Information By: ASHLEY KELLER / CHEVROLET – DETROIT, MO
- Pato O’Ward, driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, led Team Chevy on the streets of Detroit finishing first practice in second with his fastest lap of 1:01.7315.
- Chevrolet finished with five drivers in the top-10 in first practice, with O’Ward in second, Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden of Team Penske in fifth and sixth, AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci in seventh, and Will Power of Team Penske in ninth.
- Saturday sees a second practice session at 9:10 a.m. ET, as well as qualifying and the Firestone Fast Six at 12:15 p.m. ET. Coverage of both sessions is broadcasted via Peacock, as well as INDYCAR Radio and SiriusXM Channel 218.
TEAM CHEVY TOP-10 PRACTICE RESULT:
Pos. Driver
2nd Pato O’Ward (1:01.7315)
5th Scott McLaughlin (1:02.0959)
6th Josef Newgarden (1:02.2377)
7th Santino Ferrucci (1:02.3277)
9th Will Power (1:02.4474)
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING (QUOTES):
Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet:
“It feels good to come back to Detroit and be in the window. Solid job by all the boys rolling out strong and looking forward to tuning on this Sexton Properties Chevrolet.”
Sting Ray Robb, No. 41 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet:
“Pretty happy with the first practice. We learned a lot. It was a clean run with just a couple kisses of the wall but nothing too dramatic, so happy with that. The Goodheart Vet / Pray.com Chevrolet feels really nice and I think we’re in a good spot. I didn’t get a great run on the greens (tires) but I think we’ll have it figured out. Santino had a great run so I think that we’ll compare notes and see what we can learn for tomorrow.”
Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:
“It’s better than last year. We got laps in, you know? We’ve still got some work to do. It’s tricky out there. It really is. There’s a lot of bumps, and it’ll be very important to get the window right on the car in qualifying just because those bumps can kind of throw you off in sequence quite quickly. It’ll just ruin your lap, so you have to be pretty precise.”
Théo Pourchaire, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:
“It is a fun track, and I really like it. The first practice was a bit of a mess for us with all of the traffic. We don’t know the real pace because some cars are blocking the other ones because of the track layout. That’s no one’s fault; no one is doing it on purpose. With so many cars on the track, it can be tough to get a lap. We struggled with the balance a bit at the beginning, but we improved toward the end. It’s all part of racing and we will get there. The most important thing is to get better, and we will work for a great job tomorrow.”
Alexander Rossi, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:
“It’s great to be back in Detroit. We will be looking for some performance overnight, but Pato’s car looks good. We will look at that and see what we can do to improve the No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet for tomorrow.”
Gavin Ward, Team Principal at Arrow McLaren:
“Everybody is taking a bit of time to get the tires up, which is a common theme out there today, but I’m encouraged that we have one of our cars up there at the top of the timing sheets. So, there’s some good data there to look at to try to get things dialed in for tomorrow.”
Romain Grosjean, No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet:
“Day one in Detroit, and it was bumpy, slippery, and a lot of fun out there. I think the car’s got some potential. Obviously, it’s always hard to put a lap here in, but we’ll do some work, come back tomorrow, and hopefully qualify well.”
Agustin Canapino, No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet:
“We started here in a good way in Detroit, P11 for beginning of the weekend. I’m happy to start this way. Of course we want to be faster tomorrow. We are slightly away from the pace of the leaders but I think we have a good car to start the weekend.”
Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet:
“I think we just got better through the session, and we were running a lot of the primary tires. Definitely abusing them. In the middle, towards the end of the early running, I think we hit on some changes that were really good. Then, we were able to show it a little bit more on the greens. I think we have event more in it. I think the car feels really good. I’ve got to clean some stuff up on my side. I think I know some areas where we can be better and faster. The Astemo Chevy looks good, feels good. Long weekend, we’ve got to make it to the end, and we’d love to have a good result with these guys.”
Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet:
“I learned how to spin in each of them because I kept going down the escape roads. That’s all part of it here. You risk in the points where you’ve got least risk. The Gallagher Chevy feels really good. On the straightaways, I feel like I am in a really good spot. It felt really strong, so I hope that carries on throughout the weekend.”
SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 GALLAGHER TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – End of Day Press Conference:
THE MODERATOR: Joined now by Scott McLaughlin, best finish of seventh in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.
Q. Testing the limits, is that going into the runoffs, trying to find a place you can brake?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Basically, yeah. A lot of it’s the corners where you know you have the runoff. Might as well bring a yellow out now than later. That’s always my strategy on street circuits.
Q. Can you change your brake bias during a lap?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, you can.
Q. Something you would do at a place like this?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Depends. It really depends on what you got in the car and how comfortable you are with it.
Yeah, that’s something I’ve done in the past with Supercars, for sure.
Q. Everybody is complaining the place is very bumpy. Is there anything you can do in the setup to make it a little bit easier?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I think it’s character. You can do a couple little things, softening or whatnot. Ultimately there’s a point where it hurts the balance trying to set up for the bumps. You just got to deal with them. It’s not a billiard table, absolutely not. It’s Detroit streets. We just enjoy it.
Q. (No microphone.)
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah. Couple guys are going to have to tighten the belts, enjoy it.
Q. Any bumps from last year been smoothed over?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Last corner coming out of the pit straight. Really, really good. I think there’s a lot of great improvements. Off the long back straight, it’s a lot smoother there. Bumpy down Jefferson Ave. Once it gets to the point they resurface, they resurface a thousand feet or something like that, which is amazing.
Yeah, I think there’s been a lot of really good improvements from this time last year to now. So yeah, I think they’ve done a really good job.
Q. That plus the car being lighter, the whole year of setup data, faster than last year in the first practice?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Was it? Maybe we all know this track a bit better. That for sure is probably a thing. Last year first practice was our first time on track. After a year, everyone has seven-posted, thought about different things. Cars are just better, they’re lighter.
Yeah, it’s probably a case of that, too.
Q. The alternates and the primary look close together to the point that some drivers chose not to switch on the split segment. We could expect this to be a primary race on Sunday?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I think you’re nuts not to run them right now because you can’t run them again. I feel like that’s a silly move.
Ultimately we’ve seen this trend. I think it might lend to that way. It just depends on how it goes throughout the weekend.
I think as the track grips up, tires are probably going to wear out less. We’ve seen this trend quite a fair bit. Yeah, I feel like it’s going to be more of a green tire race already.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Scott.
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Thank you.