Indy GP: Top 10 quotes after race
Will Power races to victory from the pole position winning the Verizon IndyCar Series Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course
Start: Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet leads
Geoffrey M. Miller / Motorsport Images
Cla | # | Driver | Time | Mph | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 12 | Will Power | 1:42'57.6108 | 120.813 | 54 |
"It just feels great to finally have a good day and everyone has worked so hard on our team. Obviously, a rough start. But, like you said, should have won a couple by now. It helps in points. It's great to get a win again. I think that's number 30. Good number. I want to make that 31 by the end of this month." |
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2 | 9 | Scott Dixon | 1:43'02.8938 | 120.709 | 40 |
"It was definitely a tough day. We couldn't really hold onto the rear tires. The Honda just had too much power there. We were spinning the rear tires. Good points there for everybody on the NTT Data car. Great day for Honda. Obviously, not a win but very close. Looking forward to Monday and getting on the big track here." |
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3 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 1:43'09.6404 | 120.578 | 35 |
"Pretty solid day. We've had a lot of bad luck this year and it's been frustrating, but we kept our heads down and it feels nice to come onto the podium here before we kick off the most important few weeks of our careers and our whole season. It's nice to get the yellow and red DHL colors back here and close to the top step of the podium. We're saving that for the (Indianapolis) 500, I guess." | |||||
4 | 1 | Simon Pagenaud | 1:43'14.6776 | 120.480 | 32 |
"We had a good day. I mean it was a difficult weekend for us on the No. 1 Menards Chevrolet car. I didn't have the speed this weekend. I couldn't find how to feel more comfortable with the tires; the new Firestone tires they brought this weekend. I didn't have the speed Will (Power) had. Overall, bringing home a fourth-place finish is good. We're still in the lead for the championship which is what I want. I'm just super excited next is the Indy 500. It's my No. 1 goal this year and I know Roger [Penske] is really excited about it. My team is really excited and I want to bring the Menards car to the top step." |
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5 | 3 | Helio Castroneves | 1:43'18.2180 | 120.411 | 31 |
"I thought we had figured something out with some strategy there at the end, but the car was a handful. The Verizon car was great all day long. We decided to take a gamble and get off on tire strategy and it just didn't work like we had hoped. We have five good cars that can all win the race, so someone had to take a chance. We probably shouldn't have done it that way knowing we finished fifth, but if we would have won everyone would be looking at us saying wow. I also ended up wasting a lot of push to trying to get through traffic. Look, sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it goes. Now, we got to focus on the 500 and getting our fourth." | |||||
6 | 15 | Graham Rahal | 1:43'22.7147 | 120.324 | 28 |
"It's was a pretty good day. We were on attack mode on the first stint. We had to pump out a whole bunch of qualifying laps and close the gaps. My United Rentals boys did a great job in the pits because we got by a lot of guys there and we were able to pass a lot of guys. Overall I'm pleased with the day that we had. We completed all 85 laps and raised $100 a lap for Soldier/Strong and Turns for Troops which means a lot to me. It's just a good way to start the month. I was disappointed with qualifying but I'll take a sixth. I was fighting the whole way and guys - the lapped cars - certainly weren't making it easy there at the end. I was running low on push-to-pass and I knew Max (Chilton) was coming. It was a very physical day but I'm looking forward to the 500 coming up here. I take pride in my race craft come Sundays, but you better believe I wish my job was easier than that. Because on a day like today we had a car to win this race, I guarantee you that so it's disappointing starting where we start and putting ourselves in that hole. This field and the competitiveness of the drivers is why there were no yellows and when there are no yellows, 85 laps on a warm day like this is a good workout. We know we can compete, we know we can run up front. We've had a lot of things go against us this year but today finally we had just a smooth, good day." | |||||
7 | 8 | Max Chilton | 1:43'23.3162 | 120.312 | 26 |
"It was just a really, really good day for myself and the Gallagher team. It was by far the best race I've had in the Verizon IndyCar Series. The team did a good job and we made a call to start on primary tires and I knew within five or six laps it would pay off for us. On the second stint it just started playing into our hand, and having no yellows furthered our strategy. Moving forward seven positions in the race was mega, and without any off strategies playing out, we got there on straight speed. This is a great start to May and hope we can do even better in the 500." | |||||
8 | 98 | Alexander Rossi | 1:43'26.9322 | 120.242 | 24 |
"We had a really good start, but we chose the wrong downforce level - that was pretty big penalty for us until we got it balanced out on the last stint. But by that point it was too late to run up the charts. It's great for the team though that Ryan (Hunter-Reay) is on the podium and that the NAPA team was able to score another top 10. Now we shift our focus to defending our title at the (Indianapolis) 500." | |||||
9 | 20 | Spencer Pigot | 1:43'34.1986 | 120.101 | 22 |
“It seemed yesterday we struggled when the track got hotter, but today we didn’t. We made some good changes overnight, after the warmup, and the car was really good. Our tires were one of the best out there and later on during the stints we could definitely catch a bunch of guys. It’s encouraging, but finishing 9th when we know we could have been better, we will try and show that the next time out.” | |||||
10 | 22 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 1:43'39.4346 | 120 | 20 |
"We just didn't have the pace that we were hoping to have in the No. 22 Fitzgerald Glider Kits car today. We struggled on the red tires and on the first run, I felt like we blistered the rear and we lost some time there. Once we got back to about ninth or 10th, we just stayed right about there the rest of the race. It was a fun weekend, but we now turn out focus to the Indianapolis 500. That is the race we want to win and that is what we will think about starting now." |
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