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Qualifying report

Chevy Indycar at Long Beach: Team Chevy driver post qualifying quotes

Team Chevy drivers have won the first three Verizon P1 Awards of the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series Season

Helio Castroneves, Team Penske Chevrolet

Helio Castroneves, Team Penske Chevrolet

General Motors

Polesitter Helio Castroneves, Team Penske Chevrolet
Juan Pablo Montoya, Team Penske Chevrolet
Helio Castroneves, Team Penske Chevrolet pole winner
Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet
Tony Kanaan, Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet
Sébastien Bourdais, KV Racing Technology Chevrolet, Carlos Munoz, Andretti Autosport Honda
Charlie Kimball, Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet
Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske Chevrolet
Max Chilton, Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet
Josef Newgarden, Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet
Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet
Polesitter Helio Castroneves, Team Penske Chevrolet
Sébastien Bourdais, KV Racing Technology Chevrolet

Helio Castroneves, No. 3 Auto Club Of Southern California Team Penske Chevrolet, Pole Winner: “It (qualifying) showed that our team, it's very consistent. It's very -- we're always being -- all four cars basically, myself, Juan Pablo, Simon and Will, always putting ourselves in a very good condition. We're working together very hard, and as they say, it's better to be lucky than good. So I'll take this one. It was great. We had a fast car. We were consistent, and we just repeated pole position again, so I'm happy that finally our plan paid off, and we're showing speed and we're starting in the right position today.”

Scott Dixon, No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, qualified 2nd: “I’m stoked, considering how we started this weekend. We tried a totally different setup from last year. The cars have changed, especially aerodynamically, so we thought we might need some different things, but that wasn’t the case. Even this morning, we struggled a little bit. Some good old front wing helped us today as we were able to carry the speed of the Target car through the corners. We could have had it if the qualifying had carried through. We had the speed for pole. But front row is a good place to start and hopefully we can replicate the race from last year.”

Simon Pagenaud, No. 22 PPG Automotive Refinish Team Penske Chevrolet, qualified 3rd: Yeah, it was an interesting Fast Six. We locked in one lap. Luckily that was good for P-3. But yeah, I was concerned. We didn't have a lap in when the red came out. I'm happy with third right now because I really thought we were getting sixth. Yeah, the car was really good. PPG car has been strong all weekend. Everybody at Penske has been really strong. I think we actually have a better race car than a qualifying car, so P-3 is good.”

Tony Kanaan, No. 10 NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, qualified 4th: “I have to give props to my engineer (Todd Malloy). We definitely struggled until this morning. As a team, we progressed a lot. I worked with Scott (Dixon) this morning and we put the two cars trying to split the Penskes, so we did what we were supposed to do. Track position here is important, so we’re happy where we qualified. It’s still a long race tomorrow and we have a lot of work to do. We really struggled in practice yesterday and this morning, but things came together for the No. 10 NTT DATA Chevrolet in qualifying today. We made a change after the morning practice and it was obviously a change in the right direction. We're really happy with where we're starting tomorrow and it's great to have two Ganassi cars up front for tomorrow's race. Hopefully we'll be able to pull off a win tomorrow!"

Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, qualified 5th: “When you look at the practice, we were all -- all the cars were the fastest cars normally in practice. Our car is good.”

Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, qualified 6th: “I kind of went a bit deep and didn't want to take a risk and hit the wall and tried to spin it back around. I thought it was all over then anyway because once you cause a yellow you lose your best two laps. But that's okay. I always seem to start way back. It's not way back this year. It's a lot better than the previous two or three years. At least I'm in the top six.”

Josef Newgarden, No. 21 Fuzzy’S Ultra Premium Vodka Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, qualified 9th: “We didn’t qualify as high as we had hoped for. We have a good race car and have been fast on old tires and really in the mix all weekend. It seems that we can’t get that last little bit. It would have been nice to get in the Fast Six and put the Fuzzy’s car closer to the front. We just have a little more work to do tomorrow.”

Sebastien Bourdais, No. 11 California Baptist University KVSH Racing Chevrolet, qualified 14th: “I am disappointed for the guys. They worked really hard. On the replay you can see that the checkered flag falls behind me, but apparently the checkered flag is not in sync with timing and scoring. As far as I am concerned I didn’t go by the checkered flag twice. It is just different reference points. We thought we were clear, but apparently I wasn’t. We also have a new sponsor here, California Baptist University and some of their engineering students, so I feel bad for them. Qualifying 14th will definitely make tomorrow’s race a lot more difficult. We will have to come up with something during the race if we are going to have a good result.”

Charlie Kimball, No. 83 Tresiba Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, qualified 15th: "Frankly, I'm really disappointed with that. The track conditions caught me out; I wasn't expecting it to be nearly as slippery as it was. We were within a tenth of transferring into group two and I think the lap time was there, but I didn't quite get it done. The 83 car has been competitive, inside the top-10, all weekend. Tomorrow we'll just have to conjure up some magic so we can get up to the front and stay there."

Max Chilton, No. 8 Gallagher Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, qualified 19th: “The last race on an oval was demanding in its own way because it’s non-stop. Here it’s concentration and there’s no time to rest because the walls are right up against you.”

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