Castroneves completes Dual in Detroit sweep for Team Penske
IndyCar, IndyCar News/Releases, INDYCAR PR — By More Front Wing Staff on June 1, 2014 10:42 pmJAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 27 United Fiber & Data Honda): “We were battling for third down the back straight, and (Charlie) Kimball made his car wide; that’s all there was to it. I had to go to the outside. I had gone to the inside, but he didn’t like that, so I went to the outside. He did a good job out-braking me, and I had to lift a bit on the exit there, and (Scott) Dixon got us. Fourth or fifth, it doesn’t really matter – we’re racing for podiums, we’re racing for wins. I have to watch the race and see how it ended there. It was confusing race with all the different strategies and play, but again, the car was really fast. They United Fiber & Data guys were awesome in the pits. Considering how my past races in Detroit have gone, this is hell of a good weekend – two front-row starts and two top-six finishes. We’ll take it.”
MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 25 Snapple Honda): “It was one of the longest races of my career; it was a handful. It was loose all day, and it went from terrible to disgusting when we had the (contact) penalty, which was my fault. We’ll move on from this and hopefully have better luck with the Snapple Honda next weekend in Texas.”
CARLOS MUNOZ (No. 34 Cinsay AndrettiTV.com HVM Honda): “For this race I was a little bit frustrated because I think we had more than eighth position; our strategy was not optimal, and we were losing positions in pit lane. I think we had enough to finish in the top four. Maybe we weren’t in the fight for the win because the two first cars were really quick, but we gained good points. This race was really just about surviving, it is a shame. Today brought more experience for me, and I am feeling more comfortable and making less mistakes.”
RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 DHL Honda): “It was a long weekend for the DHL crew. I’ll try to erase this one from my memory and move on to Texas. What put us out was we lost pressure in the shift actuator, so we couldn’t get out of first gear. We started with a puncture and we had to come in…then we were off strategy. We tried saving fuel, then we had to abandon that because it went green in the middle. Nothing we did worked this weekend. We will just move on from these two races and focus on the future.”
SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet): “A huge credit to the Target team coming from dead last to fourth. That’s a huge accomplishment. We had some brake issues on the second to last restart and that cost us in the end. Overall a good day and the team did a good job on strategy.”
JUSTIN WILSON (No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda): “Someone stuffed it in there and was stopped and I just ran into the back of him. The car felt bent, and from that point on it was just about trying to get to the finish. For a while there I thought we could get a decent result, but it’s just hard on the restarts when things aren’t tracking straight. It’s a disappointing result today, but we’ll just have to keep working on it. Yesterday we were in the right place at the right time and today we were in the wrong place at the wrong time every single time.”
TAKUMA SATO (No. 14 ABC Supply A.J. Foyt Racing Honda): “First I’d like to thank the whole team – everyone did a tremendous job. It wasn’t an easy weekend to start. We had the misfortune yesterday of a mechanical failure which stopped us from racing but we learned a lot and came back very strong. This morning’s qualifying I enjoyed so much. I was able to commit 100 percent and the car reacted so well. In the race, the start was smooth and all was looking good. On the first stop we lost a couple places. The fuel strategy was split because of the early yellow but I still moved up to effectively the second position and (Ryan) Briscoe hit me under braking in Turn 3. That was our race. We moved up to almost top 10 and Marco (Andretti) hit me and that time I hit the wall. We finished the race but it was a bitter feeling. But the guys did a great job today.”
CARLOS HUERTAS (No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda): “Today was a difficult race for me and I feel a bit frustrated with how low we finished. I was running strong in fifth and then as the pit stops cycled through I ended up further back in the field. When you get put back in the field in a race like this it is hard to make up positions. If things would have gone a bit differently, I could have finished in the top ten again today. Now we just have to look to the next race and try to improve next time.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 67 Hartman Oil/Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda): “It’s a shame getting booted in Turn 3 at the start there. Not what we needed to have happen on a day like this. We had a strong car, everyone did a great job bouncing back from yesterday and trying to redeem ourselves from my mishap in Race 1 and then we got caught out with something that wasn’t our fault. IndyCar racing is tough, it’s a difficult series right now, everyone is so close but it’s a shame when you get caught up in something that’s not your fault and it takes you out on a day like today. Especially having two in a row….Our race was ruined. We couldn’t do anything. We did everything we could to get our lap back but nothing really worked. It’s too difficult around a place like Detroit…. For us as a group we have to keep pushing. We have a great team, sponsors, supporters, ownership. We just have to keep moving forward and I think we’re going to have some good success soon.”
RYAN BRISCOE (No. 8 NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet): “We had a great starting position for the second dual but the race just didn’t play out the way we needed it to. I think we pit at the right times and made the best calls we could given the way the yellow flags came out, but that’s just the way it works sometimes. The racing was fast and extremely competitive like it always is and that just goes to show you how difficult it is to be up front here in the IndyCar Series right now.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA (No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): “We were really looking forward to a better qualifying effort than that with the No. 2 Verizon Chevy. Will (Power) showed us yesterday that you can win from anywhere in the field, so we have no reason to panic. Just need to have a good game plan going into the race.”
Tags: Detroit, Helio Castroneves, Team Penske