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Race report

Team Chevy drivers claim five of top-10 finishing positions at Mid-Ohio

Helio Castroneves continues to lead IZOD IndyCar series points.

LEXINGTON, Ohio – Helio Castroneves, No. 3 PPG Automotive Refinish Team Penske Chevrolet, extended his points lead to 31 points in the IZOD IndyCar Series championship battle with a sixth-place finish in today’s 90-lap/203.222-mile race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

It was the three-time Indianapolis 500 winner’s 10th consecutive top-10 finish and 13th of the 14 races run to-date this season including a win at Texas Motor Speedway.

Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet
Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet

Photo by: Jay Alley

A total of five Chevrolet IndyCar V6 drivers captured top-10 finishes in today’s race. Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, finished fourth; defending Series’ champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 1 DHL Andretti Autosport Chevrolet, finished fifth to remain third in the standings and gain a few points on the leader; Marco Andretti, No. 25 RC Cola Andretti Autosport Chevrolet finished ninth and James Hinchcliffe, No. 27 GoDaddy Andretti Autosport Chevrolet finished 10th in the final order.

Andretti sits fourth in the standings and Hinchcliffe is seventh in points. The race was won by Charlie Kimball. Simon Pagenaud and Dario Franchitti completed the podium finishers.

Next on the schedule is the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma August 22-25, 2013. The race is scheduled to start Sunday, August 25,2013 at 4:00 p.m. ET with live television coverage on NBC Sports Network. Live radio coverage will be on XM Radio Channel 94 and Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 212.

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 4TH: “I guess you could say we won the two stopper (pit stop) race today at Mid-Ohio. It was a disappointing day for the Verizon team, we had great pit stops during the race and at the end of the day we did our best. We got stuck on a two pit stop strategy for the race and it was too late by then to make it up. It would have been great to get a win but I’m happy for the top-10 finish and we’ll move on to Sonoma in a few weeks.”

RYAN HUNTER-REAY, NO 1 DHL ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET, FINISHED 5TH: “We picked the wrong strategy today, we went with what we thought. If we had one yellow in there it would have been our race – it would have been between Will (Power) and I, I think. Will and I were on the same strategy and we both worked really hard to save fuel, I know I worked my tail off. It is some of the hardest work in a race car to save that much fuel and to have nothing to show for it, that sucks. But we’ll pick up and head to the next one. It’s frustrating; things just aren’t falling into place right now… we can’t be finishing fifth.”

HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO. 3 PPG AUTOMOTIVE REFINISH TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, FINISHED 6TH: “If you would have told me we would have finished in the top-10 today, I would have said you were crazy. We made great strategy calls throughout the race. Working with Mr. Penske is awesome, he relays great information over the radio. It was a great day for our PPG Automotive Refinish Chevrolet. I know that it was only a sixth place finish but it could win the Championship at the end of the year. I have said all along that we will continue to do our thing and not change a thing and it will pay off at the end of the day.”

MARCO ANDRETTI, NO. 25 RC COLA ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET, FINISHED 9TH: “For whatever reason we just didn’t have the same car we had in warm up. I didn’t have the car for a three-stop race; we were just hanging on. We’re going to have to make something happen (in Sonoma). I definitely want another Firestone Fast Six and to build on that. We need to find points for the RC (Cola) car wherever we can.”

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE, NO. 27 GODADDY ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET, FINISHED 10TH: “I definitely like doing the three-stopper better than the two-stopper, but with where we started, and it was my mistake in qualifying who put us in the back, we knew we had to be the first guy to do something on the three-stopper. So, we went for that early stop, and it was looking like it was going to work out well… if I had managed to get Helio (Castroneves) on his outlap there on the last stint, it would have made our race look a whole lot different for us.

But ultimately, we were a bit off from some of these guys, no doubt. If we had gotten ahead of them, we might have been able to stay ahead of them, but we weren’t great in traffic. Huge effort from the GoDaddy guys – really great in the pits all day. We had one little bobble on one stop but other than that it was fun. It’s fun running around Mid-Ohio flat out. But yeah, from where we were at the start of that last stint, it would have been nice to finish fifth or sixth instead of 10th.

With the season we’ve had, anytime you get a top-10 finish in this series is good. If you look at the guys in front of us – guys like Scott Dixon, Justin Wilson and Marco Andretti – it’s not like we’re slumming it; it’s just that competitive right now. We missed it by the smallest amount today, but the team did such a great job all weekend. Big congrats to Charlie – that’s awesome. I know what that feels like. We’ll take this and move on to the next one. I feel good, the team’s working well and we just gotta put our heads down and fight.”

SIMONA DE SILVESTRO, NO. 78 NUCLEAR ENTERGY AREVA KV RACING TECHNOLOGY CHEVROLET, FINISHED 11TH: “It was an ok result. I wish we could have finished a little bit further up, but we didn’t quite have the pace we should have during the second stint. We were in a bit of traffic in the beginning which didn’t help either.

But, I think there are a lot of positive things that we can take away from this race and hopefully we do learn from it. It was good that we were running with the fast guys this weekend; the whole weekend. Now we can just look at the books again and hopefully we’ll do better next one.”

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 7 MCAFEE DRAGON RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 12TH: "Very disappointed for the guys because we had it going on in the first part of the race. We felt really strong but when the track gripped up. We lost the balance and lost pretty much everything and never were able to get back at it. It wasn't a bad day starting 14th, but there was really nothing great about today. I was able to gain a couple of positions early in the race but fell back after our first pit stop and never had time to get caught up."

ORIOL SERVIA, NO. 4 NATIONAL GUARD PANTHER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 14TH: "During the parade lap I was thinking about what I would do on the first lap in a perfect world, and that’s exactly how it played out; I passed five or six cars in one lap and it was great. But I was pushing really hard and in Turn Nine I pushed a little too hard and honestly almost lost it. I was lucky to save it and lost four or five positions.

It was just a little mistake and we were pushing hard but with no yellows and not much of a chance to do anything with the strategy there weren’t really many miracles to pull out. We ended up 14th and I’m a little disappointed, because we were really hoping for a lot better, and the National Guard Chevy was really good, but when it’s this competitive and you start at the back, it’s really hard to make a miracle happen.”

E.J. VISO, NO. 5 TEAM VENEZUELA PDVSA CITGO ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT HVM CHEVROLET, FINISHED 17TH: “Well, definitely finishing 17th is not at all what we were looking for. I think many factors during the race didn’t play in our favor. I believe the direction that we went when we made the decision on how much downforce we were going to put on the car didn’t help. We just trimmed a lot to be faster in the straights, but definitely cost us some time in the corners.

At the same time, we were asking a bit too much from the tires that we wanted them a little bit sooner than expected. The second to last pit stop really cost us time as well. Losing those three or four seconds allowed the group of cars behind me to cycle out in front of me in the next pit stop. Anyways, these things happen and all we have to do now is stay strong and head into the next one.”

SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA, NO. 6 TRUECAR DRAGON RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 19TH: "A bit bummed with today's result for the #6 TrueCar Dragon Racing crew. It looked like we were going to have a solid run gaining a bunch of positions early in the race making it up to 13th. Unfortunately my second stint of blacks gave the car bad balance and we couldn't hold a solid pace.

We kept fighting all day with a good car and tried to get back into the rhythm, but couldn't gain back the positions we had early in the race. We have made a lot of progress in the last few races but have not been able to show it in our results. Step by step we are getting where we want to be and need to keep moving forward."

ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA/ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 20TH: “We were better than a 20th place finish today. But from a pace standpoint and throwing out the first stint on black tires, it was one of our better road course performances. We used some Firestone red tires in the warm-up and we probably should have used those at the start of the race instead of the blacks. I think we would have picked up more positions in the race with the reds.

With the ground that we lost on the first stint and the race going green for so long, it made it too hard to make up that lost ground. It’s pretty crazy for two years in a row that the Mid-Ohio race would go green for so long. I ‘m really proud of our pace in the middle and end of the race. We just need to keep working on it for the Sonoma race in a couple of weeks. I need to be better at the start of the race next time too. But overall, the Fuzzy’s Vodka crew did a great job today.”

TONY KANAAN, NO. 11 SUNOCO-TURBO KV RACING TECHNOLOGY - SH RACING CHEVROLET, FINISHED 24TH: RETIRED FROM THE RACE ON LAP 65 AFTER A WHEEL ISSUE: “It wasn’t our weekend. Nothing seemed to go our way. We just have to put this behind us and move on to Sonoma.”

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