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INDYCAR MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 16, 2017

THE MODERATOR: I'd like to introduce Jay Frye, IndyCar president of competition; Jim Campbell, Chevrolet's U.S. vice president of performance vehicle and motorsports, probably a lot of other things that we don't have time to talk about; and Mark Kent on the end, Chevrolet's director of motorsports competition.

Jay, a special announcement here to make.

JAY FRYE: On behalf of IndyCar, it's an honor and privilege to present for an incredible sixth consecutive year the Verizon IndyCar Series manufacturer award and championship to Chevrolet. Congratulations, guys.

JIM CAMPBELL: Thank you. To you, Mark Miles, everybody at IndyCar, thank you for presenting the trophy. This thanks really goes also to our Chevrolet teams. I want to thank Team Penske, Roger Penske is here, Tim Cindric is here, Bud Denker, the whole Team Penske contingent. That's for all you've done. As well as Ed Carpenter Racing. I see Tim Broyles. I see Tony George is here as well. Thank you for what you have done. You guys have been with us six years in a row. A.J. is here, Larry Foyt. Thanks for A.J. Foyt, everything you did as well.

All three of these teams have contributed valuable points to help us win this manufacturers championship here at the IndyCar Series for the sixth year in a row. I want to thank you for that.

Also a big thank you to our technical partners at Ilmor. Paul Ray is here, Steve O'Connor, Steve Miller, Wayne Bennett. Thank you for your partnership on everything related to our engine program. And everybody at Pratt & Miller, thanks for what you've done on the aero kit as well, really integrating that all together.

Jay, thanks for having us. We love competing in the IndyCar Series.

THE MODERATOR: Mark, would you like to add to the excitement?

MARK KENT: I think Jim acknowledged just about everybody that has taken part in this. There's a couple other organizations, Don Lester is here from our own propulsion system team. His team has helped tremendously. Also Hitachi automotive systems.

Then Ilmor engineering. Wayne Bennett, Steve Miller, Paul Ray, Steve O'Connor are here. Without them, none of this would be possible. So they are a great partner.

THE MODERATOR: Jim, you were able to clinch this, therefore have the press conference today. You still have a drivers championship to make the sweep for Chevrolet in the weekend. Talk about your excitement, four guys, five, six.

JIM CAMPBELL: No question. Josef Newgarden, Helio, Simon, Will. We're going up against Dixon. We got to make this happen. Sonoma is an amazing place. The racing here, what can happen, the drama that happens here. Every year something unique happens here.

We want to focus on supporting our teams, Team Penske, give them the best opportunity to win this race, finish up ahead of the competition, look to bring home another drivers championship. It's been a great run in the drivers' side as well. We want to keep the momentum going. It's a lot of work ahead here in the next 24 hours.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Jim or Mark.

Q. You mentioned your engine partner, Ilmor. Can you say maybe in percentage how much work is done by Chevrolet and what percentage is done by Ilmor for the IndyCar engine?
MARK KENT: I would say just like winning this championship, it's a pure team effort. The engine program is a pure team effort. We don't break it down into percentages. We work as a team, we win as a team.

JIM CAMPBELL: Thank you to all of our team members. We've been back in the series since 2012. In that timeframe we've run 100 races. I'm really proud that the teams, drivers, all of our partners have put 66 wins on the board.

Winning 66% of the time is exciting. Every win is hard earned. It's no guarantee of future performance, but I'm really proud of what they have done. Ilmor, Pratt & Miller, Hitachi, all of our race team owners, the drivers working together to put 66 wins on the board, six manufacturers championships, thank you to them.

Q. This is the last race with the manufacturer aero kits. What does it mean to have won the championship not just with the engines but the aero kits for all three years?
MARK KENT: It's very rewarding because we believe that the aero kits allowed us the opportunity to accomplish everything we wanted to do. We wanted the aero kits to provide some visual differentiation. They did that. We wanted the aero kits to provide us an opportunity to demonstrate our engineering prowess, out-engineer our competition. And we did that as well.

From our perspective, the aero kit era was very successful for us. But as we move forward, we're looking forward to the next chapter of IndyCar competition with the universal kit. We won before the aero kits, we won with the aero kits, we're looking forward to continue winning with the new aero kit.

Q. Going forward to 2018, everyone will be running a universal car. What are the engine rules that you will be working under? Are you able to do some major changes or is it going to be very limited?
MARK KENT: The engine rules for next year allow us to continue to do some minor enhancements to the current engine. But for the most part the engine stays as it is today. It's a twin turbo V6 engine, which is relevant to Chevrolet on the racetrack and the showroom. We're very excited about the platform. We'll continue to work as hard as we can in the areas we can to maintain a competitive advantage.

JIM CAMPBELL: Every one of our teams, including A.J. Foyt Racing, Ed Carpenter Racing, Team Penske, did contribute valuable points towards this championship. We're looking forward to next year.

THE MODERATOR: Can you give us an idea of what your team lineup looks like for next year?

JIM CAMPBELL: Still in progress. Give us a few more weeks, we'll have it nailed down.

Q. Jim, can you elaborate a little bit in terms of if you anticipate having more drivers than you had this season? Do you think it will be more of an equal Honda-Chevy competition next year?
JIM CAMPBELL: What I would say to that, before I get to the answer for next year, we had 40% of the field this year, we've won nine of the races, 10 of the poles, obviously the manufacturers championship. I think the number of teams you have while certainly important, I'm really proud of the job of the three teams that we have put forth this year. Obviously, everyone wants to get better every single race, every single year. Within that, in terms of those nine wins, those all came from Team Penske. Thank you for that.

Again, the number of teams doesn't necessarily correlate to the number of results. I think this year is an example of that.

I do think we'll have more drivers and teams than we had last year. The specifics yet are not finalized, so I can't give you the exact number, again, the numbers of teams.

We want the right team owners and partners that are willing to work as a team across Chevrolet, key partners to give each one of our drivers the best opportunity to win races and go for championships, drivers, as well as helping us put another manufacturers championship on the board next year.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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