Hot quotes from Chevrolet Indy Dual in Detroit race 1

From , there was lots to talk about at the Chevrolet Indy Dual in Detroit today. Below, you’ll find a selection of some of the hottest quotes following race 1.

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On the red tires going off so quickly:

GRAHAM RAHAL: “I had terrible rear grip on the reds. I was really, really struggling. The Firestone blacks were phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal today. But they were used reds — they were used very hard in qualifying. I thought they would be a struggle, but not after three laps. After three laps, I was already like, ‘this isn’t going to work.’ I said to Dad, ‘You gotta get me off of these.’ He said, ‘You have 20 more laps on these.’ I said, ‘Either I’m going to crash or lose a lap.’ Pitting and getting off of them was the best choice.”

WILL POWER: “We were just going to see how we were going to go (on the reds) a spell (at the beginning of the race). At that point my car went off on me badly. I didn’t start off on new tires. I had a bunch of people all over me, Pagenaud hitting me a couple times, then suddenly it went yellow. It was a good opportunity to get off those tires.”

On the (lack of) definition of the blocking rules:

TONY KANAAN: “Well, I think it’s one move, isn’t it?  One move, can’t react to the car behind you.  So, if you exit the corner and you believe that the guy is going to make a move, before he makes the move, you can protect.  So, if you want to go to the inside, you go to the inside.  If he moves, you can’t move with him.  That’s the rule right now. … We can’t leave to the officials to enforce some of the rules. … If we want to block, we will block and you guys will never realize.” (RAHAL adds: “All you have to do is move the car six inches.”) KANAAN: “It will happen so fast, you guys will never catch it.  We know what we’re doing and we know exactly how to protect it.  We only get caught when it’s a blatant move that you try to protect.”

WILL POWER (on the blocking warning he received on the restart): “It blows my mind when I’m getting driven into the wall — you pull out, they just drive you into the wall — and they’re allowing it.  It’s really hard for us to understand what the true rule is.  You can move in reaction.  But I’ve had multiple guys move in reaction to me today, like dangerously. I didn’t think I moved in reaction, but obviously there’s a lot of focus on the front of the field.  The rule is you can’t move in reaction.  I don’t think I moved in reaction.  I moved before he moved.”

MIKHAIL ALESHIN (on Twitter): “I got penalty for blocking Sato which was 4 laps down, ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!?”

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On Juan Pablo Montoya:

GRAHAM RAHAL: “I mean, gosh, if I’m around Montoya much more, I probably won’t finish. I mean, honestly, I’ve never been blocked so hard in my entire life, every lap.”

TONY KANAAN: “Juan made his car extremely wide today, I can tell you that.”

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On the developing Power/Pagenaud on-track rivalry:

SIMON PAGENAUD: “I guess me and Will (Power) getting into trouble has become a common story. Will was having a lot of issues early on with the way his tires were wearing. He started with scuffed Firestone red tires, and he was struggling to get out of the corners. We were dicing back and forth, and making contact at times as well. There wasn’t much room out there to pass him. He made the car really wide. I entered Turn 6 on the outside of him, and he knew I was there. I don’t think he gave me room on the exit, but maybe I was a little too optimistic with the move. It’s hard to say, but that’s racing. It won’t be the last fight the two of us have on the track.”

WILL POWER: “I had no clue. I didn’t even know where Pagenaud was. What actually happened? I didn’t even see what happened. What happened to him?” (“He made contact with the outside wall.”) “Someone hit me, yeah. I don’t understand why he always does that. He’ll get beside you, bang. Hurts my wrists.”

On the management of the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix:

TONY KANAAN: “(The track) needs a little bit of work. I know Roger (Penske) is putting out a lot of effort to make it better. I appreciate that. I know there is a huge repavement plan for next year. I think it will be better. It’s pretty tough to keep it up. It takes a lot of maintenance when you have hard winters like that. … To be fair, I’ve never seen a promoter like Roger put money and effort. That’s a compliment. It could be a lot worse. I mean, I don’t think we have a promoter in this series that does what Roger does for Detroit. So we’re actually extremely proud of him and Charles (Burns, General Manager of the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix). We’re involved with some of the safety aspects. Those guys communicate with us. Whatever we ask, if it can be done, it’s done. We came here on Thursday and the track was flooded for some reason. They had a lot of rain. Roger didn’t like a couple of places. They repaved on Thursday. I’ve never seen something like that before. That’s typical Roger. Compliments to them and his team because he knows how to do it.”

GRAHAM RAHAL: “(The track is) rough, like really rough. But I’m a Midwest guy — we all know this winter was absolutely brutal. There’s nothing you can do. These things are going to happen. Roger (Penske), Charles (Burns), everybody is trying as hard as they can. Everybody knows the effort that’s being put out. It’s not a lack of effort. But Roger has certainly put a lot of his own money in this. He’s the only guy in this sport that would ever do that. That says a lot about him. Maybe next year we can get to repaving.”