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"What They're Saying" from Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Race

Pagenaud resumes championship swagger with Mid-Ohio win

Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske Chevrolet

Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske Chevrolet

GM Racing

Race winner Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske Chevrolet
Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet
Third place Carlos Munoz, Andretti Autosport Honda
Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda
Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda
James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda
James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda
Conor Daly, Dale Coyne Racing Honda
Conor Daly, Dale Coyne Racing Honda
Spencer Pigot, Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet
Charlie Kimball, Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet
Takuma Sato, A.J. Foyt Enterprises Honda
Josef Newgarden, Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet
Josef Newgarden, Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet
Mid-Ohio - Race
P.DriverTeam (Engine)deficit
1 22 Simon Pagenaud http://cdn-1.motorsport.com/static/custom/car-thumbs/INDYCAR_2016/13-MidOhio/Pagenaud_s.png Penske (C)  
"I can't feel anything right now so it's all good. My back was fine all race, thanks to INDYCAR Medical. Whew, that was a race there, that was fun. It was an awesome battle with Will (Power) there. I knew that was my chance on that restart, it was time to go. It was a pretty interesting lap, fun driving like that. That's racing. It was fair, it was clean, it was hard racing and I'm just glad I won, really. The PPG Chevrolet was really good today so when it was time to push it was easy to lay down some fast laps. The red Firestone tires were amazing today on the car. I just pushed as hard as we could and here we are. It's awesome. Four wins this year." 
2 12 Will Power http://cdn-1.motorsport.com/static/custom/car-thumbs/INDYCAR_2016/13-MidOhio/Power_s.png Penske (C) 4.1620
"Great strategy by the Verizon Chevy team and we did a great job saving on fuel. It was an interesting battle there. I was sleeping on that restart and I regret that. I should have been on it, then I got marbles on the tires. It was a good, clean battle. It was tough but it sucked finishing second, all the effort you put into that race. But Simon (Pagenaud) did a bloody good job and it's turning into a pretty good battle. Like Simon said, we're not racing for 11th place. It's for a win and for a championship and you have to go for it. It was my bad for not being on it on the restart. I regret that, but he's got to push. I thought of the team on the last corner when we went side-by-side, I had to back out or we were going to crash. It's racing. It's tough."
3 26 Carlos Muñoz http://cdn-1.motorsport.com/static/custom/car-thumbs/INDYCAR_2016/13-MidOhio/Munoz_s.png Andretti (H) 6.5662
"Finally we pitted at the right time - this year we've had a lot of bad luck. After qualifying we tried another setup for the warmup and I didn't like it so we just went back on the setup. It's nice to be back on the podium - it's been a long time. Really happy to be third after how the weekend (went). I have to thank my team, Honda, everyone - they nailed the pit strategy. For Andretti (Autosport) it's been quite a long time without (a podium finish) so it's nice to be back. We had the track position and we had the pace - it was really physical, especially with the black (tires) I had to push a lot." 
4 15 Graham Rahal http://cdn-1.motorsport.com/static/custom/car-thumbs/INDYCAR_2016/13-MidOhio/Rahal_s.png Rahal (H) 7.0196
"I'm a little bit frustrated we couldn't be a little better. I wanted to win today but I think we got the absolute most out of this thing. That first yellow kind of hurt us but that's how racing goes sometimes. We rebounded nicely and got some points. It feels good to get another top five for the Steak 'n Shake team. We have been pretty strong on the road courses this year. I wouldn't say luck was completely on our side; that first yellow hurt us, but we rebounded pretty well. I'm really proud of my Steak 'n Shake guys. We had our backs up against the wall after that first yellow but we kept our heads down. We had a great car today. It was faster than most but it was just hard to pass. It's always great to come back home. Thanks to everyone who came out to support the Steak 'n Shake team and the IndyCar Series." 
5 5 James Hinchcliffe http://cdn-1.motorsport.com/static/custom/car-thumbs/INDYCAR_2016/13-MidOhio/Hinchcliffe_s.png Schmidt (H) 11.1260
"It was a solid result for the Arrow Electronics car. We had a really roller-coaster day, starting mid-field and ending up at the back after about mid-distance and then working our way back up to a top five. I have to give the guys a lot of credit. We had a bit of an evil balance in the first part of the race but every stop we worked on it and every stop we made it better. We got back on the (Firestone) red tires in the third stint and it really started to come to us. We picked off some guys in pit cycles and then picked off some guys on track in the last stint. We didn't catch either of the lucky yellows, we had to earn it, but after falling to the back of the line for a pit-lane speed violation, which was one hundred percent my fault, we raced our way back up to a top five. Great work in the pits and I'm happy for everyone at Arrow, and at Honda at one of their home races. It was a tough break for Mikhail (Aleshin) and the No. 7 crew but it shows that we have the pace as a team and hopefully we can prove that moving forward." 
6 18 Conor Daly http://cdn-1.motorsport.com/static/custom/car-thumbs/INDYCAR_2016/13-MidOhio/Daly_s.png Coyne (H) 11.8526
"I figured out the car in the middle of the race. We kept locking the right front up so easily and I kept sailing off, even in the race. As soon as I sorted the brake bias, the car was amazing. We had to pit because the right front tire was destroyed. Because of that, we were about seven laps short of making it to the end at that point. We knew we couldn't make it to the end so why not keep going and pushing. I tried to nail every single lap. We had a good enough car to stay up front and pull the gap that we needed. Sixth is about as good as we could've done in that scenario. I was just happy to pull away and lead like that for a stint. These guys kept their faith in me because I have driven the car off course all weekend. I'm just glad we could have a good finish." 
7 20 Spencer Pigot http://cdn-1.motorsport.com/static/custom/car-thumbs/INDYCAR_2016/13-MidOhio/Pigot_s.png Carpenter (C) 12.8831
"I was happy with the amount of cars we were able to jump on strategy and pass on track. We moved up to seventh so I was happy with that. We had a good strategy and also really good pit stops so a big thanks to them. I also have to say thanks to Fuzzy's Vodka, Rising Star Racing, Mockett and everyone that helped me get here. I think we can keep moving forward. If we can qualify a bit better on Saturday, we won't have to try and save as much fuel and do these alternate strategies. Today it worked out, but hopefully in Watkins Glen we can start by qualifying a bit higher up." 
8 83 Charlie Kimball http://cdn-1.motorsport.com/static/custom/car-thumbs/INDYCAR_2016/13-MidOhio/Kimball_s.png Ganassi (C) 15.0016
"I feel really badly for the No. 83 crew - they did such an awesome job in pit lane. They gave me positions in every single pit stop and really gave me the opportunity to go for the podium. I got a little aggressive trying to pass the No. 26 car on that last restart and lost some spots. We ended up eighth which is definitely a fight back from where we were out there in the dirt with 30 (laps) to go. It's just difficult because the No. 83 Tresiba Chevrolet was quicker than that today. I'm disappointed, but I have to give so much credit to the guys and everyone at Chip Ganassi Racing this weekend."   
9 14 Takuma Sato http://cdn-1.motorsport.com/static/custom/car-thumbs/INDYCAR_2016/13-MidOhio/Sato_s.png Foyt (H) 18.0128
"Heckuva day. Incredible job from the team. (Strategist) Larry (Foyt) called the perfect strategy even though it was a little bit optimistic when we came to pit. Later on we caught a good yellow and gained track position. Then we were fighting the whole field! It was like qualifying every lap. My ABC guys gave me a super pit stop to get me out on the last stop -- then we were fighting for fourth. It's a real shame what happened at the end (getting hit by Bourdais). We were able to salvage a ninth so still a good result for second straight race. Looking forward to the last part of the season." 
10 21 Josef Newgarden http://cdn-1.motorsport.com/static/custom/car-thumbs/INDYCAR_2016/13-MidOhio/Newgarden_s.png Carpenter (C) 18.5404
 "It was tough day. I feel bad for my guys because I think we had a good car. (Simon) Pagenaud and (Will) Power would have been tough today, but I think we were a podium car for sure which would have been really good points for us. It's tough having two races in a row where we have our rear bumper taken off. It's no fault of our own but it ruins our race, it happened in Toronto and now here. I think it's probably a question for INDYCAR of how that's going to be handled. It's really hard for us to recover after those incidents. We did everything we could, our guys were lightning fast in the pits to get us back out with a new bumper. We tried to do some damage control and got a top 10 out of it, we'll take that and move on to try and win the next one."

(C) = Chevrolet, (H) = Honda

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