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VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES: FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURGMarch 30, 2014Helio CastronevesRyan Hunter-ReayWill PowerST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA THE MODERATOR: We'll begin our post-race press conference. We're joined by Ryan Hunter-Reay, who finished second in today's race. Ryan started third today. His previous best finish was also second in 2009. Ryan, your season didn't start off the way you wanted it to last year, but you tied your best finish and got the season off to a really great start. RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, definitely. It's great to get some early points on the board. That's a big deal for us, knowing how difficult they are to come by at the end of the season. Every point you get in the beginning may make your life a little bit easier in the end. Good first day for the No. 28 DHL Honda team. We had to fight pretty hard for it. Long green stint there. Sato was pretty quick in that first stint. We seemed to have it for him the rest of it. Will was quick throughout the race. The Penske cars were quick. We really had to hustle the car to keep up with them.  Good wheel-to-wheel racing with Helio. Had two restarts where we were side-by-side. Luckily got by him both times and gave everything I had to get up to Will, but just couldn't close the gap. We were matching him for lap times but didn't have enough to catch up and pass him. THE MODERATOR: What is it like at Andretti Autosports so far? RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Excellent. This is our first race back with Honda. We learned a lot this weekend about what we need for the future races. Even the race today was a big learning experience. We went to school with each other today. This is our first time in this era of engines with Honda. You really have to learn what to expect from the Firestone tires, with the power delivery and everything else. It's a pretty complex picture and we're putting it together. Hopefully Long Beach will be that much better. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions for Ryan. Q. Have you had a chance to see the restart yet? RYAN HUNTER-REAY: I haven't. We were behind the pace car. I don't know why, I just had a feeling after the pace car came off he would stack up everybody, slow down to his own pace to get an advantage. I was expecting it. I guess Helio wasn't. I don't know. He'll comment on it. It was a bit of a stack-up. Then you got the guys in third and fourth gear coming through the back. They've got to catch up to that. We've always had stack-ups. It's just this one was pretty bad. I can't comment on it any further than what I saw. I need to see it on video. Q. With the way last year went, the disappointing way you weren't able to defend your championship, how important is it for you to get out of the gate strong this year? RYAN HUNTER-REAY: It's very important. It's a great home at Andretti Autosport, but you're always fighting not only for championships, you're fighting for your job. Unless you're winning, it's not good enough. That's the feeling I have. That's the feeling we have. There's a big push to get back to where we were in 2012, to being in contention to win races all the time. We were there today. We were in contention. That's important. If we keep putting ourselves in that position we'll be there at the end of the year fighting for this thing. That's what we need to do. Still early days, so... Q. Given the fact you need to see the restart on replay, did it surprise you there was a problem? RYAN HUNTER-REAY: It did surprise me. When I came around when it was yellow, I figured we'd be slowing down for an incident, a wreck, in turn one. To see it out of turn 14, that's when I knew it was something with a stack-up effect. When we had the double-file restarts, there was that stack-up as well, but this is more dramatic because it's single file, which is a longer line, and the restart point now is later than last year. So that means when we get to that point, cars are going to have to come around, especially the tail end of the field is going to be hustling to get up to the tail end of the line. When they get there, they have to get down to pace car speed or less. There's always going to be some stack-up. The guys in the front need to not stack up the field as much and the guys in the back need to expect a stack-up. Those two things combined, we should iron those out pretty well. Q. Are you saying that was kind of an intentional move by the leader? RYAN HUNTER-REAY: In my opinion, the leader shouldn't brake check or stop and then go. I didn't see that being very intentional from Will that way. What I saw it was he kind of set his own pace at that time. It's up for argument that maybe that was too slow. Definitely could have been too slow. It was very slow. But I feel like the leader should accelerate when he needs to and set the pace he wants because he's leading the race, but he needs to do it in a safe and predictable manner. We could argue if that was the case today. Q. He said he lifted a little but didn't touch the brake. RYAN HUNTER-REAY: A lift in first gear is very strong. It's almost like hitting the brakes. He certainly stacked up Helio on the first one, that's why I got a big run on Helio and passed Helio. The next one he just went. The next one was okay. Q. Comments on Honda since spring training. RYAN HUNTER-REAY: We've come a long way in a short amount of time. Honda has done an exceptional job. The Chevy has been on the twin turbo format for two years, so they're going on their third. They certainly know what they have and what to expect from every track, tire, et cetera. Now Honda has gone to the twin turbo. It's not simply just an addition of a turbo making things faster. It's a very intricate process they have to go through to make the drivability to what the single turbo was. I drove the single turbo and it was dialed in. I could see why they had so much success with it. Hopefully we'll get there with the twin. They gave us a great weapon out there to fight with today. I don't feel like I'm a great driver yet. I feel like I can get better. We're all working together. Q. You know what it takes to win a championship. It really looks like Will Power's momentum he had at the end of last season has carried over to this season. How valuable is that for a driver? RYAN HUNTER-REAY: For Will? Will is quick no matter what. If he gets out in front, it's going to be hard to take it away from him. He's going to be in the hunt for the championship no matter what, unless he has some crazy bad luck again. He's been in the hunt just about every year unless luck gets in his way. Hopefully you can say the same about me and I'll be fighting with him again at Fontana. Will definitely hasn't skipped a beat. He'll be a definite pain in the rear-end this year. Q. You're the only one here so you get all the fun questions. Thoughts on closing the pits under yellow? Do you think it was the right move? RYAN HUNTER-REAY: There's arguments on either side of it. There's points to discuss on either side. I was really worried we were going to get hosed by that one. When the yellow came out, just prior to that I had seen cars coming out of the pits in front of us, cars I didn't recognize that shouldn't have been up there, then it went yellow. I figured they all would be in front of us. It worked out today. We started that restart third I think so it worked out today. It does reward the guys that come in and do some odd-ball gamble, come in early and hope for a yellow. Then it happens and the leaders get hosed on it. But you are protecting the safety team a bit more when you do that. Yeah, I'm not sure yet. Q. (No microphone.) RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Safety of the crews? There's always another point to it, so... Whatever they set the rules up as, I'll go drive it. I would have done it another way. I'm not sure. We discussed this in the off-season. You'll have six good points on either end. That's definitely a question for Bo, though. Today it didn't really catch anybody out. But closing the pits immediately can definitely ruin some people's races pretty quick. The dangerous things about leaving the pits open, though, is you have a good shot at somebody running into a safety team member at 70 miles an hour or 80 miles an hour, 90 miles an hour, versus a crew guy getting maybe a foot run over or something like that, something like last year with Dixon and Will, which didn't look fun either. I'm not minimizing that. Q. With the weather delay yesterday, then the wet qualification conditions, how did that change your race preparation? Did you have to make changes? RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yesterday was a blast. I love qualifying in a changing track like that where it's wet to start, then drying throughout. I wish we could do that every week because as a driver you have to go outside of your comfort level and go find grip and stuff like that. But, no, it had no effect on our race prep. Q. With Verizon, Juan being back, a few other things going right for the series, do you think you're on the brink of turning a corner? RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Absolutely. Verizon coming on is huge momentum for the sport. They bring it a certain validity. The activation side - they're a tech company - will be huge for us. I think we're going to gel very well together. I think we're going to complement each other well. This group of drivers knows that they are Verizon's spokesperson, too. We have to fly that flag high because this is where we make our living and we're definitely proud of it. Proud of the IndyCar Series. Hopefully it is a corner turned and we're heading on to greener pastures. I hope so. I think so. We'll see ow Indy goes. Hopefully the month of May is a great one. HELIO CASTRONEVES: Just adding to that, certainly Verizon being with us for four years, they saw the potential. They actually perfect for the IndyCar Series. We're about technology and speed, and they're about technology and speed. Like I said, I've been part of the Verizon team for four years. Now the entire IndyCar Series is part of their team. We're talking about exciting people. We're not talking about people, Let's just put our name there. I'm very, very happy that they're onboard. Q. Ryan, talk a little bit about a home-field advantage coming from South Florida. RYAN HUNTER-REAY: A lot of us live down here, including Helio and Tony. This is definitely a home race. I grew up in South Florida. St. Pete, since we don't race in Homestead anymore, St. Pete is my home race. A short three-hour drive over. I have a lot of friends and family. The track doesn't owe you anything because you live close by. It's definitely one of my favorites. Great place to start the season off, one of my favorite events of the year. There's definitely no advantage. HELIO CASTRONEVES: It's funny you say that because I had to ask for a lot of credentials to have my friends come over here. I know you did, too. For us is very difficult. The first race of the season, in Florida, it's great to be honest. I wish we actually had a doubleheader here. RYAN HUNTER-REAY: For sure. HELIO CASTRONEVES: Should be thinking about that, IndyCar Series (laughter). THE MODERATOR: Ryan, thank you. He'll go ahead and introduce our next guest, Helio Castroneves. He's a two-time winner here in 2007 and 2012. Helio, it was a good day for Penske Racing and for you to continue your quest to capture -- HELIO CASTRONEVES: You're missing one. THE MODERATOR: Helio is a three-time winner here. He won in 2006, 2007 and 2012. HELIO CASTRONEVES: There you go. Now we can start all over again. THE MODERATOR: It was a good day for Penske Racing, for you to continue your quest to capture your first series championship. HELIO CASTRONEVES: Correct. I'm extremely happy about it. Yesterday qualifying I heard Ryan saying great conditions for qualifying. I didn't think so. Well, it was a great opportunity to show how fast our car was, and I knew that since we started here. I was very confident that 10th place wasn't our fair spot. But I knew I had to make the move right away in the beginning, and that's what I did. It put us in a great position here to battle for the win. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions for Helio. Q. The two Penske cars went first and third. Is it an advantage New York Yankees? HELIO CASTRONEVES: I hope so. Certainly we don't want to give any inch this year. We don't want to give any opportunity, whether it's going to be myself, Will or Juan Pablo. I've been saying that in the pre-season interviews. We want to give the championship to Roger no matter what it takes. Q. Have you had a chance to see the restart or talk to Will about it yet? HELIO CASTRONEVES: I don't have to see the restart. I know what happened. When I say wanker, he calls everybody a wanker. Q. (No microphone. HELIO CASTRONEVES: He did play. You got to understand, Will and I know each other for a long time. He know my tricks. I didn't quite know that trick from him, and he got me, which is good. I'm not saying that in a bad way. When you're battling for the win... He knew where I was going, so he did something that I was not expecting and it caught me a surprise. That does not take away anything from the win he did today. Cindric and himself did a very good strategy with the tires, better tires in the end. They were able to pull away. For me, I use everything I got in the beginning because I started from behind and pushed as much as I could. Obviously it will be a very good problem to have if this is going to be the entire season like this, myself and Will battling. That's what we want. Hopefully Long Beach will be the same, except a different end. Q. So is that a move he should have made? You talk about it being a trick. HELIO CASTRONEVES: Should have made? Now I know when I'm restart behind him, I know what I need to do. If he should have made or not, I was not expecting. One thing for sure, brake check, I did that in the past when I was young. But he did what he had to do, but I was not expect. I always expect a little constant speed, and we did not have that. But the problem is -- well, it's not a problem, it's competition. You just have to keep learning from your competitors. Today I learned my lesson. Q. Maybe the back of the field did. HELIO CASTRONEVES: Well, that's the problem for me when you have that kind of scenarios. I'm glad I was in the front because that probably could have caught me as well if I would be in the back. I didn't see the back, to be honest. I saw what happened in front of me. I just had to be careful to not knock him out of the race. But he was very fast in the end. Like I said, this little trick move didn't take anything away. In fact, good job. Q. You didn't see Juan in the race. How would you sum up his first race weekend in years? HELIO CASTRONEVES: I did speak with him on my way here. He had a blast. He learned about the red tires. He made some changes during the warmup to the race quite dramatic. But it was good because he learned what to handle. When he was in front of us, I saw that he was running pretty good lap times. That shows he got the hang of it. Trust me, Long Beach, he knows the place, not sure if he won there, but I believe he did. It's going to be a different picture of himself. Another bullet for Team Penske. Q. The New York Yankees versus the Florida Marlins, Dario earlier in the weekend said that Tim's comments were classless. Would you like to speak to Cindric's character in rebuttal? HELIO CASTRONEVES: I know Tim for a long time. Obviously he has his own opinion. To be honest, so many things is said before from competitors. It's just blowing out of proportion when somebody speaks a little bit louder. I don't see all the fuss about it. Again, everybody is entitled for your own opinion. It's too much power for me to comment, so I prefer to stay out of it. Certainly I think everybody is entitled for your own opinion. Q. Can you talk a little bit about your tire strategy. You said Tim and Will had the tire strategy exactly right at the end. You made some spots up early. Did it work out in your favor? HELIO CASTRONEVES: Yeah, starting fourth place and starting tenth place, I had to make up some spots. I put the new tires in the beginning so I could pass a lot of people. It worked pretty good. Roger decided to put the black tires on the second stint. I asked for no but he said yes. I got to say, Yes, no problem. I got to obey the order. In the end of the day towards the end they saved him and I think Hunter-Reay, they saved the best for last. I pushed as hard as I could the entire race and my tires just gave up in the end about 15 laps. I had a huge moment in turn 10, and I said, Guys, that's it, I'm not making any progress here. I thought it was a very good strategy. We saved fuel when we had to, we pushed when we had to.  Coming from 10th, passing a lot of cars, I'm very proud of the boys. THE MODERATOR: Helio, we'll see you in Long Beach. We'll continue with our race winner, Will Power. This is Will Power's 22nd career IndyCar Series win. He started the race fourth. He won this race in 2010. Will, you've won three consecutive races, finishing out last year with wins in Houston and Fontana. How great is it to start out the year with a win? WILL POWER: Obviously the perfect way to start. Kind of struggled a little bit during the weekend with the setup. Definitely made a good racecar. Obviously qualifying was very mixed up. I don't think anyone had anything for Sato, he was so fast. For sure we worked hard over the winter. I did personally, as well, on my fitness. As a team I think we worked very well together to get the most out of our cars. It's been a real team effort. Real happy to get the Verizon car in Victory Lane again. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions for Will. Q. Seems to be one place where you really are the Yankees versus the Marlins. Why do you suppose the Penske cars are so dialed in at this track? WILL POWER: Honestly, I think a lot of people have good, dialed-in cars. I wasn't expecting to be that competitive in the race actually as the weekend was unfolding. Just good team strategy, good pit stops, mistake-free driving, and obviously a good car. It's just hard work basically. Q. Did you even know who the Marlins were before Thursday? WILL POWER: I've only heard a little bit of that story, so I haven't paid much attention to it, to be honest. Are the Marlins good? Do they win (laughter)? Q. Take me through the first segment when you eventually tracked down Sato to get the lead the first time. WILL POWER: Cindric pitted me early. It was actually a very good call. I was able to pump out some good lap times. Sato came out on blacks, I think, just like I was. I felt our car was definitely stronger on blacks and was able to hunt him down and pull the move on him that I've had pulled on me two years in a row. I learned my lesson and finally pulled it off myself. Q. I heard what you said on TV about the restart, where people got stacked up. Helio is convinced you were playing with the field there. Can you take us through that. WILL POWER: Basically the pace car pulls off and you can set the pace you want. I wasn't even in the zone. We weren't even in the zone that you have, the 200 yards or whatever it is, to decide for the leader to go when he wants. They actually threw the green before I was even in the zone, so it was confusing to me. So the next restart I just went because I figured, They're going to throw the green anyway. To me, the only problem people would have had would have been if they gassed back to get a big run. That's the only problem they should have had. I didn't touch the brakes, did not touch the brakes. Q. You talked at the end of last season about how good it was for yourself personally to just stop thinking about points and to just race and have fun. Now that you're starting a new season, are you still able to do that? WILL POWER: Yeah, in a way. I just got to keep reminding myself, It doesn't matter if you lose. You just got to keep reminding yourself that it's a race, and you race hard to win a race. Sometime years I've started here and been so conservative. I just race now, race hard. I just want to race, race hard, and I want to win. That's the only way to think of it, not think of points. I want to win a championship, but I like winning races. Hopefully the two come together and it happens. Q. (No microphone.) WILL POWER: Can you have fun not winning? Do I have fun? No. You know what, you come here to win. Good, hard racing is fun. You start at the back of the grid, you finish up third, that's fun. There's nothing worse than just struggling, though, not having the car or equipment to do well. That gives you a good hit, your self-confidence, you start to question yourself. I just remind myself that everyone is human, you're capable of doing everything everyone else is if you work hard. Q. What gear were you in? WILL POWER: First gear. Q. Helio said letting off the throttle there would be a brake effect. WILL POWER: The thing to me was Helio was getting out of line. That's when I lifted off the throttle. Why are you getting out of line? Are you going to go like you did last year and jump-start completely and get the lead that way? I wasn't going to let that happen. I wasn't even in the zone, so it did not matter. He got out here, he's going to do his thing, jump the start, he was getting out of line, I was going to make it obvious by lifting a little. Then I just went. Q. With an off-season as long as the IndyCar off-season was this past year, it would probably be pretty easy to lose the momentum you finished the 2013 season with. Apparently you have the same momentum you ended the year with. How important is it to continue that momentum into 2014? WILL POWER: Yeah, it's amazing all the development and hard work you do in the off-season. I'm sure everyone else does too. It's interesting to turn up to the first race and see where you stack up. During practice, it became obvious that the filed had once again even closed up more. You had 21 cars in less than in a second in practice. To me it's like, Okay, no one is going to stick out here, it's going to be competitive and tough racing. At the end of the day the hard work we did to get a good racecar, good strategy, good pit stops, all the boxes were ticked that you need to win a race, and that's just a good team effort basically. Q. The TV commentators alluded to the fact that the whole off-season the talk has been about Juan coming to IndyCar, can Dixon repeat, everything except Will Power. Have you felt overlooked at all? WILL POWER: I love it. I hate attention. I just loved last year, too. No one paid attention. I could just do my thing. Yup, I hope it continues. I don't want people to talk about me. I like to be low-key. I don't like to be in the limelight. I just like to do my job, enjoy it, race hard, and that's it. Q. You should try not winning. WILL POWER: It happened last year. I didn't have to do appearances. It was great. No one cared. It was awesome. If I could get wins and not be hassled both, I'd be stoked. Q. How important was it for Verizon and yourself to win the first Verizon Series race in that car? WILL POWER: It wasn't something that I was thinking of, that I was going to think because it's the Verizon Series. It's pretty fitting. It's great to win the first race of a Verizon-backed series. I think everyone is excited to have them onboard. I think the next five years, the series, we got to make good decisions and go in the right direction. I think with Mark Miles, he's employed some very good people. Mark Miles, I think he's doing a very good job. He's a very good leader. I think Derrick Walker on the technical side is the same. You have good people in the right positions. I can see it going in the right direction. Q. There was a period of time where it could almost be taken for granted by others and you that Will Power was going to win frequently. After the drought from last year, did you have a rethink about the frequency with which you were winning and consider thinking differently about wins going forward? WILL POWER: You definitely start to look pretty hard when you have a long period of not winning. You just can't get complacent. You've got to keep working hard, especially in this series. There's so many good teams, good drivers. It's just a good thing. It's a good kick in the ass to have some bad runs. Not actually lack of pace, but just to have some bad runs, be in the back of the field. You just reset, just realize that you can't leave anything on the table. You just can't. It's funny. I was speaking to Mark Webber at some point, Did you lose a little bit of motivation in your 30s? He said, Yeah. He said to me, You can't kid yourself. You've got to work hard. It's just the way it is. If you're not, someone else is. That's true. You got to get everything right in this business or you won't win. Q. You've long championed having more horsepower. Are we getting close to the numbers where the cars have that difficulty of driving? WILL POWER: Yeah, it actually is getting to the Champ Car level now where you're starting to shift a gear and it still spins. Definitely getting harder to drive. Got good horsepower. They're definitely getting up there where they used to be. Q. So how did Dale Jr. get your Vegas car? WILL POWER: I think Tim Cindric gave it to him. I think he was looking for something to put in his whatever it is down there. I've seen a few people tweet that, my Vegas-crashed car sitting up in a tree. Sort of fitting for the way it came down. That's about where it landed. THE MODERATOR: Give us a little preview of what we can expect in Long Beach. WILL POWER: Once again, it's going to be very tight, great racing. It's a great track for racing. Hopefully we can repeat. It's another awesome place to go race. THE MODERATOR: We'll see you there. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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