic here because of the nature of the track, the way the straightaways are laid out, but this happens everywhere, this technique to break the tow.

So to Will’s point, as long as you’re not going against the rules, it’s legal. I don’t think INDYCAR is going to do anything about it and you don’t have to have that strategy to win. Obviously that’s what’s been implemented by people because they saw it.

It can be effective I think at times, but it doesn’t mean it’s the only way to win the race in that scenario.”

Q. Are you guys glad the race is no longer double points, and how will that affect the championship?

WILL POWER: “Depends if I win or not. If I win, I would be really mad that it was not double points, but otherwise I think the double points was a terrible idea.”

Q. Will it make a difference on the championship?

WILL POWER: “Oh, big time.”

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: “Yeah, when you won this race, obviously you know that the point difference that you’d get was substantial. Yeah, making it the same as every other race I don’t think is a bad thing.”

About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in 79 countries with more than 3.2 million cars and trucks sold in 2020. Chevrolet models include electric and 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 IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
INDIANAPOLIS 500
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
TEAM CHEVY PRACTICE REPORT

MAY 18, 2023

WILL POWER AND CONOR DALY LEAD TEAM CHEVY AT THE CLOSE OF INDIANAPOLIS 500 THURSDAY PRACTICE

• Will Power of Team Penske led the Chevrolet teams with his fastest speed at 228.577 MPH for fourth on the second practice day leaderboard.
• Conor Daly of Ed Carpenter Racing finished second for Chevrolet teams, sixth overall, with his top speed of 228.215 MPH.
• Will Power (second), Santino Ferrucci (third), and Scott McLaughlin (fourth) led the Bowtie brand on no-tow speeds, seeing an increase of almost one mile per hour more than Wednesday’s end of day speeds. Power led Team Chevy with his fastest no-tow lap at 224.283 MPH.
• Today’s Indianapolis 500 practice field continues to demonstrate the competitive nature of the NTT INDYCAR Series. Of the 34 cars, the differential of time from first to 34th is under one second, at 0.9931.
• Kyle Larson, competing in the 2024 Indianapolis 500 with Arrow McLaren, met with members of the media at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this morning along with Jeff Gordon, Vice Chairman at Hendrick Motorsports and decorated racer, and Gavin Ward, Racing Director at Arrow McLaren INDYCAR.

TEAM CHEVY TOP-10 PRACTICE RESULT:
Pos. Driver
4th Will Power
6th Conor Daly
8th Pato O’Ward
10th Alexander Rossi

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING (QUOTES)

Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Camaro ZL1 in the NASCAR Cup Series and 2024 Indianapolis 500 competitor with Arrow McLaren INDYCAR:

“Checking out a practice day here. Getting excited about next year’s Indy 500. Really just came here today to hang out around the Arrow McLaren team to just soak up any little bit of anything to prepare myself for whenever I get behind the wheel of an Indy car. It’s been pretty neat. I’ve been here a couple of times once to hang out, I came here for the race in 2013, but never this close to the action. It’s been neat. I think the more I can soak up, the less surprises I’ll have next year. Happy to be here, happy for the opportunity. I’m excited about the opportunity. It’s still so far away that I haven’t spent that much time preparing yet, but I look forward to the preparation to be ready and competitive. Hopefully, we have a good run next year. We’ll see. It’s been cool hanging out here today. Arrow McLaren has amazing hospitality, great people. Looking forward to next year.”

Will Power, No. 12 Chevrolet at Team Penske:

“A small issue to start the day. We had something going on with our telemetry but once we diagnosed and fixed it, it was a good day for the Verizon 5G Chevy team. We seem to be in a good position for qualifying, but tomorrow will be the true test when we get the boost increase. Qualifying up front is important in the 500, but you can win from several rows back. That’s not where we hope to be, but we have single-car speed and the No. 12 Chevy was racy in the pack.”

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

“Today was a good day. We had the chance to get good no-tow runs in, but know we can trim more and be even faster. The car was even great in traffic so I feel strong and that is a nice feeling.”

Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Chevrolet at Team Penske:

“My second full day and the typical up and down. It changes every day with the conditions but got a lot of good running in with the with the Shell car . Feeling really good with Team Chevy, and what we’re building towards this weekend. Qualifying — that’s going to be most important right now. There is speed in the car and hopefully stay up front. We get through that and we can worry about the race as well.”

Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Chevrolet at Team Penske:

“I feel good. The Pennzoil Chevy is fast on no-tow and and race running. So it looks good. We get to up the boost t tomorrow so we will see we’ve got. But overall pretty good day. We got through everything what we needed to do today and I feel like we’re in a good spot.”

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

”It was a tough day for us, to be honest. We’re definitely not in the spot where we want to be yet, but we’re working at it. We’ve got a plan to go through after qualifying this weekend. Tomorrow, it’s obviously a very different goal: to go as fast as you can by yourself. Boost is up, so we’re going to get everything prepared for that.”

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

”It was a very productive day. I think we did around 150 laps, so we got a lot of data – some good reads, some bad reads – but we were way more clever today than we were yesterday. Now we switch focus to going fast with Fast Friday, so we will turn up the boost. I think we’re in the game. There are a lot of strong cars out there so it is going to be tight like always, probably even tighter than last year, but our cars are definitely not bad. We just need to stay with it for the month.”

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

“It was a good day. More progress was made from the whole team. I’m getting happier and happier with the car each time we go out, which is great. I think we’re in a pretty good spot for the group running. There are some small tweaks to come, but now the focus turns to qualifying – one of the most fun parts of the year.”

Tony Kanaan, No. 66 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren INDYCAR:

”All in all a good day. We worked on race stuff all day long. We made big changes, so I think the team is happy. Now we go back and get ready for qualifying. We had to stop a little early because we want to be ready for tomorrow. There’s a little bit of a chance of rain in the afternoon, so we want to be ready to go right at noon. I’m happy.”

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

“I am very happy today. It may not look like it in charts, but we are fast. The car feels really, really good to drive. We made progress all day and the BITNILE.COM crew has made all the right changes. We have everything that we have, now we will trim it out for tomorrow. It is always the best when you are driving an ECR car here at IMS.”

Ed Carpenter, No. 33 Chevrolet at Ed Carpenter Racing:

“Today was a good and productive day. It is funny – I feel better about the car today than yesterday, but we are deeper in the time sheet today. That doesn’t really matter when we accomplished everything we wanted to today. I still have a couple questions on what the right thing ultimately is, but we worked well as a group together. We will go fast tomorrow.”

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

“Solid day today. P3 in the no-tow, P11 overall. I’m really happy with that and continuing to progress. Got some pace, and looking forward to Fast Friday.”

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

“Very good day. It’s starting to get fun with doing some qualifying runs. Most of the morning was race runs. This afternoon, we started doing some qual runs, and we’ve got very good speed. We’ve been pretty conservative still with our current level, and we’re pretty competitive even with that. Looking forward to getting a little more aggressive with it.”

Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 23 Chevrolet at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing:

End of day:

“It was a challenge today. We tried throwing quite a bit at the car. We knew some of it wasn’t going to stick. But we wanted to try it anyway. More of it were things to avoid than we really wanted. But at the end of the day, we found a pretty good setting for qualifying. We ended up in the Top Ten in the No-tow chart and that was good. You always want to end the day well and I think we did that today. We are ready for Fast Friday. We’ll get the extra boost right away with Friday practice begins. So, we will be ready to go at 12 noon.”

“So far so good. You know, it’s only been two days on track that we’ve worked together. Everything so far we’re doing all the right we’re doing all the right stuff, checking off all the right boxes. And, you know, we’re really focusing on and as a group just executing on pit lane. You know, we’re all working together for the first time kind of myself at the team and it’s, it’s been really good though. I’m enjoying the smaller team atmosphere and certainly really happy to be back with Chevy. Got a lot of history there. Whether it be winning the championship, with the IndyCar championship, working with working with the same group on the inside, so Yeah, happy to be back.”

What has been the hardest thing jumping back in?

“Jumping back of the car after being gone a year? What’s been the hardest thing? I really, I mean, after two or three laps at the open test, it was like I hadn’t left so it wasn’t you know, it wasn’t something I’ve got a lot of experience here. So it was it was definitely not something that caught me off guard or anything like that. And ideally, you don’t want to take a year and a half off from being in an IndyCar but it’s yeah, it went better than expected.”

Stefan Wilson, No. 24 Chevrolet at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing:

End of day:

“Solid day for the No. 24 DRR/Cusick Motorsports/CareKeepers Chevrolet. We focused on our qualifying setup for the whole day. It doesn’t necessarily look great on the speed charts, but we were in a decent place on the No-tow listings. And we are happy with the car’s handling. Wednesday was a good day with the race car and it’s great to be back at Indianapolis for the 500. We are anxious for Fast Friday now with the additional boost in the engine.”

How much has changed since you drove two years ago? How difficult is it to jump back in the car?

“It’s actually been really smooth for me. You know, I’m used to last minute preparation, last minute deals coming together. And this year, it’s often so much earlier that we’re just several steps ahead of the game, compared to last time and I’m in the process was a big boost to my program. I’m reacquainting myself to INDYCAR and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this whole week. And never really feel acquainted until, you know, race week, really. So I just feel like I’m ahead of the game like I’ve hit the ground running this week, having had that open says to get through ROP and you know, get we got 150 laps on the board that day, so it just feels like I’m so much further ahead and the cars changed just a little bit with a bit more arrow. So it’s gonna make the race a little bit more exciting, maybe a few more passing opportunities. And I’m just really pleased with the whole drive. I’m Dreyer and Reinbold/Cusic Motorsports crew, they’ve just done an amazing job to prepare the car and because as you know, me and mine assured we’re pretty fast already. So we’ll see if we can keep that up, keep making some positive changes to try to develop the car and, and I think the goal for the team is trying to get both cars in the festival and we’ll see if that’s possible.”

Ryan Hunter-Reay is your teammate. He’s been out of the car for a year as well, so how are you guys getting through your lists so far?

“He is absolutely a legend. We have been teammates in the past, two years Andretti. In a camp that big and we barely even spoke to each other, so this is the first time we’re really truly teammates. I think we’re both hungry. You know, he didn’t race last year, the 500. And I’m coming off with like, you know, wanting very hungry to prove myself. So we both have similar mindsets. We’re both very, very determined this year and the whole crew, overdrive to that the whole drive onboard basically has something to prove. So we’re all in that same mentality. And I think we’re the underdogs and I think we can prove something this month.”

CONOR DALY, NO. 20 CHEVROLET FOR ED CARPENTER RACING – End of Day Press Conference:

THE MODERATOR: Wrapping up Thursday practice here. Joining us now Conor Daly for Ed Carpenter Racing, who next week will make his 10th Indianapolis 500 start.

No shocker, the Ed Carpenter cars are pretty good, Conor.

CONOR DALY: “Yeah, thankfully this track we’ve still managed to retain our speed. It’s been nice. It’s been fun. The couple days have been interesting.

I still think it will be very interesting come tomorrow when the power goes up because I think we’ll see a general trend on fast cars, but what is that going to look like when we got all the juice? We’ll see what happens.

But I’m very confident so far, more confident than I would say I was last year at this time, both in traffic and in no tow. So, yeah, not too bad.”

THE MODERATOR: When things get turned up, we’re pushing about 100 horsepower more tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday.

CONOR DALY: “100?”

THE MODERATOR: 90, maybe 100.

CONOR DALY: “Geez, I thought it was only 50.”

THE MODERATOR: What could it do to the cars balance-wise?

CONOR DALY: “Honestly, it depends on I guess who is developing the most grip mechanically. We could see some people, at Texas it was interesting, some people managed to run with more downforce and actually be faster.

It’s about efficiency, the less scrub the better. So sometimes you can trim out here too much and be a victim of kind of being a bit too aggressive.

It’s just finding that little window. By lap four, for sure the tires are going off. When you’re doing two hundred a ton miles an hour, the first laps feel like I got this, then three and four you’re fighting an animal – at least I have been.

I’ve always struggled a little bit in qualifying here, but I feel better already going forward, so that’s nice.

All three of our cars are similar in speed, which is encouraging. Obviously the team brings three good cars here all the time.”

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Conor, it’s been a difficult season for ECR. How confident are you coming back to the Speedway, seeing the rhythm is coming back, the cars are fast around this place?

CONOR DALY: “Well, I mean, it just shows like Rinus and I haven’t forgotten how to drive, thankfully. There’s been a lot of difficulties this year.

When we come here, though, it’s been a great two days. It’s been fun. It’s more fun to be competitive as well. Appreciate the team, the effort they’ve put in here.

Yeah, I mean, the goal is obviously to take advantage of it. It’s hard because you never know what can happen, but we’re trying to execute every day, as good as we can.

I love the new look of the car. We want to do the best job we can here for Chevrolet as well, at the Chevrolet Indoor Speedway. We want to be strong for them as well (smiling).”

Q. Obviously you had a lot of boxes you wanted to tick in the first three days. How much did you feel you have ticked and how much do you feel still needs to happen?

CONOR DALY: “I actually feel pretty good when it comes to race setup. I think we’re all still going to try to do a bunch of stuff on Monday and get a little bit more dialed in. But realistically there’s not a ton of changes overall compared to last year, I would say. We want to try to dial in a few more things.

When we come to Sunday, next weekend, raw speed is going to be really what helps. If we can just get our cars to go faster, it’s a little less work to go that fast, then we’ll be in a good spot.”

Q. Conor, is there much changes for setup or in principle can you do the car unchanged when the boost goes up?

CONOR DALY: “Honestly today, as Marcus said, we try to do a couple runs in the qual trim. We peel a lot off the car for at least kind of baseline qual trim. It is different from what we’re doing race setup-wise.

I would say what we ran today we’ll just also start tomorrow with the more power because usually it’s not too dissimilar. We’ll try to run at least what we did today for our single-car runs for tomorrow and go from there.”

Q. How difficult is it to go back to normal boost and race setup? In principle can you start from last year’s?

CONOR DALY: “It always feels wonderful tomorrow because power is your best friend. That’s going to be amazing.

Going back to the race setup, it’s actually a great feeling after you’ve done three days of all qual trim, absolutely wringing your neck for speed, it feels really lovely to go back to the race downforce. You feel like you can do anything, throw the car around.

It’s just part of the game here. You have these next three days where you’re going to be sweating a lot and it’s going to be a very, very challenging situation. We’ll see what we can do.

We want to put all three of our cars up front. I think this team next to me are going to be the ones to beat for sure. Hopefully we can show up in the Fast Six, 9 or 12, whatever the numbers are.”

Q. Anyone you worked with today that you really felt someone around you that had a strong car, were impressed with what you saw from other people?

CONOR DALY: “I mean, I think these guys are strong. The Ganassi cars are strong. I think Josef looked quick, too. Josef seemed pretty strong in traffic. All three of our cars were pretty decent, as well, when I was running around those guys.

I don’t know. I think there’s like one group, then another group. You definitely feel slightly quicker with that one group. The other group, it looks like they’re having a tougher time.

When you’re around fast cars, everyone seems fast. It’s interesting. But usually the key players are still really quick.”

Q. Conor, you talked about the changes, how that gives you a lot of encouragement. Dixon said yesterday he feels like that could help teams close the gap a little bit. Do you feel that’s the case? Are you seeing evidence with all the stuff you can try, you can find a way to decrease their edge?

CONOR DALY: “Oh, I don’t know. I mean, if you’re talking in traffic, it still is a challenge I would say. If you’re deep in the pack, it didn’t matter what car it was, it was rare to see people making progress unless people were letting people by.

The first two cars, boy, it looked like they were having a heck of a race. So I don’t know if that’s the case. I don’t think it brings us closer. I think the entire field is just closer because everyone is really good, and the teams are really good.

When it still comes to the qualifying trim stuff, everyone is going to be peeling off all the stuff we can put on, so it’s still who can generate the most mechanical grip and take the most downforce out comfortably.

I don’t know. I still think closing the gap to them, it’s a challenge, but that’s what we’re all here to do.”

Q. Conor, when the defending winner says, We feel like we’re in a better place than we were last year, should we all just go home?

CONOR DALY: “No.”

CONOR DALY: “Ed (Carpenter) has a big bag of witchcraft working over there. When we show up tomorrow, it will be serious. (laughter)

Of course they’re going to be good, it’s Ganassi. Not like they forgot how to do things.

It’s great to have really good teams like that to race against, right? If you do feel like you make progress towards them, it feels way better. If we’re in a duel for the first two rows or first three rows, it means you’re going up against the best of the best. Shouldn’t be any other way.”

About Chevrolet

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