MONTOYA TAKES VERIZON P1 AWARD FOR POCONO INDYCAR 500 LONG POND, Pa. (Saturday, July 5, 2014) -- Juan Pablo Montoya was a standout in the late-afternoon qualifying session as driver after driver took turns at shattering Marco Andrettis year-old Pocono Raceway speed records. The final participant in single-car qualifications for the Pocono INDYCAR 500 fueled by Sunoco broke the one- and two-lap track records to earn his first Verizon P1 Award of the season and 15th of his Indy car career. Montoya recorded a first lap of 223.920 mph and a two-lap average of 223.871 mph on the 2.5-mile tri-oval in the No. 2 PPG Team Penske. The previous two-lap average record was 221.273 mph, which came in 2013 at Indy car racings return to Pocono Raceway after a 24-year absence. Denny Hamlin holds the NASCAR Cup Series record of 181.415 mph, set on June 6. NBCSN will televise the 200-lap race -- the middle round of the Triple Crown series -- at noon (ET) July 6. The 500-mile races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Pocono Raceway and Auto Club Speedway on Aug. 30 carry double points. Will Power, the championship front-runner who will join Montoya and rookie Carlos Munoz on the front row for the three-wide start, has a 39-point lead over Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves entering Round 11 of 18. Montoya is the eighth different Verizon P1 Award winner this season. Montoyas last Indy car pole came at Surfers Paradise in October 2000. He earned the pole for the August 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Pocono. Its the luck of the draw, but the big thing was we had good balance, said Montoya, who returned to Indy car racing this season after 14 years competing in Formula One and stock car racing. Am I back? Well, Im getting there. I feel like Im getting there every week. We keep working harder and keep finding speed and more results. So its exciting. I think were going in the right direction. (The track is) so different (from NASCAR). We run wide open all the way around here. I think the average speed is 30 or 40 miles per hour faster than we do in a Cup car. Its fast. Takuma Sato (222.798 mph), Andretti (222.715) and James Hinchcliffe (222.544) will occupy Row 2. 1. (2) Juan Pablo Montoya, Dallara-Chevy, 223.871 2. (12) Will Power, Dallara-Chevy, 223.725 3. (34) Carlos Munoz, Dallara-Honda, 223.083 4. (14) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 222.798 5. (25) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 222.715 6. (27) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Honda, 222.544 7. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevy, 222.517 8. (10) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevy, 221.970 9. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 221.950 10. (8) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Chevy, 221.565 11. (77) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 221.547 12. (7) Mikhail Aleshin, Dallara-Honda, 221.221 13. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Chevy, 221.019 14. (15) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 220.747 15. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Chevy, 220.604 16. (19) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 220.439 17. (83) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Chevy, 220.377 18. (11) Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevy, 219.741 19. (17) Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Chevy, 218.502 20. (18) Carlos Huertas, Dallara-Honda, 216.261 21. (67) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Honda, No speed 22. (98) Jack Hawksworth, Dallara-Honda, No speed QUOTES Pole - JUAN PABLO MONTOYA (No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet) Im getting there. To be honest, Im happy to be here in the Verizon IndyCar Series. This week we have the PPG car and everybody at Chevy and Team Penske has worked really hard for me. Its really exciting. Am I back? Well, Im getting there. I feel like Im getting there every week. We keep working harder and keep finding speed and more results. So its exciting. I think were going in the right direction. (The track is) so different (from NASCAR). We run wide open all the way around here. I think the average speed is 30 or 40 mph faster than we do in a Cup car. Its fast. 2nd - WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet) It was a pretty good run. I had probably too big of a lift on my first lap, too much understeer. But apart from that, Juan ran a bit more downforce, so I thought if he can be flat or have less of a lift, hes going to be very tough to beat. But still very good for Penske to have a one-two. 3rd - CARLOS MUNOZ (No. 34 Cinsay AndrettiTV HVM Honda) For sure having teammates, getting all that information, it helps you, helps you for what you can expect; thats a great thing about having so many teammates. This time I was the last teammate (to run), and normally Im the first one to go out, so Im usually giving the information. But our run was great, the Cinsay car was great. Im happy to start on the front row for the race - third position. Tomorrow is a long race, 500 miles, but I have a really good car to fight for the lead. 4th - TAKUMA SATO (No. 14 ABC Supply A.J. Foyt Racing Honda) A very good day for us. We were strong here last year so we knew we had a good package. The ABC car worked very well straight into practice and we were in the ballpark. We worked on all the small details. It would have been nice to get the pole, but I cant be too greedy. We had a good solid run and I really enjoyed it. It is so challenging here because Turn 1 and Turn 3 are completely different. You have to move the tools every single lap. The car worked really well so good job by all the boys and Don (Halliday), our engineer, did a great job. Hopefully we continue the speed and strength tomorrow. 5th - MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 25 Snapple Honda) I mean not bad, not great you know, but good. I think we had a decent shake at it, but I think we ran too much downforce. I mean I want to perform well here. I want to definitely capitalize and win. The Snapple car ran strong, we just need to win. 6th - JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 27 United Fiber & Data Honda) The track conditions and the wind the way its been, practice was a little tougher than last year, so we werent quite sure what to expect coming into qualifying. As always, the Andretti Autosport cars were super strong and big credit to the United Fiber & Data boys - this is UFDs home race, theyre based not too far from here. Were definitely happy with the run we put in. Having teammates is one of the big benefits of having a multi-car team like this because we can all help each other out. I know I got information off Ryan (Hunter-Reay) and Marco (Andretti), and we were able to relay a little more information to Carlos (Munoz). 8th - TONY KANAAN (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Chevrolet) Im pretty confident in the Target car and its obviously a very long race with 500 miles so you have to let it play out. I think we went a bit conservative on the setup and the No. 10 car had more in it for sure. We have a good race car under us and today is a decent start to the job well have to do tomorrow. 9th - RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 DHL Honda) We kind of went for a guess on the balance of the car and it wasnt right. We had some issues. So I think our teammates were able to learn from that. We were kind of the first hat to fall there. We were the one (my teammates) were going to take the balance from and they were able to have a good run. 10th - RYAN BRISCOE (No. 8 NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet) We had a good run today in qualifying. The No. 8 NTT DATA Chevrolet was the best its been all day. I think the conditions are just really good right now and we maybe could have been a bit greedier with the downforce but it was a good, solid run. 11th - SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 77 Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Racing Honda) My car was bottoming out during the qualifying run, which definitely didnt help our speed. I think, overall, our car is very good though. Looking where Ryan Hunter-Reay started when he won the Indianapolis 500 this year, Im not too concerned about starting 10th. I think passing tomorrow will be very dependent on tire wear and how the other cars around you behave on their tires. We have strong consistency on our Firestone tires. So Ill be depending on that tomorrow. 12th - MIKHAIL ALESHIN (No. 7 SMP Racing Honda) My car was strong when I was out there running on my own for qualifying. I made a small mistake in Turn 1 on my second lap, which definitely hurt us. We have a very long race tomorrow, and my job will be to make sure we dont make any mistakes. On each oval other than Indianapolis, the four corners actually feel like two to me in the car. Here at Pocono, it feels like I have an extra turn. Im really enjoying how technical this track is. Its very difficult for the driver because each turn is so different from the one before it. I think Turn 1 is my favorite because the bump in the middle makes it very challenging. You have to be concentrating and performing at the top of your game to drive that turn properly. 14th - GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 15 National Guard Honda) The car had too much understeer and just wouldnt turn. The second lap was a pretty solid one, but unfortunately the first lap was pretty slow. We didnt put enough aero in it and the car just pushed too much. I dont think we were going to do a 223 (mph) or anything like that, but we ran a 221.7 with a huge lift so I think it could have been a mid-to-high 222, which would have put us much closer to the front. You can use the tools (in the cockpit) to adjust only so much and we got better (from Lap 1 to Lap 2), but the National Guard car is really good this weekend so we just wanted more. I think that our race car is particularly good so Im looking forward to the race. 15th - SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Chevrolet) Today we spent both practice sessions working on the balance of the Target car. I think well be OK for the race, but you just have very limited time here at Pocono. Each of the three turns here is distinctively different so you really have to be able to compromise the setup to get things right. Last year we showed you never know what can happen here after starting back in the pack and finishing 1-2-3. 16th - JUSTIN WILSON (No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda) The car felt pretty good. We picked up a little push as the run went on, but that is the quickest we have run by 2 or 3 miles per hour. I am fairly happy with it. I know it isnt going to be good enough for the top 12 or maybe even 15, but I think we have made a lot of progress from the practice earlier today and I think we are going in the right direction. Hopefully we are in good shape to race tomorrow. It is going to be a long race so we will try to stay out of trouble and just try to survive. 17th - CHARLIE KIMBALL (No. 83 Levemir FlexTouch Chevrolet) Im not too worried about our qualifying position right now. We qualified mid-pack last year and then we ended up finishing strong in the race. Tonight well take some time to look at what our teammates did and compare notes and see what kind of data they have. I think the No. 83 Levemir FlexTouch Chevrolet looks really good and Im excited for the 500 miles tomorrow. 18th - SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS (No. 11 Hydroxycut KVSH Racing Chevrolet) Im obviously not happy with qualifying. Its not where we want to be. The car seems to be a little better in race trim, but we still have a lot of work to do. Hopefully, we can figure something out and have a decent result in the Shatter car tomorrow. 19th - SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA (No. 17 Automatic Fire Sprinklers KV AFS Chevrolet) Of course we wanted to be a little more up front, but not being able to test at ovals as much as we want is showing and starting to hurt us. Our main focus this morning was to just mileage out the car, which we managed. My Automatic Fire Sprinkler guys were super impressive to change my Chevrolet engine in an hour and a half. In qualifying, I bottomed very hard in Turn 1 on my first green lap and that killed everything because I had to lift and that lost me speed. My second lap was much quicker, but by then I had lost the momentum. On a positive note though I think we have a good race car so we will just have to see how the race plays out tomorrow. 20th - CARLOS HUERTAS (No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda) Today was OK. We didnt get as much testing as we wanted a few weeks ago when we were here. I dont really know this place well and it has been tricky to set up the car, but we will see tomorrow. Each weekend is a new track for me because I have never raced at these tracks and I didnt really test at any of them so my first experience with them is when we arrive for race weekend. The goal is to have a good race and do good pit stops and do good strategy. Hopefully that will pay off and I will be there at the end. 21st - JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 67 Hartman Oil/Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda) We dont really know what happened right now. Were obviously going to try and find an answer before tomorrow. It was a very strange crash, probably the strangest crash Ive ever had in an Indy car. The front end felt like it skipped. It felt like something caught under the front of the car. As soon as that happened the front was completely gone and we went straight into the wall. Very odd crash. I think we have a fast car. We are really confident in what we were doing in practice. We did a lot of race running so I think we should be good for tomorrow.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 12:15:44 +0000
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