Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix: Alexander Rossi Shares Thoughts On New Race & New Team

Alexander Rossi in his new Ed Carpenter Racing No. 20 Chevrolet rounding Turn 10 at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg - Image Credit: James Black - NICS (2025)

Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix: Alexander Rossi Shares Thoughts On New Race & New Team 

A year ago, NTT INDYCAR SERIES drivers competed at The Thermal Club in Southern California in an exhibition event featuring smaller groups of cars over shorter runs, with some of them traveling at slower speeds. That won’t be the case this weekend.

In the track’s first full points-paying event, expect the Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix to be full throttle over a full race distance by a full field. Alexander Rossi, who drove for Arrow McLaren last year, who ran well in his home-state event, reached the finals and finished seventh in the nose-to-tail Heat Race format of 2024. 

Much will be different about this trip to the private motorsports club near Palm Springs for the individual tuning in. For starters, a standard three-day road course schedule will be utilized.

The first practice is scheduled at 6:30 p.m. ET on Friday. Saturday’s lineup will feature the weekend’s second practice at 1 p.m. ET and qualifying for the NTT P1 Award at 5 p.m. ET, with all three sessions airing live on FS1.

On Sunday, there will be a morning warmup at 11 a.m. ET (FS1) followed by the race at 3 p.m. ET (FOX, FOX Sports App, INDYCAR Radio Network).

Alexander Rossi sat down with many of his familiar ZOOM Call friends from the Motorsports Press in anticipation of his performance in a new format, with a new team, with a calm and positive demeaner. 

 

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Alexander Rossi

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone. The 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season resumes with a return to the Thermal Club and the first Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix. Alexander Rossi heads there after advancing to the finals of the Million Dollar Challenge, finishing eighth.

The driver of the No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet joins us this afternoon.

Alex, thanks for doing this.

ALEXANDER ROSSI: My pleasure. Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: You had a chance to take part in the opener, a test at Barber Motorsports Park. How would you characterize how things have come together for you and this team?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Good. Very good. It's obviously a constant evolution. It takes a lot to make small gains. But I think we're progressing forward at a race that kind of far exceeded my expectations.

I think there's a lot of positivity around the team right now. The morale is pretty high. The moment is kind of tending to shift towards the positive in a lot of ways on and off the track for ECR. It's good to be a part of. Can't wait to get back on the track this weekend.

THE MODERATOR: Third time in the last four years that a new track has been added to the championship. Back to the streets of Nashville, new layout at Detroit. What do you think Thermal has to offer this coming weekend?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: It's a whole bunch of unknowns. Obviously we had a test there in '23, and we had the Million Dollar Challenge thing, whatever you want to call it, last year, which was obviously a unique format and pretty different to a normal race weekend. You're not going to see people, i.e., myself and Colton driving around 15 seconds off the pace to try to save tires.

I think the track, it's one of the longer tracks we go to. It's got a huge mix of corners. It doesn't obviously have the history of a Road America, but it's got a lot of the same characteristics in terms of you get a little bit of everything.

It's pretty condition-sensitive as well. Ultimately it's in the middle of the desert, so dust can play a pretty big role in the overall just ultimate lap time you're going to get during the session.

Then in addition to that, obviously last year we were there without the hybrid, we were there with the alternate tires, obviously without pit stops.

I think as much, as well, we all are familiar with the track, all of us are going into Sunday kind of with a guesstimate of what the race is going to be like.

Those types of events are super exciting because there's really no preconceived notion who is going to be strong, what's worked before. It's really anyone's ballgame in terms of having success come Sunday afternoon.

THE MODERATOR: Begins at 3:00 eastern on FOX. We'll open it up for questions.

Q. What can you take from last year that can help you this year, or is there nothing?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: I mean, we know the kind of direction it goes. You have an idea of the corners that are the most challenging, the areas of the track where you can win or lose the most amount of lap time.

As we saw at the Barber test, for those of us that were there, the hybrid is a big X factor in terms of it's not necessarily plug and play with preexisting setups. I think that's an unknown.

Obviously Firestone this year is bringing different tires to all these events to create a bigger separation between the primary and the alternates. That's an unknown.

You can take the fundamental concept of the track and apply it to this year. In terms of all the finer details, everyone is going to be kind of experiencing it for the first time.

Q. Does a potential 20 degree or more difference between the morning warm-up and the race mean anything?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Yeah, very good question.

I don't think many people put any stock into warm-up because of that, whether it's this weekend. We'll see when we get into the summer months. Sunday morning warm-up is pretty early in the morning, so the tires behave very differently. Track conditions behave very differently.

The warm-up in a lot of ways is a systems check, you're doing practice pit stops. You might take a used alternate 10, 11 laps to get a preview of what is that is going to be like. Ultimately if you're trying to do wholesale setup changes after qualifying going into Sunday, you're pretty much behind the eight ball anyway.

I don't think there's a lot of stock that's put into warm-up from anyone. It's just kind of more getting the reps in, making sure the car doesn't have any issues, and going racing.

Yes, it does have an impact. I wouldn't say that is unique to this weekend.

Q. Do you like the idea of Thermal being a points paying race? Is it a track that you believe should be given a chance on the points paying calendar?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Yeah, 100%. There's no reason why it shouldn't be. I was one of the proponents last year to make it a championship race.

I would say it makes way more sense for it to be a real race versus what we did last year. It's obviously more open to the fans this year, as well. I think that was one of the big hurdles to overcome in terms of having an INDYCAR event, is you obviously don't have an INDYCAR event behind closed doors. 2020 is far behind us. We don't want to revisit that.

I think it has every aspect that a track would need to have to be a proper event on calendar. I'm looking forward to seeing the kind of show and racing it can produce.

Q. You've had your first race weekend with ECR. What were the big positives? On the flipside, did you pick up on anything that might need to be worked on?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: The positives were, it was just a well-executed weekend for the most part. I think we're pretty realistic in the sense we know street courses are not going to be our strong suit. Obviously you're always hoping to find the big breakthrough and to be able to say that you can go into a weekend expecting to fight for a podium and a win.

I think we realize that permanent road courses, obviously Thermal, Barber, Indy GP, heading into Indianapolis, those are the races that we have on our calendar that are races we know we can be competitive at and fight for something pretty cool.

I think that St. Pete was one of those ones that as a group you want to get through together, kind of understand everyone's roles, just diagnose things that need to be improved upon.

I think going into Thermal, for sure, there's a lot more emphasis on trying to get a result and seeing what we can do.

Q. A bit of insight into how this dynamic is different for you at ECR. You've been used to being with front-running teams. They have not been that. You're kind of in the veteran role. How does that make your role different as a driver?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Yeah, I can see why you would see that.

I don't know that in 2023 the team that I was with... I think we made a big step from '23 to '24. 2023, it wasn't a front-running organization, unfortunately.

I think that your job doesn't change. You go in and provide the most amount of information you can to the people around you. You try and leverage the skills of those around you.

It doesn't matter if it's an F1 team, if it's a sports car team, it's all the same dynamic. It's just varying scales. Whether you're going from Andretti, Penske, McLaren, to an ECR, it's all pretty much the same. It's just the number of people really is the biggest difference.

For me all that means is trying to provide them with as much past knowledge as possible to try and make our list of questions smaller. At the same time there's incredibly talented individuals at this organization. There's a reason that they've had success in the past. There's a reason why they're as competitive as they are at some tracks throughout the year. It's just more of how do we get that sort of result throughout the rest of the season.

I think my experience can be beneficial, but at the same time I'm learning from them, as well. It's really a group effort. In summary, it's really no different. It's just the amount of people you're working with is smaller, which in some ways makes it quite a bit easier.

Q. You're a huge Patriots fan. You have a new broadcast, INDYCAR has a new broadcast partner, with FOX. What did it mean to you as a person when you saw your boy doing commercials, Tom Brady, for INDYCAR? Did that mean something to you?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Like, I was shocked. I thought that was incredible. Like what a gift for INDYCAR.

Listen, Josef has two 500s. He has a championship. Two championships? I don't know. He's got a couple of everything. He's got a cool, cool life. Whatever. Never been jealous of Josef. That 30-second commercial made me jealous of Josef.

Yeah, listen, everything that FOX has done from a broadcast partner standpoint has gone above and beyond what I think any of us could of ever imagined. That's just a huge boost for all of us involved. It's a huge testament of their belief in this championship, which we've all been talking about for the past decade.

I think it is a very encouraging sign of things to come. Obviously there's still a lot of work to be done. It's not going to be an easy road to get to the place where we all believe that we can. Certainly I think that it couldn't have started any better. I'm just excited to see how this kind of momentum carries throughout the rest of the year.

Q. You mentioned earlier about Firestone making a differentiation between the primaries and the alternates. How do you feel about the way that went at St. Pete? Some drivers thought they were a little too soft.

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Yeah, I mean, it's hard to argue with that. I think they were very soft.

Listen, it's a hard job because I don't envy what they're having to do in terms of INDYCAR has requests to make a bigger differentiation between the primary and the alternate which in principle I don't have any disagreement with.

They're trying to do it at tracks that we haven't had the hybrid before. I think people underestimate - not saying Firestone - but everyone globally underestimates how much of an impact adding that sort of weight, that sort of torque on corner exiting, regen capabilities under the braking zones, there's a lot of longitudinal demand that wasn't there before, on top of the weight.

In a lot of ways I think the separation would have come without the tire change. So what you saw in St. Pete was an alternate that was already fairly fragile in certain scenarios, burdened with extra weight. The result is what you got.

Did it change the show? I don't think so. I think it would have been very interesting had that first yellow not happened, how the race would have unfolded. I think if the guys that started on the alternate had to do a pit stop under green on that 10 to 15, I think it would have certainly advantaged the primary guys way more than it ended up doing. Ultimately the alternate tire starters got a free stop.

I don't know. I will hold further opinion until Long Beach. Hopefully it's a race that doesn't have a yellow at the start, and we can have a better understanding of how the primary versus alternate starters fare throughout the race.

Q. Thermal has an abrasive track surface. Do you expect the tires will wear out much quicker than St. Pete?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Different tire, so I don't know.

Q. The chalets, the houses, villas that exist at the Thermal Club. A lot of money out there. Have you had discussions, there's been interest with people with money to be involved with INDYCAR?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: I have not personally. If anyone does, may Email is... No, I'm kidding (smiling).

I think the interest is maybe not as - what's the right word - I don't know that it's as forward and public as you may think it should be or would be or whatever.

The fact that we're going back there, the fact that we're kind of opening the gates, and there is a huge amount of support from all of the owners of the homes and the management of the facility, that goes to show that there's a lot of interest and there's a lot of support and belief in the championship.

Whether or not you hear it from an individual, I think the underlying support is pretty clear.

Q. We talk to drivers in the paddock. You're one of the most respected drivers. They have a lot of good things to say about you. 150s start. Some say it means as much as a win. Having the respect of your peers, how much weight does that hold for you as a race car driver?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: I don't know. I don't know that I've ever really thought about that. It certainly doesn't mean as much as a win. I can promise you that.

I think when I came into the championship, it wasn't a secret that this wasn't my career trajectory as a kid. I didn't know a whole lot about the history of INDYCAR or the 500 or things like that.

I think what a lot of people see is my passion for this championship and this sport has grown over my time here. I think I love it just as much as a Tony Kanaan who has been here for two and a half decades. I think that carries a lot of weight.

I will do everything in my power to continually help grow and promote this championship. For me, that's something that comes easily just because I do love it and care for it.

In terms of how others view me, it probably won't be a surprise, but it's not at the top of my list of concerns.

Q. When you came in 2016, 24-year-old, now you are married, have a dog, a horse, as your life has changed and grown, the comfort of becoming an INDYCAR driver, how has that evolved over the last 10 seasons? Do you know when the momentum, that pendulum swing, the passion for INDYCAR, wanting to stay happened? Have any memories of that?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: No, not at all. I mean, I think I knew that I wanted to be in this championship after round one in St. Pete in 2016, even though I got smoked. So I think that even despite that result, I loved every bit of the on-track challenge of this championship, and I love the fact that as much as business and money and all of these things that we often hear about and talk about are discussion points in motorsports and in INDYCAR, it's so much less than I feel like most of the other championships out there, that it makes you just want to have the opportunity to show up year in, year out, and compete with people that are like-minded and also just want to go racing.

Yeah, all of the other stuff is nice and neat, but it's all racers and they're just trying to win as much as they can while they still have the opportunity.

Q. You made a great point last week about the Barber test, you got there a day early, but felt you needed to be there with the guys. Where do you see ECR compared to your previous three stops? How is the culture? Where did you become a natural leader? Where did you learn that from?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Again, I don't know that I can pinpoint that. I think a lot of it's common sense in the sense that the men and women on the team have a much harder job than we as race car drivers do. The least that you can do is try and be there at the same time, for the majority of the hours they are.

It doesn't matter who you are as a race car driver, as a person, you're not going to have any sort of success without the individuals around you.

Where do I compare them to? What's really cool about being such a small team is we can make adjustments and we can change development paths, trajectories where we think we need to be different very, very quickly. That's something certainly new from previous experiences.

THE MODERATOR: That begs the question, 150 starts, a milestone. Has it flown by? Feel about right?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: It goes by. Yeah, I wouldn't have thought that I was there yet. That's interesting.

Again, it's a number in my mind. It's cool. Obviously you have to be grateful for having that amount of opportunity and to have that career longevity. At the same time, as any athlete or competitor will tell you, when you're in the middle of it, you're just thinking about how you're going to perform better the next weekend.

We all probably should look back on the positives and the good things more often than we do. That's not the way it works. There's a time and place for that later on.

THE MODERATOR: Not the nature of the beast at all.

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Huh-uh.

Q. A couple weeks ago with the Sebring test, you mentioned it's going to be a building year for Ed Carpenter Racing, not everything is going to be easy. Did St. Petersburg offer a bit of an expectation reset? The weekend went pretty well even though you said street courses haven't been y'all's thing.

ALEXANDER ROSSI: No. I mean, we're one race in. I think this team has been afforded the opportunity over this off-season to really make some positive dents into things that maybe they couldn't have touched in the past. That is all great and that is all super exciting.

Also that doesn't mean immediate results in any way, shape or form. So yes, to get to the level that we as competitors and people that want to win, it's going to be a project and it's going to take time. Nothing happens overnight.

That does not mean that I don't think we can be extremely competitive and win races this year at tracks that suit us. So we have to go in with the mindset that if we show up at a track and we're able to roll off the truck in a really strong way, we have to execute that weekend because we're not at the place, I don't think, of a Ganassi or Penske where you can know every single weekend you're going to show up and be in the top five and have a shot to win.

Q. Looking at your transition to Ed Carpenter Racing, Arrow McLaren, how has that process been different? A lot less names to learn.

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Still a lot of names to learn.

I think it's been much easier because the big thing with McLaren is they're adding a car. They were adding all the staff for a third car. This has been pretty much plug-and-play. A two-car team. Still two cars. Yes, there were some personnel that shifted between the 20 and 21, but ultimately it's all the same group.

I would say it's been exponentially easier than what I went through in '23.

Motorsports Journal - Edmund Jenks - BEGIN

Q. I remember you saying last year that you wanted it to be an actual race. What do you see will be an improvement to your experience from last year by having it a race with pit stops?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: You're just going to have the strategy element in play, right? I think last year it was very clear that tire deg was a big thing. Without a pit stop, there was no way to take advantage of someone that was having tire deg problems. If you were having tire deg problems, to rectify that situation by coming in and switching strategies, whatever, right?

I think the track lends itself to having comers and goers throughout a stint in terms of being maybe really strong to start, struggling to finish, or vice versa. Whenever you have a track like that, it creates a great race.

Yeah, I mean, I think just being able to have a different strategies and not being assigned when halftime is and that sort of thing will make for a great show.

Q. Given the layout of a track, do you have a favorite section? They are two different tracks even though they're blended together.

ALEXANDER ROSSI: I did not know that. Still I wouldn't know how to answer that.

Q. The north is north of the clubhouse, the south is where the pit stops and the straightaway is.

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Okay. So probably the south.

Q. That's more amenable to your style?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: No, I think just that part of the track has way more high-speed corners and such.

Q. With ECR you're with a sponsorship group that's involved with consumer products. Has that relationship with the sponsors been different than previous sponsor interface?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: No. I've certainly been with consumer products before, as early as last year.

I think what's amazing about this group is it's not a sponsorship. They are invested in the ownership of the team. They very much care about the progress and giving us the tools that we need in order to be successful.

A sponsor, slapping a sticker on a car for B-to-B opportunities, TV numbers, a tax write-off, whatever, maybe doesn't have the same amount of care that Ted and Heartland has in terms of what is to be expected at ECR.

I don't view them as a sponsor, even though they very much are. I view them as my boss and also people that I can go to with questions, comments, concerns on how we improve and how we can get better.

It's a pretty unique opportunity to be a part of from that standpoint. Their excitement and passion for ECR and INDYCAR is unmatched. They're at every event, test. Ted was on my timing stand I think for every lap of every single session in St. Pete. It's pretty cool to have someone that's as important to our success be as involved as he is.

Q. Congratulations on getting a top 10 first race, new team. How do you think you might do here at Thermal? Now you're in your backyard.

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Well, going to try and win, man. We're going to see. There's a lot of unknowns, as I discussed before. I think the team had a very, very good test there in November-ish time, maybe December. We're going in with pretty high expectations.

Motorsports Journal - Edmund Jenks - ENDS

Q. Now that the season opener is in the books, how do you feel about your overall performance and where the team stands?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Sunday was good. I didn't do a very good job on Saturday in qualifying. I think the team gave me a much better car than I qualified. Sunday was a recovery from that.

I think we are an eighth- to 12th-place car all weekend. I made a mistake. We qualified 20th. That we finished 10th on the strategy ended up being the bad one was something that we were all pretty happy with.

Obviously never happy to finish 10th, but considering all of the factors that were ultimately stacked against us in terms of we only had basically a half day of testing, a poor qualifying because of me, and all working together for the first time, to come away with a 10th was a good thing.

I think the team has a lot of potential, specifically at Thermal this weekend. Barber, as well. I think we're very excited for the next six to eight weeks leading into the 500 in May.

Q. You mentioned what happened in qualifying. What is the biggest lesson you're taking away from St. Pete that you will apply going forward?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Try and suck less (smiling).

I think the big thing that caught a lot of people out, but it was the same for everyone, so it's not really an excuse, but ultimately the alternate tire had a very narrow operating window. I did not come anywhere close to maximizing that.

While we're going to have a different tire in Thermal, it's not going to be the -- I don't believe the alternate is going to behave like it did in St. Pete. I will say that's a lesson I will take with me to Long Beach.

In terms of this weekend, it's the first time we're seeing the road course tire, so it's a little bit of an unknown as to how it's going to behave in qualifying and what the best way to maximize it will be.

Q. Last year was an exhibition event. Now there's championship points on the line. How does that change your approach going into this weekend?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: It doesn't change the approach. I wouldn't say you have to even take it more seriously. Last year everyone wanted to win. It's a million bucks. I truly don't think it changes.

I think you will spend a little bit more time in practice maybe trying to understand tire life performance instead of just looking at ultimate lap time. Other than that, I would say it's going to be exactly the same.

Q. I want to look forward to the month of May. You said there are some tracks that you anticipate ECR will perform better. You had a very good run in May, very good speeds. Do you think your experience in INDYCAR generally but winning the Indy 500 brings something extra to the team to convert that speed to maybe a podium or even better?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: Yeah, I would hope so. I don't want to say yes because I don't really know all of the ins-and-outs as to why they were so good in qualifying or have been so great in qualifying, and it hasn't necessarily translated into a result in the race.

I certainly know that the 21 car the past couple of years has been running really strong in the race, and has had some bad luck and some just things go against them that have prevented a result. It wasn't from a lack of performance or pace.

Certainly I feel very comfortable at the Speedway. I've seemingly started from everywhere at this point for that race. Always find a way forward.

I think I'll be able to bring a little bit to the table in just how I run a race and manage the 500 miles. Ultimately I think the team has every ability to do that with or without me. I think they've just had some bad luck over the past couple of years.

It's exciting to be a part of an organization that I know can win the 500. That was a very big bullet point in the pros list for ECR this past off-season because I truly believe that.

I think we are without a doubt one of the top three teams that can go into that weekend and show up and get someone's face on a BorgWarner trophy.

Q. You talk about pros and cons. You raced 10 races with the hybrid system. Do you have any pros and cons on the hybrid thus far?

ALEXANDER ROSSI: I have a list of cons (smiling). The pros are it starts itself. You can start yourself. The biggest thing is, I truly believe this, this isn't a marketing PR line, it lays the foundation for future manufacturers to come into the sport.

It's no secret that the car market, the automotive market, the world market, in terms of automobiles has changed over the past decade. With the current format of engine that we have, it also makes perfect sense that a manufacturer wouldn't want to necessarily come in and try and catch up to 10-plus years of development of an existing power train, right?

The hybrid, while might not be that attractive in its current guise, I think in terms of what we've done from a reliability standpoint is pretty impressive. What we did last year in terms of implementing a hybrid mid season and the honestly lack of failures, you're going to have failures in race cars in every capacity. There wasn't mass hybrid failures in the championship season. That was a huge win.

You bring that forward to this year, and because the reliability has been so robust, we can start to incrementally increase the performance, increase the load and duty cycle on it throughout a lap and get more power, which we already saw at St. Pete. St. Pete, it was already a much more effective tool than it had been at any point in 2024.

While I think the list of pros now from a performance standpoint is short, I think it's going to grow. I think for the long-term future health of the series, it doesn't matter what the cons are at this point because it's pretty clear that manufacturers want hybrids to be involved.

THE MODERATOR: Alex, thanks for doing this. We're going to leave it there for now.

ALEXANDER ROSSI: No worries. Have a good one.
(ht: FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports)

... notes from The EDJE

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TAGS: NTT INDYCAR SERIES, The Thermal Club, The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix, Alexander Rossi, ECR, Ed Carpenter Racing, No. 20, Chevrolet, The EDJE

One Step At A Time Is What's Ahead For Ryan Hunter-Reay At Ed Carpenter Racing

Ryan Hunter-Reay peering through the winscreen of the Ed Carpenter Racing No. 20 Bitnile.Com Chevrolet on grid at Road America. Image Credit: James Black - NICS (2023)  

One Step At A Time Is What's Ahead For Ryan Hunter-Reay At Ed Carpenter Racing

A race car driver's series history is never fully written, as it is said, until the fat lady sings ... and so it is with IndyCar's Captain America Ryan Hunter Reay.

It seems that Ed Carpenter Racing has been going through a challenging period since the start of the 2020 season. During this time, the No. 20 car has only managed to achieve three top-10 finishes, with Conor Daly securing two of them in the Indianapolis 500. Ed Carpenter, the team owner, felt that a new direction was necessary for the team and approached Ryan Hunter-Reay to take over the No. 20 Bitnile.com Chevrolet from Daly.

Ryan Hunter-Reay, who has an impressive racing career with 283 starts, understands that there are no quick fixes or guarantees of immediate success. He mentioned that the NTT INDYCAR SERIES is a most highly competitive professional racing series and doesn't allow for easy turnarounds. However, he does have a previous experience of stepping into Rahal Letterman Racing's No. 17 car midseason in 2007 and finishing seventh at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

It is with this background Ryan Hunter-Reay came to participate in a pre-race ZOOM Call interview, his first since committing to assume the seat of the No. 20 Bitnile.com Chevrolet offered by Ed Carpenter Racing.

BEGIN 

Q - Edmund Jenks - Motorsports Journal. One memory that I have is from Auto Club Speedway where both you and Ed Carpenter had each your own podium, Ed for winning the race, you for winning a championship. How is it going to be like to maybe spend some time together on a podium? What are your thoughts about your chances of maybe winning there at ECR?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Well, like I said, one step at a time. Just got here, obviously. There's a lot of work to do.

Like I said earlier, jumping in at the middle of the season in INDYCAR, which is arguably the most competitive series in the world, be no testing -- I hadn't been in for a year and a half almost.

Getting up to 98 percent is not going to be an issue for me. It's getting that last two percent out of it where I have to be comfortable enough to operate on the absolute edge like you have to in qualifying, getting those extra three-, four-tenths of a second out of it at Road America, that's where the real challenge is.

We have to do that, all while working together for the first time.

One step at a time, but yeah, that was great memories. Ed won the race. He was out there doing doughnuts while I was being handed the championship trophy, and certainly a pretty cool scenario.

Yeah, it's great to be back working with him again, and hopefully this is something that we'll all look back upon as another good memory.

Q - Edmund Jenks - Motorsports Journal. The beauty of this union is that it is process over personality. You two have good strong personalities, and again, a healthy respect for each other, especially with all the history in INDYCAR and everything. It just seems like the process is something that you guys will sort out and it'll be successful.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, I think we're both very level-headed, disciplined guys that go about it in a methodical manner. Hopefully that'll lend itself to -- lead us down the right path.

ENDS

Hunter-Reay’s connection to Carpenter is another plus, and it’s more than sharing the spotlight at the last race of the 2012 season. Three years prior, Hunter-Reay started the season with Vision Racing, the team formed by Carpenter’s stepfather, Tony George, and the drivers were teammates for six races. Hunter-Reay also said he tested with what became ECR at the end of the 2013 and 2021 seasons.

FULL ZOOM Call Interview & Transcript >>>

NTT INDYCAR SERIES News Conference

Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Ryan Hunter-Reay - Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: After a weekend away from the track, the NTT INDYCAR Series getting back at it this weekend with the 34th trip to the historic four-mile layout up at Road America Sunday at 1:00 p.m. eastern. It's the Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America presented by AMR.

Joined by driver of the No. 20 Bitnile.com Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing after getting a taste of the 2023 season driving earlier this year for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing at the Indianapolis 500.

Great to be joined the onetime INDYCAR series and 500 champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, fresh off fishing in the Atlantic. Maybe not.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Not so much. Thanks for having me.

THE MODERATOR: How excited are you about jumping back in and getting going this weekend?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Obviously this is a tough situation. A lot has happened in a short amount of time. There's just a whole lot to take in. It's so multifaceted. There's so many variables here at play.

Bottom line is tough situation, especially mid-season. I feel for Conor. I've been on either end of that deal, and in some cases numerous times. Big fan of his, and hopefully he'll be back in the INDYCAR Series soon where he belongs no doubt.

We're just plugging away hour by hour here, day by day, and looking forward to the weekend ahead.

Q. There's so many crucial things each day leading up to the race on Sunday, even the sessions, how crucial will each practice session become over the weekend?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Oh, absolutely crucial. Pre-COVID we had two practice sessions on Friday. Could certainly use that added session right now, but it's just a lot. It's going to be a huge undertaking.

I've been out of the car turning right for probably a year and a half. Obviously I've stayed current in prototypes, Cadillac, CGR, Chip Ganassi Cadillac last year, obviously just came out of the Indy 500.

But it's new all around. Even the small things I knew about Road America since I was 17 years old in a two-liter car, the little nuances are all gone. I've got new track surface, new team, new car, new group of people to work with.

So there's just a lot going. Like I said, I'm looking forward to the challenge, but I'm also a realist. I'm approaching this from a pretty disciplined standpoint in curbing some expectations there and just taking this, like you said, how is that first session? I'm taking it lap by lap, outing by outing, and at the moment we're going day by day just trying to prepare for this thing.

There's a lot to digest and a lot to consider.

Q. You were here and then you were gone. You weren't gone from racing but you were pretty much gone from INDYCAR until you came back from the 500. Now you're back and suddenly it's a full-time ride. Is this what you wanted? Are you been working and hoping to return full time to INDYCAR?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: You know, obviously I had agreed to the end of my term at Andretti at the beginning of -- it was actually the end of 2020 that we agreed 2021 is our last season, and I wanted to take a step back, try some new things.

I wanted to go do the SRXs of the world. I wanted to have the opportunity to drive for teams like CGR and IMSA and Cadillac and Chip Ganassi and IMSA. I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed taking a step back and kind of getting a renewed sense of kind of where I wanted to be.

And no, I was not pursuing anything full-time in INDYCAR. That was not my objective.

Obviously apart from the very unique scenarios that may come along, this one I didn't foresee. Last year obviously I was on call for the 10 car. That was quite the roller coaster because I never knew where that was going to go, but I kept myself ready.

I kept myself mentally dialed in ready to jump in the car at any given point. So I think that primed me not only for the 500 this year but where we are right now.

But no, that was not my objective just a few weeks ago. Just a week ago.

Q. Did Indy get you hungry again for it? And two, I know you're very pragmatic and looking at this realistically, but do you want to turn it into more than one year?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Right now honestly it's race by race. We'll see where it goes. Ed is a good friend of mine. He called me. I was surprised when it happened. He called me and said, I need your help. Would you be willing to do this? This is the situation that we're in.

I had driven for Vision, right, in '09. Ed was my teammate. I had tested with the team in 2013. I tested with the team in 2021.

So this is over a decade-long relationship and friendship that kind of got us to where we are at this point, and it's a unique scenario. You know, subbing out a driver in the middle of the season is a tough one for the team, for the driver.

Like I said, I'm a big fan of Conor. I've been on either side of this with the Rocketsports situation, then with the Rahal situation in 2007 coming in, so I have an immense amount of respect for either side of it.

This is a unique scenario where myself, coming in at this point, it gives potentially the team and myself an opportunity to come at it from a fresh perspective, looking at things a little bit differently than how they have been for the last two or three years straight.

Rinus VeeKay and Conor are great drivers, but sometimes a team, especially in a series as competitive as INDYCAR, you just need to mix things up a little bit, look at things in new ways, and it's just the way the business rolls.

I'm not really sure where it's going yet, and I'm not really looking that far ahead right now. I am totally focused on getting to Road America, doing the best job I can for that group of people at Ed Carpenter Racing who I have a great relationship with, and that's really where it is.

We'll see where it goes. And yeah, it's a lot of pressure on me, honestly, but at the same time, when I look at this pragmatically, I look at it from a realist point of view. There's not silver bullet here. This is a matter of us looking at how we can approach things differently. How do you approach a qualifying session differently, a race weekend differently?

How can we tweak some things? Maybe some of the things I used to do in the past weren't right. Maybe some of the things they're doing now aren't right. Maybe we could come together and maybe take a path that way.

Q. Can you still do any of the SRX races?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: We are currently working on that. Obviously SRX went to Thursday nights, right, which is really cool. Really proud of the growth there looking forward to another season of it.

But the INDYCAR weekends are such that you have to be on location Thursdays for track walk, driver meetings, and all that.

So we're -- I just spoke with them today, with Don Hawk and Tony Stewart, and we're trying to figure out what the situation is.

But yeah, TBD for sure.

Q. You kind of answered this in a roundabout way, but I want to ask it more directly. I think I'd read somewhere that you weren't really looking to return to a full-time role unless it was the right opportunity, and I know you said this isn't a full-time opportunity yet. But what about this opportunity? You spoke about your relationship with Ed, but what about what your job is going to be made this situation appealing enough to you to want to come back to potentially run 10 or so races to finish out the year?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, that's a great question. Like I had said during the month of May at Indy and how much I enjoyed working with the people at Dreyer & Reinbold, it was about the people.

I've got a great relationship with Ed, but I also have had working relationships and really strong relationship currently with the team manager at Ed Carpenter, Matt Barnes, the engineer, my engineer, Pete Craig. Worked with them before.

My current crew chief on the 20 was my crew chief on the 28 at Andretti Autosport, so I just know a lot of the people there. They were in the position where this was something that needed to happen for the team.

Like I said, I was surprised that we were in this position, that it came along. But yeah, when they reached out and when Ed reached out, it was something that, hey, this is what I love to do. I just came off Indy and had a great time there, really enjoyed it, and this is what I do for a living.

I'm in a position where I could potentially contribute to the team as a whole. Why not? What are the why nots? What are the whys? Just putting all that together, and in the end it ended up coming down to the people.

Q. I was wondering, your boys are a little bit older. This is more of a personal family question. But your boys are a little bit older. To be able to come back and remind your oldest one and refresh the little one's memories of Captain America and who Ryan Hunter-Reay is in INDYCAR, what does that mean to you and your family?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: It's always been a family sport for us. INDYCAR is a family sport, whether it be on the driver side or the fan side or the team side. Yeah, that's great that I get to share it with them, but really this is 100 percent business decision for me.

My years of experience, hoping that I can contribute in even a small way to some progress here on the approach side.

Yeah, no lie, Road America is one of our favorite races, one of the kids' favorite races, being there at Elkhart Lake and being at the track and all that stuff. That's how it's always been. That is a pretty cool kind of side off-spin to it that we get to enjoy, and I feel fortunate for that.

Q. Obviously I know you were out of the car for a little bit, but how do you feel your time say with Callum and Juncos, how do you think that will be beneficial to you going forward for the rest of the season? Do you think there's anything you learnt from your role as a driver coach that you can bring forward as a driver returning to INDYCAR?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, I mean, I really look forward to working with Juncos Hollinger Racing and with Callum. I wasn't necessarily a driver coach. I was more a consultant to the entire race team.

I've had the opportunity to work with three different race teams within a calendar year. What that gives me is a broadened sense of -- like I keep saying approach, but each team approaches how they go about a race weekend completely differently. You would think it's pretty straightforward, you put the wheels on the car, you go out on track, you test, all this stuff, and it's not. Each team does things very differently.

So I've had the opportunity to see numerous strategies when it comes to their implementation of a strategy of a race weekend. Not just a race strategy and when you pit and all that.

Yeah, that's been -- I've enjoyed it. I've got to view it from, so to speak, 30,000 feet and see how these things operate, what are the positives, negatives, and hope I can apply that to the situation.

Q. In terms of working with Rinus, how excited are you to work with a driver who you probably haven't worked with before?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, Rinus is a great talent. Obviously he's just got such a natural ability, and he's always smiling, always positive. So yeah, definitely look forward to working with him, and hopefully that will be a good relationship moving forward that we can push the team along further in the right direction.

Q. I'm just curious, Ed kind of mentioned in the release about your leadership capabilities and the role. Is there anything you're kind of looking for out of the team that you can bring in, maybe ways you can instill in this team moving forward?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Well, a team, right, everybody says racing doesn't get the rap for being a team sport as much as it should because it is -- it's a lot of different personalities in one area that need to come together and put forth a competitively strong effort when you're going up against all these other teams.

Each situation is so unique. I can't say what I can bring into a situation. It depends on what and how they go about -- which I'm still going to learn, how they go about it on race weekend. How the team goes about what their test plan is, what the menu is for each different change, each different request from the driver, and what that data analysis looks like between sessions and kind of how we approach a qualifying session and all this.

I am coming in and I am working with -- really even though I know a lot of people there, it's a new grouping. It's a new situation. I also have to blend into that. I have to gel with that.

Then from there, I'll find my place and what I can bring to the table or what I think may be a potential improvement that we can try and work on.

Yeah, a lot of TBDs right now, just a whole lot of them. I wish I could expand more on it, but one thing on my side, I think I have a lot of experience with some really great race teams, whether they be in INDYCAR. My career has been a journey. I've driven for the greats, I've driven for Rahal, Foyt. I've driven for Andretti. I've driven for Ganassi.

I have a lot of experience and a lot of different race teams and how they go about their business.

Q. You kind of mentioned the test you had with ECR I believe it was '21. I'm assuming there's a big difference between a Honda and a Chevy, what you feel in the car. Did that kind of help you hit the ground running a little bit when you show up to Road America this weekend, or is it still going to be more learning the differences between the Honda and Chevy since the last time you were on a road course like this in race conditions you were in a Honda?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, so since the last time I tested in a Chevy, turning right at Barber October of 2021. You know, that was when -- my engineer for many years, Ray Gosselin, engineer for 12 years at Andretti, he was going to Chevy.

I was able to work on some drivability things with them, and since then it's been completely reworked on the drivability side. Basically you're most sensitive to it as a driver like, right, tip in right when you get into throttle, getting through the middle of the corner, because you are trying to maximize the corner. Obviously all these things happen very fast.

But that transition period from 0 percent throttle to, let's say 20 to 25 percent throttle, that is a very key area in where and how you put the power down and manage that power. Each driver wants something different.

Things have changed, so that will be another thing I'm going to have to adapt to. At Indy you're really not looking for those drivability characteristics that you would be on a road course. You're in a completely different road range.

So that's something that will be another one of those items on the list that I'll be trying to work through in a very short amount of time.

Q. Just wanted to follow up on something you said earlier about having sympathy for Conor having been on both sides of that. What would be your advice to Conor moving forward in terms of him picking himself up and getting back into racing in INDYCAR?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, I mean, Conor, like I said, I'm a big fan. He's a scrapper, as am I, and he certainly is a part of INDYCAR. So I certainly hope that he's back at some point. Hopefully soon.

Yeah, as I said, it doesn't make the situation any easier for him. I've been through all of it. I've been replaced at one point, and then I didn't drive for almost a year and a half back in 2005.

From the time I got back in at the end of 2005 to the middle of 2007 -- actually it was longer than that when I jumped in at Rahal replacing Jeff Simmons.

Yeah, I think the big thing is you just have to keep after it. This is for every driver, even the young drivers out there. You're one weekend away from the next opportunity, and just I think keeping the confidence in yourself and being just tenacious and persistent has been what I've always done, and I have no doubt he will, as well.

We're definitely going to miss him at the moment, but I hope he's back, and I have every reason to believe he will be.

Q. All is right in the world right now; Ryan Hunter-Reay is back in racing, and I am so happy for that. Not necessarily happy how it happened, but I'm happy that it happened.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Thank you.

Q. Let me ask you a quick question. You and Ed Carpenter, and you kind of touched on this, are good friends. How will this friendship affect your ability to achieve the results that will be expected from you at ECR?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Well, I mean, we're not talking about -- right now we're not talking about results. This is not a silver bullet. This is not a situation where they have brought me in to, okay, let's put another driver in the car and you driver, the new driver, you go out and go faster than the old driver. That's not what's happening here.

This is a scenario where we are going to approach this from a technically disciplined approach, and it's going to be methodical, it's going to be a process. It's not going to be short. We're going to have to work through it every day.

It's kind of a different situation for me, as well in some ways. It's a new scenario with a new team that works differently than other teams I've been with. I haven't actually gone racing with Ed Carpenter Racing, even though I've raced with Vision back in 2009, which is, as you know, over a decade ago.

Yeah, it's not, hey, get in there, go get the result now, go do better than last weekend. That is the one, I think, misconception that people have. That's not what's going on here. This is something that is a much bigger picture approach. That's where we're at.

And yeah, I think that friendship can only help. Ed is a racer. He wants it blunt. He wants to understand what I think every day, at the end of every day, at the end of every session, he wants to understand what my feelings are. I'm eager to see how the team goes through a race weekend. There's certainly plenty of very, very accomplished people there.

All the talent and all the capability is there. It's just little tiny things can kind of tip you off your access here in an INDYCAR. I've experienced either side of that.

Q. Has the sabbatical recharged your batteries?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, I mean, I think so. It's been nice. I've been nonstop since '03 and with the same organization for 12 years, so it was a good time to just take a step back for a moment.

I got to do a lot of things I wouldn't have. I got to coach my kids' teams. That means a lot. They're at an age where they're so impressionable, it's really nice for dad to be home for a change and not always be at an airport and sleeping at a hotel.

That was something that was very enjoyable, and at the same time, it allowed me to come back very refreshed and focused, and here we are.

Q. Going back to Indy, I'm just wondering, you had a situation there where you had Graham Rahal kind of parachute in as your teammate. You're not doing something exactly parallel to that, but it's sort of similar coming into a new team like this and trying to help them. Did you learn anything from what Graham went through in that kind of crash course that he had getting in the Dreyer & Reinbold car that might help you going into the Ed Carpenter situation here?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, it's very similar to what I went through with Dreyer & Reinbold. We had a longer time to prepare for it, but all the same things that -- you would think it would just be as easy as drop my seat in the car and drop my helmet and we change a fire suit.

It's a lot of different stuff. All the settings on the dash, on the wheel, the hand grips, where the knobs are. I've had muscle memory and so does Graham, being with the same team for so long.

You don't even have to think about where this deal is, or when you're in the heat of the moment coming in at 220 miles an hour where the pit lane speed limit button is. All these things that are crucial to having a successful race. You have to then go and relearn or maybe have the team move around a little bit, and even then, it's still not the same as what you're -- you always feel like you're adapting in the car.

For the first day in the No. 23 car at Indy I was having to look down and place my thumb where the radio is, just to talk, like look down off the track to do it; whereas in the past I've had -- it's just all been -- I wouldn't have to look at any of it. I knew where everything was. There's things like that.

Then when you're working with new people and you're always trying to understand, it's critical, too. It's like a coach and a quarterback. You're always trying to get that communication down and trying to understand what each needs to move forward.

Graham, he just jumped in for the race so he wasn't really prepping the car. He did have Carb Day and there was that element of it. He had to adjust it.

Yeah, there's a lot of similarities there, and you just have to take it with an open mindset and an optimistic approach and just get after doing what you know how to do I think is the big thing.

Q. Like you said, obviously you know Ed well, you know a lot of people at Ed Carpenter Racing well. You know Chevy. You've got a connection there obviously from the former engineer with Ray. I'm sure they're still working through what they want you to diagnose, but do you have a sense of what maybe the top-line items are? Does your relationships with both manufacturer and team side give you an edge here being able to pinpoint, kind of hone in on where they're trying to improve?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, I have a great relationship with Chevy outside of even Ray being head of at-track services. I've driven for them with Cadillac, Jim Campbell, we won the championship together in 2012. The whole team at Chevy, I've got a great relationship with. That helps, no doubt.

But on the Ed Carpenter team side, I'm also coming in and learning a bunch in a short amount of time. They're learning me, at the same time we're coming together during a race weekend. We don't have the luxury of having a test, which would have been really nice.

But we're coming together in a very short amount of time, so there's even a challenge of just doing the fundamentals right at that point, trying to get everything down, the seat fit, does this thing hit you here, is the steering wheel -- the steering wheel size that I'm going to be using is going to be different. Is that going to bug me in the first session? I'm not sure.

There's a whole bunch of different things, and then you get on to the meat of it, which is trying to work through whatever these potential walls are that they want to break down.

Yeah, we have some ideas of what that might be, but right now the best thing is to just let me come in there, work as I do, let them move forward and work as they do, and in that process we'll naturally find some things that we want to try different.

Q. You talked about Conor and how you've been on both sides of this. One, have you talked to Conor? Have you had any communication with him? Two, what's the protocol for something that I know is just inherently awkward? I know long-term things will be good, but in the short-term how do you deal with it? When do you talk to him if you haven't talked to him? How does it all work?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Well, that stuff is personal. I talked to one of our good friends about it, too. I wanted to call Conor about it. But there's an area, too, where you just need to cool off. I remember right after my situation happened, it's not necessarily the scenario I would have liked to happen right after.

Yeah, I'll approach that in the right way. Like I said earlier, Conor is a friend. Honestly, I think he's a great driver and I honestly think he'll be back at some point, and I just hope that that is soon.

This sport is brutal. Like I said, my career has been a journey. I have been on every different end of it, whether it's at Indy being bumped in, bumped out, on the front row winning the race. And then you look at my career and the whole thing has just been a journey from team to team to team, like I said, having been on either side of it.

Yeah, these were huge considerations in the process of deciding on all this, and really when it came down to it, the team was at a position where it needed to -- it was at a position where in order for it to be in a place where it potentially would like to be in the off-season of '23-'24, that these things had to happen now.

But yeah, I was surprised. It wasn't something that I was pursuing.

Q. You were quite complimentary about Rinus before. Can you explore a little bit more you guys working together? What are you guys' respective strengths as you try to work together to take ECR forward? Where can you complement each other?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Well, I'll have to let you know because I haven't worked with him for a day yet. But yeah, I know him just through the paddock. And he's a hard-charger. He's just naturally talented, young, hungry.

I've been obviously in that position the same as him before, and it's a unique opportunity for us to work together. I look forward to seeing his perspective on things and how his approach is.

I really like the fact that he's always -- he seems to be always smiling and optimistic, and that'll be nice to work with.

My rookie season in what was Champ Car, 2003, I was, what, 21, 22 years old or something, and I was fresh out of Formula Atlantic. My teammate was Jimmy Vasser, who is series champion, and I'll never forget the time I spent with him just working through -- just seeing how he went about things methodically, and I learned a lot from Jimmy from that time forward.

Q. Speaking of rookies, I understand both you and Rinus were at Linus Lundquist's test last week in Sebring. What were your impressions of Linus, and do you think he might be of help going forward to help the team forward?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, he's a pro. Did a great job. Didn't set a wheel wrong, really, and gave good feedback. Long, hot day at Sebring. It's not fun testing at Sebring in the middle of June. It's like operating in a sauna.

He did a great job, though, and I think it was a beneficial test for the team. Rinus worked well with him, as well, kind of giving him some ins and outs of the team and what to expect and this and that.

But yeah, absolute pro. Hopefully he has a future in INDYCAR racing. I have no doubt.

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Q. You're going to be turning 43 next December, and we've seen the last Indy 500, drivers like TK and Castroneves that they're almost 50 and still running the 500. Is it something that you have planned for your future to be racing at least ovals or at least 500 until you're 50?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, this -- thank you for the reminder of my birthday coming up at the end of the year.

This sport is so intense, and it requires absolute 120 percent commitment. So you can't make a plan for four or five years from now. You go every year basically.

If it is still burning inside, if it's still something that drives you -- I talked with Gil de Ferran about this, and he said when you don't want to do this, you'll know. You will know. Okay, I just don't -- I feel 75 percent about it. I don't feel 100.

Gil de Ferran, he retired pretty early, and he talked with me about that, and I think that's how we go about it.

I think Tony Kanaan feels -- I congratulated him on his last Indy 500 there. He knew that there's a certain value in going out on top. He went out in a great program at McLaren. He's been with some great teams. There's a value in that, rather than just sticking around and seeing what happens every year and trying to piece it together.

You can never really plan it, honestly. I wish I could give you a better answer than that, but as long as I keep waking up wanting that 500, wanting another one of those Baby Borgs up there, I'll keep doing it.

Q. You've spent most of your career driving in INDYCAR without an aeroscreen. What are the biggest differences now driving with it, and how did it feel? Did it feel normal to drive with it during the month of May?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Well, just to clarify, I'm not sure you're aware, but yeah, I did drive with the aeroscreen on the car for two full seasons at Andretti in 2020 and 2021. But yeah, it's strange. Your whole career you're driving single seaters, driving INDYCARs, driving anything with open wheel, you have a sensation of air speed just on your helmet. It's something you didn't think you would cue off of, something you didn't think you would feel.

But when you put that aeroscreen there and it wasn't there, it was almost like I lost that sense. It was strange.

You can adapt to it. Visually it's fine. You just lose the airflow. I think as it's been documented numerous times, it can get pretty hot, depending on the race, depending on the type of racetrack, especially on street circuits.

But I'm happy it's there. It's already saved my -- I won't say rear end. It's already saved my head. It saved it at Barber in 2021, and we have numerous other examples of that with other drivers.

Yeah, when you think about it, you look back and you think, okay, we're out there doing 240 miles an hour with our head exposed bobbing around in the air, it's a little crazy to think that we got away with some of what we did.

Q. Coming into the weekend, you mentioned a lot of this is going to be new for you, learning about the team and stuff. What are you hoping to take away into this weekend heading into this first race?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: We're looking to take away a good understanding of what the team wants and needs and what I want and need out of this partnership, and kind of trying to get a better understanding of some of the nuances and how I operate, how they operate, and then how we can go and talk about it during the break between Road America and Mid-Ohio and implement potential changes moving forward that I may need.

Like anybody's driving style, one driver is going to ask for and want different things from their race team and race car than another driver. That's just how it is.

I think that would be the big thing.

This weekend is almost a test session for us. It's a getting-to-know-you session for us. As long as I go about it that way, and the team does, as well, I think that we'll put our best foot forward for Mid-Ohio.

Q. How serendipitous is it that Captain America is racing his first race back full-time at Road America?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: It's pretty funny. I think Leigh Diffey even coined it there for the first time. I'm not sure; I don't know if that was at Iowa or Road America or what. But yeah, certainly one of my favorite racetracks outside of Indy -- probably my favorite racetrack outside of Indy, and it's a new one. I'm going to have to learn it now with the new surface, what curbs you can use on the apexes and exits. All that stuff will change when you change a racing surface.

Yeah, going to be learning a lot in a short amount of time.

Q. Talk a little bit more about the repaving of Road America. How much is it going to change the racing, and is part of you a little bit frustrated that it's happening now just because it's sort of an added complication to the return, or is it just a fresh new challenge?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: I mean, yeah, not ideal timing, right? To throw another variable into the experiment is not obviously what you want to do.

But some teams went there and tested. They went quicker than they have in the past, so it shows that the track surface is gripping up. I'm not sure what it'll do for the racing. I have no idea.

I enjoy the Road America, Mid-Ohio, kind of old-school kind of throwback road course, big undulations sometimes in the pavement, exit curbings that drop off, just stuff like that where it's pretty old school where it's the complete opposite of what you'd see in Formula 1 and things like that.

Yeah, unfortunately at some point they had to do it, I guess, at Road America. There were some areas that just needed the attention and decided to go the whole way. Hopefully it'll be good for the racing. I have no idea, though. I couldn't comment to that because we didn't test there.

THE MODERATOR: Ryan, thanks for doing this.

We didn't talk about game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals tonight. Who do you got?

RYAN HUNTER-REAY: I have the Panthers. Of course I do. Went to the game the other night. It was a close one. It's amazing how physical these finals games are. Hopefully the Panthers can knock one out to come back home and fight another one back here at home. It's going to be tough. It's just so physical this series. Go Panthers!

[ht: FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports]

It's great that the NTT INDYCAR Series is returning to action this weekend at Road America for the Sonsio Grand Prix presented by AMR for its 8th race of the 17 race 2023 season.

Road America is a historic racetrack known for its four-mile layout and challenging course. The race is scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday. It promises to be an exciting event for INDYCAR fans as the drivers compete on this iconic circuit.

UPDATE:

Ryan Hunter-Reay (RHR) had a good day in the race. He started last at P27 due to a horrible qualifications session and was one of only a few cars to pass for position in the double digits - 10 positions to P17. Only two other drivers moved 10 or more positions from starting position to end result - Helio Castroneves from P26 to P15 and Scott McLaughlin from P18 to P8.

Can not really hear any ladies singing, profile challenged or otherwise, given the level of professional challenge and completion shown by RHR at Road America.

... notes from The EDJE

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TAGS: Ryan Hunter-Reay, Ed Carpenter Racing, NTT INDYCAR SERIES, No. 20 Bitnile.com Chevrolet, THE SONSIO GRAND PRIX AT ROAD AMERICA, The EDJE

Josef Newgarden And Team Penske - American Dream Becomes Reality

Josef Newgarden as he sits in his Ed Carpenter Racing prepared No. 21 Chevy Dallara at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach pit box. Newgarden seems just perfect this year to be tapped for Team Penske since he finished the year at P-4 ... just behind P-1 Pagenaud, P-2 Power, and P-3 Castroneves - his new teammates for 2017. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2016)

Josef Newgarden And Team Penske - American Dream Becomes Reality

The rumors that began to crop up around the paddocks during the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma season finale of the Verizon IndyCar Series held at Sonoma Raceway September 18th had many scenarios bandied about. One of the more far reaching was that the new American Driver of the series, Alexander Rossi (2016 Rookie of the Year | INDY 500 Winner | finished season at P-11) was seen coming out of a Team Penske transporter during the previous race at Watkins Glen.

This rumor was put to bed recently when Andretti Autosport was able to retain Rossi as Bryan Herta's agreement with the Andretti organization became more formal for the 2017 season. American Driver, American Team ... American Dream.

Cresting the highest point of the Sonoma Raceway road course, Newgarden enjoys blue, blue skies as he sews up P-4 in the 2016 championship points race. The fact remains that only Team Penske drivers were the only drivers to lock out Ed Carpenter Racing and Josef Newgarden from placing higher in the Verizon IndyCar Series points chase. Image Credit: Ken Manfred (2016)

Today, the announcement that caught everyone's attention that involved American Team Penske and the pursuit of the American Dream was the confirmation that American Driver Josef Newgarden (finished season at P-4) was signed to drive the No. 2 car for the 2017 season. He will replace last season's INDY 500 winner and season points leader Juan Pablo Montoya, who ended last year in a tie of points after the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma season finale and lost out on the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series Championship through the pre-established tie-breaker to Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon and finished P-2.  This year JPM finished P-8.

The rumor of Rossi had some plausibility since his career had been rather extraordinary with his early rise through to an F1 ride, to signing with the Bryan Herta / Andretti Autosport combo team and winning the INDY 500 first time out. When one thinks about it, this would be all too soon since landing a seat with Team Penske is never a gamble for the team - they always have the patience and the time to pick just the right fit and talent for the organization.

Josef Newgarden in his Ed Carpenter Racing pit stand following practice for the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma at Sonoma Raceway. Image Credit: Chris Owens - VICS

A look at Josef Newgarden's rise through the ranks through these last five years, points out how focused this determined driver really is - Tony DiZinno's NBCSports review HERE.

PULL QUOTE:
It’s not very often you meet a driver coming up through the Mazda Road to Indy presented by Cooper Tires ladder system and immediately think, “this kid just gets it.”

A Penske Racing conference call interview with:

JOSEF NEWGARDEN
TIM CINDRIC
October 5, 2016

MODERATOR:  Good afternoon, everybody.  Welcome to today's media teleconference introducing Josef Newgarden as Team Penske's newest Verizon IndyCar Series driver.  Along with Josef, we have Team Penske president Tim Cindric joining us today.

Earlier this morning we announced that Josef Newgarden is joining Team Penske as the driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet beginning in 2017.  This obviously comes on the heels of one of our most successful seasons ever in IndyCar where we earned 10 wins, 11 poles, our 14th IndyCar championship with Simon Pagenaud and a 1-2-3 sweep in the points standings, something we had not done since 1994.

Josef Newgarden as he bangs across the rumble strips in the off-camber Turn 5 at the Toyota Grand Prix Of Long Beach. He finished the race through the concrete canyons by the sea at P-10. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2016)

Josef, you've been able to spend some time in the shop this morning.  What are impressions of Team Penske so far?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN:  Well, it's been a whirlwind for me.  It's all happened a bit fast, which is great.  It's just like racing.  Everything goes quickly.

So for me, it's been a pleasure to try and meet a lot of the guys this morning within Team Penske. You know, trying to absorb as much as I can.  It's almost information overload for a guy like me.  Really excited to be here and hopefully add some more value to the group, which is going to be hard to do. They have got a lot of amazing people here, whether it's the manager, the ownership, sponsors, all the crewmen, the drivers.  It's really a lot to get your head around.

So I think for me, I'm just trying to absorb as much as possible and taking in the experience and being prepared for the long off‑season that we're going to have before we get to St. Pete next year.

THE MODERATOR:  Tim, can you tell us why Josef is such a good fit to drive for Team Penske?

TIM CINDRIC:  Yeah, I think that from an historical perspective, you look at it, and you know, he's the first American that we've had driving in IndyCar here since Sam Hornish, so it's been ten years. That's not the reason we hired him.

Obviously we look for the guys that can drive the car and that's what we've always looked at, but it's a bonus, for sure.  The fact that as we look at it, we wanted somebody that we could build on for the future.

It's no secret that he's bringing the average age of our drivers down a little bit, so I think it's somebody that we can build with and I guess the most important thing is showing that he can be successful at this level.  He's somebody that we met with when he was the Indy Lights champion.  I remember meeting with he and Rick and Roger after he won the Lights Championship, and he's somebody we've kept our eye on from that point in time.

No different than when we signed Simon, you have to decide if you're going to make a place for somebody like that, or if you're going to race against him for awhile.  So we figured he was better off being on our side than on the other side.

Q.  You're coming off an amazing season, given what transpired in June at Texas.  How does it feel to be driving for Penske now?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN:  Well, it's amazing.  I think for me, as a still hopefully, relatively young guy in the sport, it's an amazing opportunity.  It's something that I think you really have to take a hard look at and make a decision on, and for me, it was difficult to look the other way at it.

I think it's a great place where I can learn new experiences, try and grow as a driver, and kind of open up my whole role within the group and try and just become better within the sport.

So I mean, just to put it simply, it feels amazing.  It's an amazing honor, just for me, I just want to be able to integrate into the team and be a part of the whole system that obviously works really well together already.  Had a very successful year in IndyCar and they are very hard to compete against. It's fun for me to be a part of that now and hopefully add some value to the whole group.

Q.  And for you, Tim, with Josef taking over Juan Pablo Montoya's seat, is it pretty safe to say that JPM is leaving the team after this year?

TIM CINDRIC:  Well, it's something that we're still working through.  You know, when we sat down with Juan around Toronto, and had told him at that point in time that we weren't prepared to make any decisions on what we were going to do going forward until the end of the season.

And we wanted to understand, really, what our options were, and we were very up front with him about that whole situation.  And all along, we said that we'd like him to be part of our team in the future.

That doesn't necessarily mean driving our No. 2 car full‑time.  We've talked to him about, you know, we've got a seat for him at Indy if he wants one, and if we do the sports car program, we'd like him to be involved in it.

You know, at that point in time, he said, look, I really want to drive at least another season of IndyCar.  I don't want this to be my last season.  If it was last year, it would be a little easier to take, but this year, I still feel like I have some unfinished business.

And we agreed to just explore different options at that point, which is really what he's trying to do right now.  Finding out if there's a full season ride available, and we said that our offer is open to him and we'd love for him to continue with our team.

It's just something that we needed to decide whether we were going to position ourselves to do that for another year and miss the opportunity to have Josef as part of our team for the future.

So, a really difficult decision for us, because Juan has really been a big part of our success.  Despite where he finished this year, he pushed our guys very hard.  He's been a great guy to work with and would continue to love working with him in the future.  Really, the ball is in his court. It's not the first choice for him, but we'd like to continue some association with him if it makes sense for him.

Q.  When you were at Ed Carpenter Racing, that was always known as the little team that could. Now you're at the big super power team that always does.  And the resources that you have at Team Penske when you go around their shop and all that, now that that's going to be at your disposal, what goes through your mind?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN:  Well, I think pressure is always present wherever you're at.  I always put pressure on myself with any situation I was in driving in IndyCar.  I think we had high expectations at ECR, and rightfully so.

I thought we had a lot of talented people there.  We had a really great process, great ownership and great partners.  Really had a lot of tools to be successful.  With that, there was a lot of pressure there to do a good job, for everyone involved, our partners, our ownership.

I don't foresee that shifting too much.  I think you're going to have that sense of responsibility anywhere you race, but it certainly is hard to not be inspired, I guess, or overwhelmed when you walk into the Penske establishment.  It's filled with a lot of great people, as well.  A lot of great partners. Tremendous support from the ownership.  I think that same type of pressure that I felt at ECR is really going to actually translate pretty well to what I feel here, as well.

Q.  Two of your teammates live in the area, live in North Carolina; Helio lives down in Miami.  Will you be relocating to North Carolina?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN:  You know, I would think so.  I'd like to be close to the team and to be able to absorb as much as I can over the off‑season.  I think that's really important.  You've really got to integrate yourself well and give yourself the best shot to help the group, especially for me going into 2017.

So I haven't really had much time to go over that stuff.  This has been a pretty fast process and we're trying to just hit the ground running real quick now and today, and I'm absorbing everything I can as fast as I can here at the shop.  I'll try and sort out a living situation later on, but I would think at some point, yeah, I'm going to have to locate down here so I can be close to the team 100 percent.

Q.  Josef for you, when I look at it from a teammate situation, it's been a rotating door.  You either haven't had a teammate, you've had one‑off teammates, you've had sometimes road course, sometimes oval teammates.  How nice is it going to be having the consistent, not just one teammate, but three of the best drivers on the grid as your teammates?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN:  Yeah, I think it will be great.  It's going to be a different challenge for me, I think, from an establishment standpoint.  You've got more guys to work with.  That brings more engineers to talk to.  It changes the discussion, the whole dynamic that you go through on a race weekend.

I'm excited for that.  It's going to be a shift for me, something I've not been used to.  But I don't want to discount what I've been up against in the past.  I've had a lot of help from my previous owner, Ed Carpenter.  He was a great teammate to me, very strong on the ovals, J.R.  Hildebrand, Spencer Pigot, Luca Filippi.  There's been a lot of camaraderie in the past for me and I've had a lot of great guys to work with and bounce things off of.

What's really going to change is there's going to be more of that.  There's going to be more available here at this group, which I think you can see why they operate at such a high level, when you get that many talented people together, it really helps elevate the whole program and you push each other a lot more.  It's going to be different.

I don't know what that's going to be like.  I'm excited for it.  I hope it pushes me to a new level.  I'm probably going to figure some things out about myself I didn't know and hopefully those are good things; the bad things, I'll try and fix them pretty quick.  But I think it's going to be a great change.

Q.  When would you expect to see Josef make his first test in the car?

TIM CINDRIC:  Monday morning in Elkhart Lake.  We'll be taking all four guys to Road America on Monday, so he'll get a chance.  It's really a unique opportunity because a lot of times when we make a change like this, it's a while before they get in the car.  We had scheduled a test independent of whether we made a driver change or not.

So that's not really the catalyst; the catalyst for us is to get some permanent road course testing in before the winter months, because we feel like it's something that we need to understand a bit better before we go into the off‑season.

So the timing was good for him and he will also be doing a test at Gateway later that week, as well. He's going to get some seat time right off the bat and be able to get in the trenches with our guys and get acclimated very quickly so that in the off‑season we can, I guess, speak from experience.

Q.  Congratulations.  You're a Detroit guy now.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN:  Absolutely.  It's the Motor City.

Q.  Tell me, the makeup of the team, you have an Aussie, you have a Brazilian and a Frenchman.  Are you going to be able to merge with these guys?  Got a lot of competition up here with Team Penske.  How do you think the synergy will be and how tough is it to tell Ed that you were leaving and how did he take it?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN:  Well, I think to take your first question, I don't know.  I mean, I've not had this type of dynamic with personalities before like we're going to have.  But I think you can definitely see there's a strong work ethic and a strong sense of team work here within Team Penske.

So I think the challenge aspect of having three other really talented drivers around me is only going to be a positive thing.  There's guys from all over the world that bring a little something to the table, and I'm going to try and do the same.

I'm going to try and bring a little something extra that these guys haven't seen before which helps the whole program.  And in return, I'm expecting to get a lot of that from those guys.  I'm excited for that mix.  I don't know what it looks like.  Don't know what it feels like yet.

Like Tim said, we're going to have an opportunity to do that really quickly, which is unique.  It just kind of worked out, great timing.  Excited to see what that brings.

On the inside, you know, it's very difficult.  It was really difficult ‑‑ it was almost easy up until the end of the season, because I didn't really put much time into it.  We really just focused on trying to win the championship, get back in the hunt after the whole Texas deal.

We had a great effort going all year with ECR, and so I didn't really spend much time thinking about it.  I waited to spend a week and take some time after the season finale to really assess everything; and I came to the conclusion of where I wanted to go and where I saw things and where they probably needed to head.

And when I had a conversation and made the decision with Ed, it was difficult.  I mean, it was a great partnership.  It was a great, great environment for me and to do something different is never easy, but I think at this point, it can be a very positive thing for the growth of my career, and I think ECR is going to come out great from it, as well.

Q.  Jokingly, in the spirit of the political season, I wonder if you can offer an endorsement for who might replace you at ECR.  You've worked with Spencer and J.R. and there's some interesting candidates out there for sure.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN:  You know, fortunately I'm not in the position where I have to decide those things.  So you know, luckily that's down to the different people.

Like I said, Ed's got a great group with the ownership they have over there, so I'm sure they are going to make a great choice.  They have got a great team.

So I expect to be chasing hard to beat them.  I know what it's like on that side and they have a really good product.  I don't think it's going to be easy coming to the other side trying to beat them now.  So I have no idea.  I hope they make the best choice, and I'm sure they will, and we'll see where they land.

Q.  You mentioned this came together rather quickly.  But you also knew that the Penske organization had sort of been watching you for a few years there.  What's that dynamic like, and when did you kind of get the sense that if the numbers and the contract stuff could be worked out, that this was going to be the place that you wanted to be?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN:  Well, you know, I don't think I did.  I think it was ‑‑ fortunately it was a short, but it was a short period of time where I was in limbo.  I actually didn't have a job.  So you hope it's going to work out.  But like I said, I didn't have much time to think about it during the season because we had such a great effort going.  We all really wanted to focus on trying to win the championship, which was the most important thing.

And then when I finally did start to think about it after Sonoma, really aggressively ‑‑ I knew there would be other opportunities.  I knew there would be other interests and I knew I wanted to try something different.  I knew that was something that I was looking at heavily, and I think at that point, you try and go a different direction and hope it all works out and fortunately this time, it did.

Q.  Josef seems a bit against the grain for some of your recent hires in that he's a little younger than Simon and Will and didn't bring two championships like Sam did.  What made him the guy even back when you spoke to him several years ago that you thought he was going to be a guy that you had to have eventually in your lineup?

TIM CINDRIC:  Well, he's shown me he's a winner.  He's shown me he can handle himself on the racetrack and off the racetrack, and that's really the core ingredient for us, is somebody that can work in our environment, because our environment is not for everybody.

But at the same time, as Roger has always said, it's hard to run a driving school with the expectations that are here and we need to also have somebody that we feel like can work within our group, our teammates and that kind of thing.

When you look at who we've hired over the years, it's been an important part of our structure, although it's not the No. 1 requirement, we want people that can drive race cars and represent our organization and those that we represent in the right way.  Felt like he fit that mold.

Obviously he's got a longer runway in terms of age than maybe some of the hires have or what‑have‑you, but that's really not the motivator, either.  It's more about how do we build the strongest team we have for the upcoming years.  We felt like, as I said, there's never a good time to make a change, especially when you've had success with the guys we've had.

You know, replacing Juan Montoya with anybody, that's a difficult call.  I'm sure if he doesn't end up racing for us in the future, he'll still be winning races and he'll still be one of the guys to beat.  You know, he's not done for sure.  So it's just a matter of us trying to understand what's best for us, and short‑term and long‑term, I guess that will all play out, but this is where we are.

Q.  Have you identified a potential long‑term partner or whether we can expect a sponsorship partner or whether we can expect to see the No. 2 in the kind of like variety that we have seen the last year like PPG, Verizon and DeVilbiss?

TIM CINDRIC:  Yeah, I would say there would be a few exceptions to that, additions or subtractions possibly.  Our 2017, our total lineup for every race isn't totally defined.  We needed to get this piece of the puzzle out there first.  But I don't see it being dramatically different.

Q.  Do you think that Joseph's personality, and obviously now reputation for sheer speed, do you think that that will help attract a more long‑term partner?

TIM CINDRIC:  We've got a lot of personalities around here, as you know (laughing).  I think he'll bring a different dynamic for sure, and I certainly see it as a positive going forward.  I think it helps the potential.  I don't think it hurts the potential in any way.

Q.  I wanted to ask whether you feel like, as someone referred to earlier, you're the only American and you're suddenly in a prominent position; whether you feel like kind of an almost patriotic sense of pride ‑‑ not just pride, but actual dependency, like the future of IndyCar is depending on you.  So many people say that IndyCar will spring to even greater prominence once we have an American champion again.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN:  Well, I think a great championship is going to be built on a lot more than one person.  I can't see that coming to fruition.

There's definitely a sense of pride in being American, especially joining a team like Penske.  I think it's one of the most successful teams in the world and a team you dream about being a part of.  It really is, it's kind of the American dream, the team itself.

So to be a young, American guy; to get an opportunity to drive with this type of group, it's everything you could ask for.  It's everything you could dream of.  And I'm sure that's going to resonate well with some people.  I don't know how much that moves the needle or not.  I'm not the right guy to ask that.

But I think, yeah, I think for sure, you know, there's a lot of things that are going to help move the needle in IndyCar Racing, and I think you've already seen a lot of them.  I think we are on a good trajectory right now and there's a lot of excitement within the sport and what we are doing with IndyCar Racing.  I hope to add to that.

Winning races is all I care about.  It's my focus for the team and trying to help them win championships and the Indy 500 and I think if there's people that are interested in an American doing that and Team Penske, maybe it will help the cause.  But I don't know if that's the whole equation.

Q.  I know it's probably premature, but could you give a status update on Helio Castroneves?

TIM CINDRIC:  That's a broad question.  He's down there trying to fight the hurricane today.  If you're asking about our driver lineup for next year, this is the only change.

So yeah, he's a guy that as I've said before, he's been a big part of our team.  When you look at the definition of kind of team work and leading by example on and off the track, he's certainly done that. He's a guy that, like anybody else, his career is not forever, either.  He'll be the first one to tell you that.  He's a big part of where we've been.

He and I started with this team at the same time, so certainly a lot of loyalty there and on both fronts.

Q.  Everybody gets into racing and they know who Roger Penske is and they know that that name is synonymous with success.  Did you ever dream of driving for Roger?  Did you ever dream about this or envision this?  Did that ever enter your mind?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN:  I think for me, I watched everything when I grew up.  I saw NASCAR, Formula One, sports car racing, IndyCar racing, numerous Indy 500s on TV.  Never really got to the race to see it in person until later on in life.

But you always knew who the Marlboro cars were back in the day and they always had those iconic liveries and they always were well kept and they always were distinct within the field.  If I was going to give you the best answer, that's what stands out to me when I was younger, and I always thought, those are the coolest cars out there and I want to drive one of those.

You know, I got into racing actually relatively late.  I didn't start racing, truly, until I was 13.  So you know, it doesn't date back to me being four or five that I had this dream to drive for this team or that team.

I think the more and more I got immersed into racing and really started trying to learn about it and get my hands around everything and understand where I wanted to be; I think the more respect and history that I learned about Penske Racing and how amazing it would be to be able to drive for an organization like this; it's a huge honor to get this type of opportunity and to be a small piece of it.

So to answer your question, yes, it's probably just in a different way for me.  I think my career was a little different in the way it progressed up.  It's an honor.  I think this place is the American dream, and it's one of the best teams in the world.  So it's crazy to be a part of it now.

Q.  Just a quickie.  Roger likes to get on the phone and talk to drivers.  Did he actually get on the phone and offer you the job, and what was your quick response?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN:  You know, I don't think I've talked to Roger on the phone until like 24 hours ago.  That was the first time I ever had a phone conversation with Roger, really, which was great.

Really, this team has been so easy to get immersed with, in such a short period of time.  I've had a lot of help from Tim in a short amount of time and Roger to try and sort through something and see if it would work and it was a very easy decision to make when it came up.  It was a quick process but it was very easy to see this was the direction I wanted to go.

So yeah, to answer your question, I think I've had help from a lot of people, Tim and Roger have just been great to me.  I don't know much about them to be honest with you.  I'm still learning.  We talk about just being here today trying to take everything in; I'm like trying to tread water right now as a young guy.  I don't know much about it and I'm trying to learn about everyone.  But they have been nothing but gold to me so far.  I can't tell you how easy it is to get to know these people and how well they take care of you.

Q.  Will Brian and Myron and the rest of the crew pretty much stay the same on the No. 2?

TIM CINDRIC:  I don't think our off‑season will be any different than in the past.  We'll sit down and consider all that stuff in the off‑season.  We'll have plenty of time after this testing.  So you know, certainly a believer in continuity to whatever extent makes sense.  But we'll evaluate things in the off‑season like we always do.

So I guess nothing is etched in stone.  But there haven't been any decisions made to make any changes, so I don't know if that really answers your question.  But first thing we need to get in place was who is going to drive the car, and then we'll go these next couple tests, and really after next week, we don't run for, really, probably until next year.

So we've got a lot of time to think about it and try and understand what's the best way forward.

Q.  I know loyalty is a big part of who you are and you've been with Ed and Sarah and that group for a long time.  Was there anybody, drivers, anybody else within the sport, that you sought for counsel to help you make this decision?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN:  Well, I think you're always assessing things.  You're always talking to people that you're close to.  And for me, it wasn't a matter of, you know, this team, that team.

I think for me it came down to:  Do you ever want to do something different than what you're doing currently, and if you do, is that the right or wrong decision.

I think it would have been very easy for me to continue with ECR and have a lot of success and be very comfortable, and just have a great team behind me.

But for me, it came down to trying to make a decision if I wanted to try something different, and specifically, doing that while I was young still in my career.  If you're given that opportunity, do you want to take it?  That for me was the hardest part.

And there's a couple people that were close to me that I tried to bounce things off of and figure out if that was the right thing to do.  I don't want to get into who they were, but yeah, you always have people that are close to you that try and help you try to sort things mentally.

THE MODERATOR:  Thanks, everybody, for calling in.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports ...

Nice conference call this morning ... Josef Newgarden mentioned dreams but was not overly dreamy. Always focused.

American Driver, American Team ... American Dream.

... notes from The EDJE




TAGS: Josef Newgarden, Penske Racing, Ed Carpenter Racing, Tim Cindric, Sonoma Raceway, Alexander Rossi, INDY 500, Juan Pablo Montoya, Simon Pagenaud, Will Power, Helio Castroneves, The EDJE, ECR, Roger Penske,