Tony Kanaan Reunites With Chip Ganassi Racing For Partner Car Season Ride With Jimmy Johnson

Jimmy Johnson picks tri-athlete friend, Tony Kanaan to pick up the oval race event duties of the No. 48 Aeroscreen Dallara during the 2021 & 2022 NTT INDYCAR SERIES seasons. Here, TK negotiates Turn 9b at Sonoma Raceway in his last race for Chip Ganassi Racing in 2017. Both NTT and Bryant have hopped on board to sponsor TK's pursuit of a second INDY 500 championship to match up with the one he got with KV Racing Technology in 2013. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2017)

Tony Kanaan Reunites With Chip Ganassi Racing For Partner Car Season Ride With Jimmy Johnson

Tony Kanaan accepts position with Chip Ganassi Racing to drive a car he will share with Jimmy Johnson for the 2021 & 2022 seasons. Jimmy Johnson will drive all events held on road and temporary street courses and Tony Kanaan will drive the No 48 on the oval race events. 

This contract will give Tony the opportunity to be entered and compete in the INDY500, a race he won the championship in 2013 for KV Racing Technology.

NTT IndyCar Series News Conference - Monday, November 23, 2020

Tony Kanaan - Chip Ganassi Racing

Press Conference Begin

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everybody. Great to see everyone today virtually. My name is Dave Furst. A very special announcement this morning from Chip Ganassi Racing that Tony Kanaan, 17-time race winner and of course the 2013 winner of the Indianapolis 500 and the 2004 NTT INDYCAR Series champion, TK will be returning to the team as part of a multiyear deal with Chip Ganassi Racing next year that will include four oval races for the series: Double-header at Texas Motor Speedway, of course the 105th running of the Indianapolis 500 and a return to Worldwide Technology Raceway. With that we welcome in TK and say congratulations.

Tony, this is the Last Lap 2.0? Is that how this works now?

TONY KANAAN: I don't even know anymore. I don't know what to call it. It's been a surreal last few days. This thing happened so quick. Although people would think different that this has been going on, this was obvious, it was never obvious. It took a lot of work from a lot of parties to make it happen, but it's cool.

So yeah, I don't know what to call it. Let's just call it I'm sharing the 48 with Seven-Time.

THE MODERATOR: That's right, this is the second half, if you will, of the 48 car on the team with seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson driving the road and street courses. This is a really good partnership. You two have gotten to know each other pretty well over the last couple years, haven't you.

TONY KANAAN: Yeah, coincidence or not, we share the same passion of triathlon. We're sponsored by the same bike company, which is Trex. We've been sharing workouts for a long time.

Even before I made this deal happen, when Jimmie announced that he was going to race in INDYCAR, he was here in Indianapolis. He came here to work out at Pit Fit. We went cycling together. It's going to be -- I think we're going to be even fitter than we've ever been. We've been pushing each other already, so I don't know how that's going to be possible.

But yeah, it's a good fit.

THE MODERATOR: Before we get to questions, obviously it's an opportunity to return to Chip Ganassi Racing, which of course will celebrate its 13th NTT IndyCar Series championship, sixth, of course, with Scott Dixon, but Bryant returns, so does NTT. This is all coming together. This is a very special announcement here today.

TONY KANAAN: Yeah, if it wasn't for them and Chip, obviously this would not have happened. Bryant has been with me since 2003. NTT has been with me since I've joined Ganassi, and since I left Ganassi they came with me, as well, and now they're back.

You know, I have to blame a lot, if there is somebody to blame, number one, it would be my sponsors that when I came back saying maybe we should come back next year, David from NTT and then Justin and Margo from Bryant said, why not.

And then Jimmie for making that phone call. That phone call -- you know what is one of those things that you remember exactly the day, the clothes you were wearing, where you were and so on? I was actually on my bike working out, which is not a surprise, here at home, and the phone rang, and it was Jimmie. I'm like, whoa, I thought he was going to invite me to do a triathlon or something like that, and he popped the question, and I said, are you joking? I don't think we can pull this off.

But yeah, without the sponsors that would have never happened. And obviously Chip giving me the opportunity to come back.

I mean, how cool is that; know what I mean? I woke up this morning, I feel extremely lucky, man. I'm going to go back to a team with my best friend Dario Franchitti, my other best friend Scott Dixon, and now Jimmie. How cool is that to write a story afterwards when it's all over. I feel blessed. I can't thank everybody enough for pulling all this effort together, my family, my wife. She kind of knew that I wasn't giving up. I guess she's okay to put up with me for another couple years like that.

Q. I'm not real good at math, but if we've got a car with a seven-time cup champion and you're a 2004 INDYCAR champion, isn't that an eight-time champion car you've got there?

TONY KANAAN: Yeah, I think so. We can call it the eight-time. That's a good hashtag, #eighttime.

Q. I did a lot of interviews with you toward the last Indy 500 and last year's race at Gateway. You could tell you weren't ready to hang it up. How can you describe just the change in emotion from what has happened to you since that time where you admitted, hey, I want to come back but I don't have any rides, to today you're returning to a team that's one of the best in the business and also a team you've previously driven for?

TONY KANAAN: Yeah, I mean, I would say probably if it wasn't for the pandemic, I wouldn't probably have changed my mind. There were some talks about doing the 500 and on and off and this and that, but I wasn't clear.

And then when I said, this is not the way I want to go, I was fully aware that this was what I wanted, but that didn't mean that's what was going to happen.

But like anything in my life, it never came easy, and I made the decision, and if it didn't go through, I was going to have to own it. I put my head into it. I said, oh, well, I'm not going to give myself an option, I'm going to make it work, and luckily, like I said before, I have great partners like NTT and Bryant. And as soon as I came back with them, 7-Eleven is back, too, Big Machine is coming back, all of them.

But the two biggest ones were NTT and Bryant really that made this happen.

I was lucky then, but then that was step one, get the sponsorship. Step two, it was trying to find a place that would fit right, that would make the right decision and so and so, and that was a little bit more complicated. There was a few sleepless nights and talking to Jimmie every day, like come on, what's happening, and trying to -- if you think about it, look how many pieces of the puzzle we had to put together.

Jimmie had to get his deal first, which we didn't even know if it was going to be Ganassi at the time. Yeah, the deal happened really quick, but we've been talking about this on and off for quite a while. But in the beginning I really said argh, this is never going to happen. That was the pessimistic side of me thinking it was going to be impossible to pull it off.

Q. How, does Jimmie have one more mentor with you because I imagine you'll be at all the races in one capacity or another?

TONY KANAAN: Yeah, I mean, look at Jimmie. Jimmie has the best mentor in the house, which is Dario Franchitti. That's not me. It's Dario's role. I think I can contribute for sure. I'll be there if he needs me, but with Dario -- obviously with me he's more like hey, how do I need to make my neck stronger, how do I make my shoulders stronger and this and that. I think the driving side, we have the best driver's coach in the business to do that, and that's not my intention to do so. But if he needs help, I'll definitely be around. But yeah, we've been talking a lot. Jimmie is an extremely committed guy, and he's been concentrating a lot on the task. That's what the guy does. We talk pretty much every day.

We haven't had a chance to celebrate together yet because of the pandemic and stuff, but after what he made me go through, I think it's more than worth it that he needs to buy me a few drinks.

Q. I wanted to clarify something with you first. You'd mentioned that you and Jimmie had been talking about this off and on for a little while. How recently did this become what felt like a realistic possibility? Was it over the last couple days, last couple weeks?

TONY KANAAN: A week ago. A week. Yeah, a week. You know, the talks were always there. As long as you're out of contract, you are talking to everybody, right. So I basically did. I was in negotiations with Larry. I was always up front with him. We talked to other teams. And in the meantime everything else was happening.

We got it done in amazingly record time, for how complicated the deal was.

Q. You said that if not for the pandemic that 2020 very likely would have been your last year. I imagine the lack of fan interaction both at the 500 and at other races that you were running in 2020 had to have played into this. How important is that hopefully at some point in 2021 or 2022 that we have that back for you to put a cap on things for your career?

TONY KANAAN: Well, I think that was the only reason really that I said I wanted to come back. I mean, there is no other reason -- I mean, yeah, do I want to win the 500? 100 percent. Am I in the best place to do so? 100 percent now. Those are the details. But the sole decision to come back from day one was because it wasn't fair for the fans.

Never in a million years did I thought I would come back for two more times, which became a pleasant surprise because then I give myself another caution that if it's not sort of a normal year next year then I have hopefully for sure a normal year in 2022. But that was the only reason really.

Q. The ability to return to a team like Chip Ganassi Racing, I know when someone -- an INDYCAR driver, I just was looking through it, there haven't been too many INDYCAR drivers that have spent a significant part of their career there and been able to come back for a second time. What do you imagine that opportunity and that ability these next two years to be like?

TONY KANAAN: I mean, first of all, that shows how much respect and in good terms I've always been with the teams that I've worked with. I've never closed a door. I spent four years there, and I told Chip at the time I didn't think I delivered as much as I should have and I needed to go, and we went away.

To be honest, come back, having an opportunity like this in the last two years of my career, it's something that I'm not taking for granted. I mean, I talked to Chip last night, and we have one goal. It's to make this team win the 500. Chip just told me, I added another big chance to do so with you, and that's my role, and that's what I'm here for.

Like I said, I feel very humbled that I have these eight races in the next two years to do it. I don't think commitment is a problem with me. I think you guys have been following me for quite a while. I think I'm in shape, and I'm ready to do so.

Arguably some people said my best results came on the ovals, so let's please the people that think that and let's go win another 500.

Q. I imagine you'll be one of the most active people in the lobbying effort to try to get some more ovals on the schedule for 2022 before you hang things up?

TONY KANAAN: I already sent a text to Mark Miles and Roger Penske saying, how about this track, how about that track. More ovals for sure.

Q. What was it about the first stint with the Ganassi team that's got you wanting to come back to this team? Clearly you've got a great vibe with those guys and you know so many guys as well as you do, but to be able to come back and do this again with them.

TONY KANAAN: Right, as a race car driver you want to race for the best team, for the winning team. They have proven on and off that they are one of the top teams to beat, and as a race car driver, being selfish, that's where you want to be. It doesn't matter who you want to. You want to be on a winning team and a big organization that has a lot of resources and so on.

It's not a hard decision; know what I mean? It's like you're asking a kid if he wants to go for an ice cream. It was obvious.

I have a lot of friends there. I kept a lot of friends there since I left, so it's just -- like I got so many texts this morning from the boys in that shop, and it's just like, hey, welcome back, and we just started talking. I talked to Barry. Barry Wanser, which is the team manager there, our sons Leo and Robert are best friends. Robert spends sleepless nights here at the house when Leo is here for holidays and stuff, and it felt like I never left really. The relationship and the respect was always there, so it's not new, I guess.

Q. Was there something Jimmie said specifically that got you hooked in this conversation, or was it just kind of something that was always there and you just needed it all to fall together?

TONY KANAAN: Yeah, Jimmie just said let's make a dream team and let's make history together. We're two 45-year-old guys that some people believe we can do it but a lot of people believe we can't, so let's prove them wrong. He didn't have to say much, man.

Q. I wanted to ask, are you able to tell us how many other options you had, and were they good options, and did that kind of bolster your self-belief that you could go and do a Ganassi car justice?

TONY KANAAN: It wasn't that many because if you think about it, you're trying to look for -- I wanted to do the four ovals again when I said that, and really the realistic option was Larry, because none of the other teams wanted to split a car or do anything like that.

Vaguely a long time ago I talked to Ed, but Ed and I, we wanted the same thing, so it was not a possibility there. So not really. To be honest, I did -- did I make a ton of phone calls? 100 percent, but it was never a negotiation in place because it didn't make sense.

So then it went to trying to make a decision, so I just go and try to do Indy with all my sponsors and that's it. That would open up more possibilities. But the realistic one was Larry, and then obviously the most obvious one was this one because it was just like meant to be, I guess. How often do you see somebody like Jimmie trying to -- I'm not doing the -- I guess it's just one of those things in life that happens once in a lifetime.

And I have to apologize because you wrote the most -- a great article that I loved it, and now you're going to have to rewrite it I guess in a few years.

Q. We need more great races to talk about. I also wanted to ask if this opens the door for you to be part of Chip's Cadillac team in the IMSA enduro run or maybe more of them?

TONY KANAAN: That's totally up to Chip. Obviously he put me in a car before, he gave me my Daytona 24-hour win, so I'm available. But that's his decision. We haven't really talked about it. It's one of those things that I know if he needs somebody and if he wants me to do it, I'll be available. If not, I'm pretty sure he will have plenty of capable guys. I have a guy like Scott Dixon that you probably know of him that is probably ahead of the line there.

Q. Obviously this is a bit of an adjustment in terms of the final laps now coming in a car that's able to win races, and it's a really competitive opportunity for you. How do you feel about the enjoyment that you're going to feel because I know obviously every driver wants to be at the front and winning races, but are you still going to be able to enjoy this opportunity with the little bit of added pressure that's going to come with driving a car that's capable of winning the races and being at the front?

TONY KANAAN: 100 percent. I think -- my entire career was racing under pressure, and I think I perform better when I'm under pressure. It adds a lot to it. The enjoyment, it's always going to be there. Once you're driving a race car, in my opinion, you always enjoy it, but you enjoy it even more when you're winning, and you add the pressure to it, I think it's -- for me it's the best combination. I mean, Chip is in the business to win races. That's all he cares. I mean, and he won't save you if he has something to tell you.

To me it's a great problem to have, that butterfly in your stomach from now on. It's like, wow, now I have to do it. I have some tough teammates there that I'm going to have to be on top of my game because the team is going to give me everything I need with no excuses to win races.

Been there before a few times, and I think it's totally manageable.

Q. And you mentioned earlier about leaving Ganassi and that it was just the right time for you and you felt like it was the correct decision at the time. That was that really. Does it feel like any kind of unfinished business going back there, you can help them out and make a big impact on this organization, and it's kind of like a bit of unfinished business from the last time you were there, I guess?

TONY KANAAN: 100 percent. I got a second chance to redeem myself and give Chip another 500 win, and hopefully I will do that, work with my teammates to make the team stronger, as well, and if I can win -- try to help them to do so, this is something that, again, I keep saying it's probably one of the best opportunities of my career. It's the best opportunity for me to leave this series, because I am telling you this time for sure in two years I will not be racing when I'm 50, but I said that two years ago.

To leave on a high note, that would be great. I will do everything I can to do it.

Q. What advantage is this to yourself going back to a team obviously that you know inside out in terms of getting up to speed with the car, you've worked with Dixie, you've worked with Dario, but obviously now you've got Alex Palou coming in and Marcus Ericsson who obviously you haven't worked with. How much of an advantage for you is it going into the team now?

TONY KANAAN: I mean, I think, like I said, it's not new. I know the guys. I mean, we talked about it today with Barry. They have my seat. They know my measurements. I was just there three years ago. It's just going to be like we took -- like it was a long "pandemic" and we're just coming back to work and that's it. Getting to know Palou will be nice. I think he's a young gun that has a lot of potential for the future. Ericsson, I know Ericsson; we've been cycling together for quite a bit. I have not worked with him. And Dixon is Dixon. We hang around all the time. He actually just texted right now congratulating me. He's in England.

Really it's not -- I don't need a transition. I think it's just going to be back to work.

Q. And the aim obviously is to win the 500 with Chip then, correct? Is that the focus?

TONY KANAAN: I told Chip I'll win four races for him next year if that was good enough. He said, that's totally fine. So yes. Yeah, the 500 would be the priority for sure.

Q. Edmund Jenks, Motorsports Journal - I was just doing a little review of your career and noticed that you didn't finish worse than eighth in the time you won the championship, and you had a very consistent run with KB Racing Technologies when you won there for your Indy. Fact, Lotus, come on, you finished P4 in a Lotus and P5 in the season. I mean, that's just an interesting reflection. What gets me, though, is this is a -- I recognize as you recognize what a great chance it is to be with Ganassi again. I just think it's a tremendous opportunity. What do you see are the biggest challenges? You've been there before. You've got all these people, a couple new drivers to know, but what are the real challenges for you?

TONY KANAAN: Two things: One, they have improved the car there since I left, so to try to get used to the car as quick as I can, and I think the biggest challenge is not doing it every race. This year I felt it quite a bit on the first race to try to get back up, like you're not doing day in, day out. I've done this for 23 years driving pretty much every weekend or most of the weekends, and when you take a break like we did this year, the first time you get back in the car, especially with the limited testing because of COVID, it took me a little bit.

I think we have a pretty good program with that. I think I'm going to be testing the car eventually in the oval before I go to the first race, which is good. Those I think will be the two biggest challenges for me.

Q. Edmund Jenks, Motorsports Journal - You've got some new wrinkles this past year with two-race weekends, so you're able to kind of keep that in your wheelhouse, and good practice, I guess, for Indy 500, shaking everything down how the team works. The other thing is you have a lot of season open to you. What other challenges would you be going after? Would you be, say, thinking about with Chip Ganassi organization checking out the electric SUV racing circuit or anything like that?

TONY KANAAN: Early in the year -- no, later this year, actually, in the middle of this year, we announced that I'm doing Tony Stewart's SRX series, which is six races during the summer. Luckily they do not coincide with any of the INDYCAR races, so that's another six races there. That makes up to 10. And then we're looking around to some other things, too, maybe do some of the IMSA races, the long races, and there is some possibility of stock cars in Brazil. I think I'll be, now that I have more time, probably busier than I've ever been. Yeah, that is one thing for sure, another six races with Tony Stewart, and that will be a lot of fun.

Q. Do you think Jimmie will look for you advice in INDYCAR, or maybe, this would be funny, if he would show you some ropes in NASCAR?

TONY KANAAN: I think -- he's already asking me tons of questions, and actually the good thing is I am actually asking him tons of questions about NASCAR, but just because I'm sure I couldn't say, not because I'm going to race there. Jimmie is asking me because he needs to know, because that's his job. And for me I'm just -- I have a guy that won so much that I love to hear the stories.

So we've been telling each other stories quite a bit, so hopefully I'll help him with some of my experience so he can be successful in INDYCAR, as well.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks again for being with us today and another congratulations to Tony Kanaan and Chip Ganassi Racing, 24 seasons and counting now, TK. What a great way to head into this holiday week.
[ht: FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports]

Having two very accomplished drivers shar this car for the season in this way is really something special. As was pointed out in the ZOOM Call, Johnson with his 6 NASCAR Championships, and Kanaan with his IndyCar Championship, this Ganassi No. 48 Aeroscreen Dallara is a 7 Championship car opening up for the 2021 season.

... notes from The EDJE

TAGS: Tony Kanaan, Jimmy Johnson, No. 48, Chip Ganassi Racing, Partner Car Ride, INDY 500, Multi-Year Contract, NTT, Bryant, 7-Eleven, Big Machine, The EDJE 

Meyer Shank Racing Taps Helio Castroneves For Partial 2021 NTT INDYCAR SERIES Season

Helio Castroneves accepts medallion honor laid into the Long Beach Motorsports Walk Of Fame at the 44th Toyota Grand Prix Of Long Beach. Acura, the make of the sportscar Helio currently drives and has won championship IMSA sanctioned races in, took over title sponsorship in 2019. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

Meyer Shank Racing Taps Helio Castroneves For Partial 2021 NTT INDYCAR SERIES Season

What a grand silly season agreement for all who do not believe that former Penske Racing standout driver and 3-Time INDY 500 winner Brazilian Helio Castroneves' INDYCAR career is over. 

Welcome the era of six races with Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) next season. He will be fielding a second car along side of British teammate Jack Harvey in a six-race commitment season that will begin with the Honda Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park on April 11, Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 18 before heading to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the “500” on May 30 and the road race at IMS on Aug. 14. His final two races will include the West Coast Swing ... the Grand Prix of Portland at Portland International Raceway on Sept. 12 and the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on Sept. 19.

NTT IndyCar Series News Conference

Tuesday, November 10, 2020 - Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Meyer Shank Racing ZOOM Call Press Conference - Michael Shank, Jim Meyer, Helio Castroneves

THE MODERATOR: Good morning to everyone here. My name is Dave Furst from INDYCAR and the NTT INDYCAR Series. Great to see everyone here this morning. A reminder, through the beauty of Zoom, you'll be able to ask questions this morning and to do so please click the raise hand button in the chat and we'll get to your questions here in just a bit.

Special announcement to begin today and three gentlemen who have come together for a very special partnership. Helio Castroneves is a three-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, a total of 30 wins in the NTT INDYCAR Series and 50 poles, which puts him fourth on the all-time list. Jim Meyer is the CEO of Sirius XM and partner of Meyer Shank Racing, back in April of 2017, doubling down on his passion not only for motorsports but in particular the Indianapolis 500, and of course Mike Shank, who began racing back in 1989, found success as a young driver and as someone who leads an extremely successful sports car program, but then found himself with an opportunity to get into INDYCAR a few years ago and has built on that ever since.

We'll begin with car owner Mike Shank, who has a very special announcement. Good morning, Mike.

MICHAEL SHANK: Good morning. Thank you, everybody, for coming today. Although it's not a huge surprise at this point, although we tried for it to be a surprise, Meyer Shank Racing is really happy to announce that Helio Castroneves will drive for six races next year. We can talk about which six those are shortly.

This was a bit of a long process actually between Jim and I on who did we want to fill this very specialized role, and it had to tick a lot of boxes. Helio drove for me in 2007; is that right?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Yeah, that's right.

MICHAEL SHANK: 2007 in Daytona Prototype. We started to know each other then, and through a lot of common friends we stayed friends over all the long years.

I think there's so many reasons why Helio is the right guy for us, but I will lead with the passion. There's two things I want to say because this will be a question. I think the passion Helio has is as strong as any 20-year-old out there right now. I think the knowledge he has is times four of anybody out there. And I have to be honest with you, we have metrics that we look at from all the drivers that Bob Perona, our driver coach, has put together, and when we look at Helio's numbers from 2016 and 2017, he's in the top four of all categories when the switch happened over at Team Penske for him.

Of course we're not part of that at all, but what I'm saying is we saw a guy that was still driving at a level that can compete with anybody.

Lastly, what can Helio bring to help Jack Harvey, and we've built our program around Jack, and we're ready to expand it now, and we believe and we hope that Helio is the right guy for us.

THE MODERATOR: Tremendous announcement. Congratulations to all three. We'll start with Jim. It's kind of been a systematic growth for this team. What kind of a step is this for you guys, Jim?

JIM MEYER: Really it's exactly what we planned, and seldom do things go as you plan, but when I first met Mike, it's pretty funny, I approached him and said, I might have some interest in getting into racing, and he said, well, that's interesting, I don't really need a partner, and I said, yeah, you're right, I don't really want to do this anyway.

Then he and I proceeded to meet together over a three- or four-month period and lay out exactly what we wanted to do in INDYCAR and sports car, and certainly adding a second driver and eventually moving to two full-time cars on the INDYCAR circuit was a key cornerstone of what we laid out almost four years ago, and I couldn't be more thrilled that we're on our way.

I have to acknowledge that as you know, I think it was three or four weeks ago we announced that Liberty Media, who I know very well since they're a controlling shareholder of Sirius XM and many, many key assets, I know them very, very well. Obviously as you well know they control Formula 1, as well, approached us about interest in becoming a part of what we were doing, and we were thrilled that we were able to work that out, which actually accelerated our efforts for a second car in the INDYCAR circuit.

THE MODERATOR: Helio, you're back!

HELIO CASTRONEVES: I'm back, man. I'm so, so excited. This is incredible.

As Mike alluded, we've known each other for a long time. Mike and his wife built this team from scratch, and look what they were able to achieve, have an incredible sports car program and an INDYCAR program, as well.

Jim obviously is a person that's passionate about racing. I think him and I are going to get along very well especially because of that ingredient. I'm looking forward to knowing him better.

And having Jack Harvey as a teammate, he's been showing an incredible amount of speed on the racetrack. I guarantee you in 2021 he's going to become an Indy winner, as well.

I'm looking forward to working with this group, looking forward to the races. I know it's only six races; however, one of them is extremely important for me, which is the Indy 500, and I can't wait to be in the race car right now.

THE MODERATOR: Mike, you said you want to get into the races. Maybe let's do that and just talk about how mindful you have been in the expansion over the years, and I guess you wonder if you did it too quickly would you be at this point where you can expand to a second car here for the 2021 season?

MICHAEL SHANK: No, we'd be broke. I mean, let's see, in -- I'm getting confused in years here. In 2019 we had a -- we started with six in '18, went to 10 in '19. There was a point where we did the first six races of 2019 with a scheduled 10, with a budget, but we were ninth or tenth in the championship when kind of that first six races -- we looked at each other and said, hey, do we want to continue. We could go for this and rob Peter to pay Paul, and we all, including Jack, adamantly said, stick to the plan.

It's the same way with Helio here. We're going to do what we can afford to do at the highest level we can give Helio. We're giving him an incredible car, an incredible team that we've built around him. We'll have technical support through Andretti.

We can talk now a little bit about the races. We're going to start with the Barber Grand Prix. Then we're going to go right to Long Beach, and then we'll go to the Indy 500, and then we'll do the Harvest August race at Indy road course, and then we'll fish with Portland and Laguna.

That covers a lot of bases for us and our sponsors and partners. We will announce partners as we get closer to things. We're still kind of working that exactly out, what will be on the car.

The program has a ton of potential for the future, and Helio and I have an agreement to keep working on it and do the best we can, and we'll see where this thing goes with us in the future

While preparing to take to the track, Helio Castroneves finds himself at home at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the INDY 500. Image Credit: Chris Owens via NCIS (2020)

.

THE MODERATOR: Very cool. Again, virtually raise your hand and we'll take some questions here in this virtual format.

Q. Two for Helio and one for Mr. Shank. Helio, you and I checked in quite a bit during the month of August following your trevails talking to team owners for next year and all that. When did all this begin, the dialogue with Mike Shank?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: This was quite a while. Mike called me I think it was the first race in Petit, the short one. We spoke about it, and it started growing. He didn't -- for sure wasn't ready yet, and we kept just discussing and talking, and here we are.

It wasn't right away, but Mike and Jim worked really hard for this opportunity to happen, and I'm ecstatic. I'm ecstatic because I thought, okay, it's not going to happen, and all of a sudden when things started growing, I was actually getting more excited about it. Not only myself but Roger Penske is one of the guys that I asked for guidance, and he is the one, as well, that asked me, and here we are.

Q. So you have a part-time role with this team for six races; Ganassi has got an opening for an oval driver in the 48. Are you kind of hoping to get reunited on the track with your Brazilian boyhood buddy Tony Kanaan?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: It would be great. It would be great to be back with everyone, with Tony, with Scott, with my former teammates from Penske, and especially with Jack. As I said, Jack has been showing an incredible amount of speed, and he's so close so many times. I'm really looking forward to working with him and trying to build this relationship, new group, new group of guys, new group of people, new friends. I'm looking forward to a great season.

Q. For Michael Shank, a couple of years ago I talked to you at Barber and asked you when you were a one-off that year at Indy how you did it, what the budget was, and you said you went and you rented the timing stand and the pit equipment rather than buy it. Now here you are going from basically renting pit equipment to running the Indy 500 to having a motorsports powerhouse. Are you sometimes amazed at how fast this has come together for you?

MICHAEL SHANK: Yeah. Yeah, we really are. You know, I put a lot of this on Jim Meyer, to be honest with you. His passion for INDYCAR racing and his network and his world has really pushed the INDYCAR program kind of over the top. Plus on top of that I've learned a ton on contractual law and how to do deals. He deals with some of the biggest celebrities in the world, and just getting a nugget of that knowledge is really helpful for me I've found.

Listen, I think we'd have the sports car deal that we have today no matter, but make no mistake, this INDYCAR deal is driven by Jim, and I'm lucky enough to get to run the thing.

Q. Two questions for Helio and one for Mike. First off, Helio, congratulations, fantastic news. You're one of the most decorated INDYCAR drivers there is out there, three-time Indy 500 winner, as well. You've been away for a while, so why come back now?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Well, you know, I have to say, I have to thank obviously Team Penske to put me in the sports car program because I feel that it was a great experience, and I feel much better as a driver today than actually I was three years ago.

But you know, even though I was in the sports car program, INDYCAR has always been part of my life. I enjoy it very much. I love the sport. I grew up in open wheel. Basically as soon as the Acura program was terminated, I said, you know what, let's go back. Let's go back because I feel that I have unfinished business in the INDYCAR world. And here we go.

Having this program, six races, it's a great opportunity to come back and build something unique. Again, Mike and Jim, they are able to build something really spectacular, and I felt this could be a long way, and hopefully that's the goal.

And again, not only that, but it's coming back to the Indy 500, which obviously everybody knows we're really searching for that number four. Couldn't do it anymore with Team Penske; it could be awesome to do it with Mike and Jim and everyone at Shank Racing.

Q. You mentioned goals; what realistically is the goal for the season, given it's a new team and a limited schedule?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Well, the sky's the limit, you know. We have a great opportunity here. I don't see anything to stop us from having great results and winning races. I feel that you saw Mike mention about it when we spoke, as well, the commitment, not only from him, from his group, as well. Everyone is really excited, and we've got to carry this momentum, and just, you know, translate that to the race cars.

And Jack, as well, he has been there. He has already been with the team. It would be great to have this synergy together so that we can work together so that not only one car but both cars will be up there. Again, it's limited races, yes, but it's a great opportunity, and one that I'm really looking forward to.

Q. Mike, have you spoken with Helio about maybe running the IMSA sports car program with you next season?

MICHAEL SHANK: Yeah, we've talked about a lot of different things. That's not really what this announcement is about, but there's other things going on there for sure.

I think for me, from how much I dreamed about the 500 and the -- just the thought that we could have Helio or be a part of what Helio does to get a fourth just puts me over the moon, and I know it does with Jim, too, and it means a lot. What's that mean? It means I'm throwing everything we can at his car. There will be no budget. It needs what it needs to be the fastest machine we can make for him. Specifically for that race we're going to do lots of work to make sure that car is as good as anything out there.

You ask about results. Listen, we should be able to fit -- it's tough to parachute into these races, right, really tough, and that's been seen a lot last year. But we're going to test Helio. He's going to get some opportunity to run a little bit before we race, and there's no reason we can't finish in the top 5 in any of the races we do, none of them, zero.

We look forward to trying to get that. I just feel lucky that we got him.

Q. A couple questions for both you guys. I'll start with Helio. Kind of going off what Tim asked there, I know this is a new journey for you in your INDYCAR career, so much of it that had been spent chasing 500s and championships with Team Penske. I know it was important for you just to get back to this series, but going into this next chapter of your career, what kind of -- how do you feel like -- I'm trying to think -- how do you characterize this next chapter and what do you want to get out of it more than just kind of the results and the win side part of this?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Look, no question, with Team Penske it's 20 years we are talking about. They are part of my family. They were part of my life basically, my career, my life.

Right now, again, as you're still saying, Roger and I are partners in dealerships and he is the guy that I'll always ask for guidance. But now there is an opportunity here to make new friends, to build something different.

As you heard Mike saying, everything we're going to try to do here is to have a phenomenal result, and especially in the Indy 500. When you see that, come on, what more can you ask for?

As I mentioned before, Jim is a guy that's passionate about racing, and everyone is excited. Everyone is looking forward to it. We have work, yes, no question, but this is the new chapter of my life, as you mentioned, and I'm looking forward to building new relationships and having great results, too.

Looking forward to it. I can't stop smiling because obviously I'm extremely excited. It's been an amazing couple of months, no question, but we have a lot of work to do, but I'm ready for that challenge.

Q. You mentioned reaching out to Roger and using him for guidance and for advice. I'd be curious to know maybe kind of any advice or guidance he gave you in this. I know you've been a part of the Team Penske family for so long and it didn't seem like that was going to be an opportunity anymore. Did he in some way kind of give you a blessing or encouragement to go out and continue your career because he knows how passionate you are for racing in general?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: In fact, Mike, when we started talking, he went to speak with Cindric even before he was pursuing that idea. Roger knew about it. Roger felt there was a great opportunity, as well.

As you said, he kind of gave the blessing, and we're all here now, and super excited for next year.

Q. What do you feel like as far as this team goes, I know I think you said back in August when you were talking about wanting to come back to INDYCAR in some capacity, you said that you wanted to make sure that you were a part of a competitive team and a team that could give you everything that you needed to succeed going forward. What specifically about this team do you feel like made that perfect fit for what you were looking for in a next partner?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Well, hopefully I have enough time, but I have so many. One is the passion of Jim, another one is the commitment of Mike, to make sure that we get everything right for all the races, not only the Indy 500, for all the races. Mike has been doing everything he can, the technical support from Andretti, and obviously with having a great teammate, Jack, which has been showing incredible amount of speeds all of the season.

You keep it going, and as I said before, the sky's the limit. We are committed for six races. Who knows what's going to happen in the future, but at this point all of these ingredients were able to show me this is the right direction, and that's why we're here.

Q. Mike, you talked a little bit about why you felt like Helio was a good match for what you guys were looking for in building that second seat. What, I guess, is the roadmap, or is there any sort of roadmap that you guys have laid out beyond the six races that you have planned this year? Do you have maybe a number of years in mind as far as how long you hope it will take to build up to two full-season program cars?

MICHAEL SHANK: We have a roadmap that we're going to stick to that we use with Jack, and depending on what we put together for partners, it could be heightened or quickened, so we did six this year. We want to push that to at least 10 the year after, maybe the full season. We'll do with what the economics dictate and the partnerships dictate. Jim, do you have any thoughts on that?

JIM MEYER: Yeah, I would say the one thing that Mike reiterated earlier and it's taught me early on in this, passion can get ahead of your wallet if you're not careful because I mean, we're very competitive. By the way, I would just point out, I think as participants in this sport and owners, drivers, team members, we sometimes forget how good the racing in INDYCAR is. In my opinion it's the best in the world, and I realize my partners own F1. I think it's the most competitive and best racing in the world. And by the way, there's no reason why we can't win every week, and particularly with -- we couldn't be more thrilled with our partnership with Andretti racing and the technology we're getting.

I think the point Mike has taught me is not to let your passion get ahead of your plan, so we're very careful. We are not going to go any faster than we have the proper amount of funding. And I don't mean -- we could put the funding together now to expand, but we want to expand correctly and do it the way that we have with Jack and continue on that way.

It's going to be all about how we build, I call it the book, going forward for a commitment of the money to be able to do this correctly, but I'm confident we'll do that.

Q. For both Mike or Jim, whoever wants to chime in here or both of you certainly can, you both I think have spoken on it a little bit already on why you think a seasoned veteran driver was the proper fit. Is this just a partnership for 2021, you guys will evaluate and move forward? Is this a multiyear program that you hope you guys can build with Helio, or do you see this kind of maybe as some sort of a bridge maybe to what you guys can be five years down the road?

MICHAEL SHANK: We want to build it. If Helio is the guy, we both agree, Helio and us agree, we'll go forward with Helio if he wants to. We've all been in this a long time, and I want to see how this year goes. It takes a little bit to get the gel to happen. But you know what I like about this is I've got -- when you decide are you going to do a young or new guy or are you going to do a veteran guy, I just like hungry guys. I like hungry. I don't care how old you are. I don't care how old. Do the job. I've got a hungry guy that I know can do the job and wants to get a fourth Indy 500. So what's the choice? He's sitting there on the TV with us. So I'm really pleased to have him.

Q. Quick question for Mike and Helio. Mike, how important is it for you from both a business perspective but also a personal perspective that you have two cars next season to kind of build the momentum from this year into next year?

MICHAEL SHANK: It's very important. This is part of the grand plan that Jim and I when we sat down three years ago said that we want to do. We want to do it correctly, like we've said all along here.

You know, we're going to do two INDYCARs and one prototype car this year. This is exactly the size of business that Jim and I want to be. Jim can speak for himself here. We have plenty of work. We're building a new shop. We have 45 people working for us now, which is not a little team anymore.

Just so many positive things that have happened since Jim and I came together. I don't even know what to say. But this is just a natural evolution.

Jim and I like to sit and have a beer at the end of each day at the 500 in front of our motor homes, and to have two opportunities to sit and have a beer like that, that's just perfect for me. I don't know about you, Jim.

JIM MEYER: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. You know, at this point with our investment, we have in my opinion a huge new shop under construction in Ohio that we broke ground on about eight weeks ago that we're thrilled to accommodate the size of our new program. We wouldn't be building that if we weren't in this for the long-term.

And I just -- I haven't said it, we're thrilled to have Helio. I think Mike summed it up. We're just kind of thinking -- we think we got lucky, and we think he's going to be a tremendous partner for Jack. We're really pleased with our -- but we took a chance on Jack. Funny story, when Jack and I first met, we took a chance with Jack. We're thrilled with his progress, and I think 2021 is going to be a really, really outstanding year for us with both the No. 60 and the No. 6 car.

Q. For Helio, for yourself obviously this is a new chapter for you in your career. Do you feel like you're a rookie going into a new team or do you think you'll be able to bring an awful lot of your previous experience from Penske into MSR to kind of guide Jack then, as well, for next season?

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Yeah, it's starting out, again, no question, but it's starting different. When I started 10 years ago I had no experience, and now I know exactly what I need, I know exactly what I want and I see the commitment that the entire organization is ready to do it. That's not only showing me the light at the end of the tunnel but it pumps me up to go out there and probably the guys are going to say get out of here at one point because I'm going to be like digging everything I can, because it's what I love. That's the only thing I know how to do is drive cars, and that's part of my passion, and that's what I'm looking forward to.

It's great when you rejuvenate. It's great when you have something different and something new, but you see everyone putting the efforts together.

Man, this is going to be great.

THE MODERATOR: Mike, I know you've got to split. You're involved in a championship chase, as is Helio. I assume you guys are going to be rooting for each other.

MICHAEL SHANK: Yeah, what we're trying to do is not hit each other.

HELIO CASTRONEVES: Be sure when you see the No. 7, just wave and stop the other guys.

THE MODERATOR: Jack Harvey, back full time; Helio Castroneves, six-race deal, including the running of the Indianapolis 500. Congratulations Mike, Jim, Helio, good luck this weekend. Enjoy the off-season and can't wait to see you back on track in 2021. Thank you all very much.
[ht: FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports]

To have one of the best ambassadors for open-wheel racing back in the paddock is good news. The only thing that would make this a better deal from a fan perspective, would be the full season with a chance at possible swan song career-ending NTT INDYCAR SERIES Championship.

... notes from The EDJE

TAGS: Meyer Shank Racing, NTT INDYCAR SERIES, Helio Castroneves, Jack Harvey, 6 race, 2021, INDY 500, Honda, HPD, The EDJE

NTT INDYCAR SERIES' Best Shown At Firestone Grand Prix Of St Petersburg 2020 Finale

 

Scott Dixon & Family celebrate the achievement of a 6th NTT INDYCAR SERIES Season Championship with team owner Chip Ganassi of Chip Ganassi Racing on the podium at Saint Petersburg, Florida. Image Credit: Joe Skibinski via NICS (2020) 

NTT INDYCAR SERIES' Best Shown At Firestone Grand Prix Of St Petersburg 2020 Finale

At Saint Petersburg, Florida, here in a rare (why?) late October 2020 season-ending NTT INDYCAR SERIES race, a race that was thrown about every kind of challenge to overcome, from extreme build-up of rubber trackside marbles, to rain drops on the front straight, off track slides and sidepod rubs, witnessed a driver that did everything he had to do to win the race from P8 in order to best the season points leader who started at P11. It was not to be. Team Penske's Josef Newgarden took a 32 point deficit into this Finale but by winning and having Scott Dixon finish on the podium next to him at P3, he was still 16 points behind to finish at position two for the season. What he needed was to have some of these challenges, or a team miscue, force Dixon to finish P10 or worse.

All Hail To Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon - for achieving his sixth season championship - most of all time given the modern era - and only one behind AJ Foyt at seven championships which were completed before Scott Dixon was born in the far away island nation of New Zealand some 40 years ago!

This race was the first time the IndyCar season's final race was held at a temporary street course (why?) and this venue served up a classic whose ending wasn't settled until the last lap. Sure, many complain that a street course remains, pretty much, a nose to tail train where the only changes that can happen on the track are actually on pit lane, a Yellow Flag ... or so, or weather changing the whole nature of the racing surface - a nose to tail affair for sure. 

Let Sunday, October 25th, 2020 show that this wasn't a template that would rule this day, starting with the person who took the pole position at St. Pete for the 9th time in 12 races he's entered at this venue off of Tampa Bay, Team Penske's Will Power. The template was thrown out from behind the 60 pound Aeroscreen window when, after the field performed a clean start, Power missed a shift on lap 5 which had him be passed by Andretti Autosport's Alexander Rossi and Colton Herta.

RACER's MARSHALL PRUETT: St Petersburg reflections >>>

NTT IndyCar Series Media Conference
2020 Manufacturer's Trophy - Honda - Ted Klaus

ZOOM Call - Edmund Jenks - FROM Transcript:

Q. What challenges did the new Aeroscreen bring? Obviously you overcame them much more strongly. You still had to deal with the Aeroscreen in a way like any other manufacturer would. How did that work out for you guys? What were the big challenges? 

TED KLAUS: That's a great question. It was a big kind of change in the off-season. Really I would say the teams that embraced the driving simulator more holistically and were able to trust those results without a lot of track time were the teams that rolled off the trailers well. 

You can see as the season evolved, the teams that were kind of catching up to those Aeroscreen balance issues, it changed the aerodynamics for the surrounding cars, not so much for your car. It changed the way the car transferred load, especially during cornering. The cars don't just accelerate, brake, and corner, they do a lot of braking and cornering and accelerating and cornering. It really did upset things. And some teams really struggled with it. 

Combined with less testing, less of kind of an iterative loop to confirm your assumptions, boy, you have to hand it to Chip Ganassi Racing. They rolled off the truck fast and early. Scott got it done. 

You have to hand it to Penske and Josef at the end of the season coming back. Andretti as well. In the middle, Rahal marching along, really I think quite consistent and maybe we're looking for a breakout year next year from Rahal. I certainly hope so. 

Q. What are the bigger challenges going forward in 2021? Do you see more two-race weekends? How does that affect you? 

TED KLAUS: I really hope for the fans that INDYCAR continues to look at the length of the races in conjunction with the TV package. You saw with the first Harvest GP race, a fantastic race broke out because we were able to just kind of get on with it, really turn 'em loose without having fuel- saving mode. That's one thought for competition. 

I think for us, it's so many small little things. We'll be entering our 10th year with this engine. It's a lot of attention to detail. Also you got to hit the reset button. You've got to forget everything you did this year, get hungry again. You can't let your mind say that it's the 10th year. You have to assume there's incremental increases in everything we do. 

Finally the drivers need to drive us. We need to open up our ears and listen to Scott Dixon and Graham Rahal and Alexander Rossi and Colton Herta, Alex Palou, Jack Harvey, all these drivers. Let them drive us and our priorities for next year. Those are some thoughts as we go forward. And David Salters is going to be my successor. He is no stranger to racing. He's going to listen our teams and he's going to drive HPD to bring the power to them.
ENDS

Ed Carpenter Racing's Rinus Veekay from The Netherlands lands Rookie Of The Year for this health event truncated 14 race 2020 season. Image Credit: Joe Skibinski via NICS (2020)

NTT IndyCar Series Media Conference
2020 Rookie Of The Year, Rinus Veekay & Firestone Grand Prix Of St Petersburg 2020 Finale Winner, Josef Newgarden

THE MODERATOR: We've been joined by our new 2020 Rookie of the Year, Rinus VeeKay. Lots of news for you today. It was announced you have a new deal for next year staying where you are. And with taking the green flag, you became the Rookie of the Year. Talk to us about your day today.

RINUS VEEKAY: Yeah, first of all, very happy with my achievements for getting the Rookie of the Year. Also very happy to stay with ECR next year. Great team, really a team that helps me to get better and better, prepare throughout all the season.

Yeah, today was tough. We started with really good speed at the start. Yellow kind of threw me, the first one. Got into the pack, yeah, tangled up early, unavoidable. It happens. It's a street course. I'm not the only one that had a rough day.

We had the speed. I know we will be good at the season opener next year.

THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and take questions from the media for Rinus.

Q. Do you think you could have won? At one point you had the undercut on Josef towards the start of the race. If things had gone your way, do you think you had the pace to win that today and that was a lost victory or would it have been tough coming with the undercut towards the end of the race?

RINUS VEEKAY: It's never easy. Everything has to go into your favor. The way it looked pace-wise, I was kind of saving a little bit of tires. It was looking very good.

Then, yeah, after that first caution, went downhill pretty quick anyway. If that didn't happen, I think the podium was still possible, even having to go through the pack. We really had the speed.

It was tough, but I think, yeah, my second podium could have been a fact today. Going to have to wait a few months until I can do it over.

Q. The news this morning that you'll be returning to Ed Carpenter. Have you spoken to any other teams? Could you give us a little bit of background about the decision you made to stay with Ed?

RINUS VEEKAY: Yes, I'm very happy to stay with ECR. Everyone kind of agrees that the way we work together was great this year. Everyone agreed to keep going for another season. Everyone was happy with how we're doing. I think I have a really good team of guys surrounding me. I'm very happy about this year. I think we can, yeah, go for even more podiums and hopefully win this next season.

Team Penske's Josef Newgarden at P1 podium position for the race and P2 for the season, sprays champagne on Chip Ganassi's Scott Dixon who at P3 podium position wins his 6th NTT INDYCAR SERIES 2020 season championship. Image Credit Chris Owens via NICS (2020)

THE MODERATOR: We've been joined by our race winner, Josef Newgarden, and second place finisher in the championship. A few fun facts about Josef before we get started. It is his fourth win of 2020. He also became the third straight back-to-back winner at St. Pete, having won last year's race as well. Sebastien Bourdais did that in '17 and '18. Juan Pablo Montoya did that in '15 and '16.

Tell us about your day, Josef, the mixed emotions you must be feeling.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, it's very bittersweet the way this all wrapped up. I was a little bit somber coming into this weekend, to be honest with you, I think just because of the fact that we knew we didn't control our own destiny. We knew going into the weekend that we didn't have control over it. The only thing we could do was to take care of what we could control and try to win the race. If you win the race, it gives you the best opportunity to maybe win the championship.

It's tough. It's tough to get to this point, to look at the year, some of the things we've come back from, certainly how close we got, then to fall short. At the end of the day we did. We fell short. Just wasn't good enough.

I think all we can do is shake our competitor's hand, tell Scott great job, tell his team great job, and come back next year and hit him harder. That's all we can really focus on at this point. That's what I'm going to focus on.

Proud of what we did today. It was a really hard race. Tough to get right at the end with all the cautions. The tires were very tricky to drive after the warmup and the caution laps. Happy to get a win out of here. So proud of my team. They were just on it all year. I don't think I would change one thing that we did. I don't see how we could change one thing that we did. They were perfect all season in my eyes. Just short.

I guess a decent way to go into the off-season with another victory and to hold our head up high.

THE MODERATOR: Rinus, we'll let you go before we continue with questions for Josef. Congratulations on your Rookie of the Year.

RINUS VEEKAY: Thank you very much.

THE MODERATOR: We'll continue with questions for Josef.

Q. Lap 79, pass for the lead. You pick off two guys on the restart. How cool was that? What do you recall of that? How much did you realize once you were in the lead, all of a sudden you looked in your rearview mirror and there's Scott in third, you go, Man, that ain't going to be enough?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I wasn't really looking back most of the race, to be honest with you. I did see him there at the end. I could see he was in the mirrors and lurking. I knew they were pitting when we would pit, which is the smart thing to do. They just shadowed us all day, which is really the smart play.

We couldn't control them. We knew that. We knew that going into the weekend. It's the most disheartening thing, you can't control the outcome. All you can control is winning the race, hoping that something falls your way. We didn't have a lot fall our way this year. I was hoping today may be the day.

Like I said, I was looking forward most of the day. All we could do was control what we were doing, where our car was, trying to win the race. That's all I focused on. Once we got to the lead and made the pass, I was pretty happy. Just hoping things shook out for us, just trying to finish off and keep in the lead till the end.

Q. From your viewpoint, the pass for the lead on the restart, take us through that.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It was really tricky today. I mean, I would be surprised if it wasn't noticeable on TV how difficult it was on those restarts. There was a lot of pickup. The tires were extremely cold. We were struggling with the pace car to go quick enough was part of the problem. We couldn't keep temperature in the tires and brakes. Trying to get going again with all the pickup on the tires was really tough.

I knew on that restart Herta was one of the worst to get going with tire warmup. He seemed to struggle the most of anybody almost. I saw Palou kind of go for a pass on him. I knew on the inside it was going to be really tough to pull that off.

I tried to position my car in the middle of them, just wait for an opportunity for them to open the door slightly. That door just kind of half opened. I kept my line very tight to try to squeeze both of them, try to be a bit smoother on throttle, try to get the most out of it on cold tires. It wall really all I could do. It was just enough to get around those guys on the outside. After that I was just trying to hold everybody back.

Q. You end the season with four victories. That's tied for the most of any driver this year. How important is that to you?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I'm really proud of it, for sure. I'm glad to get another win. I hate to harp on the past. I don't want to be in the business of making excuses. I think we could have won six or seven races this year, to be honest with you. On one hand I'm really proud. I think we've had phenomenal racecars. Team Chevy has given us pretty much everything you can ask for. Great engine performance, great partnerships as always. I've always had good races with Hitachi on the car. I don't know why that is. They seem to be a good luck charm specifically for us this year.

I'm disappointed. We could have won six or seven. I don't know that I would change much about what we did this year. I don't know that I'd ask our team to do much different. We sit down and analyze everything, I don't know that we missed steps very often. We got bit a couple times being in the wrong place, wrong time. As far as our decision making, I was really proud of pretty much what we did all year.

Q. I know you mentioned about specific points in your race. I was curious to know if at any point was the team telling you where Scott was? How did you wrap your head around that? How did you maintain focus on the race?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: No, didn't get much info. Wasn't important, to be honest with you. Again, we couldn't control that. We just had to focus on winning the race. That's all I worked on.

I just looked forward, sort of knew the situation around me. Was more intimate with what was going on in front, directly in front of me. That's all I focused on. I wasn't really told where Scott was, what they were doing. I could see them setting up in the pits every time I came in. I noticed that. Figured they would do that. If it was on the flip side, we would do the same thing. If we were behind them in the race, we pretty much would mirror them if we were in their shoes.

I honestly wasn't focused on them because it didn't matter. Anything I was doing compared to them just didn't matter. We had to win. Scott wasn't the guy we were racing. We were focused on the other competitors.

Q. At any point were you worried about the competitors at all because that pass you made for the lead on Alex, it was pretty tight?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, it was very tight. I mean, I can't express enough how difficult it was on the restarts. It was like being on ice for like two laps. Let alone just the first corner, it was like that the entire two laps just to get going.

We were tiptoeing it. I was trying to be a little bit more ginger than those guys on the throttle, keep the car pinched on the apex in turn one as they pushed two-wide. I was on the clean stuff a little bit better. Gave me a better drive on the outside.

Even then I was wide myself in the next corner and about went into the wall. It was just tough, tight corners. I knew for us, we had to go for the win. It was our only chance to win the championship. I wasn't trying to be overly aggressive but I was being aggressive as I possibly could to win the race.

Q. Do you attribute any of the incidents today from what you could tell to tough racing in a season finale with guys going all out? What contributed most to all the on-track incidents we saw today?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Just hard racing. St. Pete, end of the year, first street course of the year. I think everyone was trying to make the most of it. That's part of it.

The other part of it was just the difficulty on restarts. The tires were so cold, they were susceptible to pickup in a really bad way this year for whatever reason. I think it made it hard for us. In some ways it made it exciting for all the racing.

That whole combination of being the only street course of the year, last race of the season, people were going for it. It was in tough conditions that they were doing it.

Q. You mentioned this felt bittersweet for you. How would you characterize what the last 10, 15 laps felt like knowing you were leading the race, have a good chance to win, also knowing that Dixon was right there?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I was just pushing. I was hustling the car, driving as hard as I could, trying to enjoy myself. I really enjoyed the race conditions, love driving a full race. It's my favorite part of the weekend.

I was pushing as hard as possible, trying to go as fast as I could, enjoying that process. I love that. It's my last chance at it for this year until we get back going again next year.

Just doing what we always do, keeping the rhythm, try to finish the race. I'll let the team tell me what happened when we're done.

Q. Your mindset going into the off-season now, is it easier for you knowing you couldn't have really done anything different this year or does that make it more difficult for you from a mental aspect?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I'm torn. I'm so torn with this season. On one hand, like I said, I take pride in the fact that I don't think we did much wrong this year. I really don't. If you look back at it, the one thing that I could nitpick is maybe we should have been on it a little better in a couple qualifying sessions. Yesterday would have been a key example of that where we may have miss stepped in quallie trim or didn't capitalize.

As far as race day, the decision making we did for a complete season, we finished every lap. We had the potential to win six or seven races on merit, in my opinion. It just didn't pan out.

A lot of the days where we should have been on the podium or should have won a race, they didn't fall our way. I'm extremely proud of that fact, that I don't think we would have done much different. When we analyze the whole year, we're not going to point to this mistake or that mistake. There just was not a lot of them, really any at all. It almost makes it that much harder.

You look at the gap that we were at five races to go, 117 back. You look at how much we clawed back for the season finale, to be beat by so little, that's what makes it bittersweet.

On the one hand I'm happy about a hard performance, but sad about the way the whole thing turned out.

Q. Was it important for you to go down swinging, to do everything you could do?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Hell, yeah. Yeah. Look, I show up to win every race, like any of these guys. If you don't have that mindset, I don't know what you're doing here. I'll always preach that.

We went for the win today. Yeah, maybe there's some days you'll say we don't be as risky on strategy, we might pull back a bit on that approach. We gave it everything we had. We tried to win the race. That was our only focus.

Whether we win the championship or not, we want to have a great race day, we want to represent our partners and win the race. That's what we did. We showcased Chevrolet, showed we had the best engine this weekend. Showed off Hitachi, our beautiful car. At the end of the day we won the race but it wasn't enough for the championship. That's okay. You're going to get that.

We shook our competitor's hand, told them good job, will come back next year.

Q. Is it fair to say or categorize this victory, the big bold move for the lead, would it be fair to categorize those as characteristics of you, who you are as a person and race car driver?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don't know. I definitely put my heart out there today. I think people saw that I'll do everything I can to put us in a position to win races or win championships. I've done that ever since I've started driving an INDYCAR. I think if there's anything to say about our performance today, you can definitely draw that.

I've tended to be more measured I think over the last couple years of my career. Specifically at Team Penske I think my approach has been more letting things come to us using our inherent speed and skill sets of our people to maximize the race better than other people.

Whereas today, you know, the only way to win this race was to just win it. You couldn't rest on just letting it come to you. I mean, you had to go and take it. The only way we're going to win this championship was to go and take the win. I certainly took that approach from my driving style today. I put it all out there. I knew we had to take a victory.

Once you get to that point and you're in the lead trying to win the race, fate wasn't in our hand. We just had to wait for something to come our way. Unfortunately it just didn't today.

THE MODERATOR: We'll let Josef go. Thank you, Josef, for joining us. I know it's tough with the situation. Congratulations on your win and we'll see you here again in March. Maybe you can make it three back-to-back-to-back wins.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Cheers. Thank you, everyone, for covering our series. I know it's been a hard year. Appreciate all the effort even with the difficulty. We'll see you guys back here next year. Hopefully it's a little bit more normal. Enjoy your off-season.
ENDS

Championship winning Scott Dixon secures his 6th title - the most championships by any driver in the modern era. One more championship will tie him with AJ Foyt's 40 year old mark at seven championships - set before New Zealander Scott Dixon was born. Painting Image: Bill Patterson via FB Page (2020)

NTT IndyCar Series Media Conference
2020 NTT INDYCAR SERIES Championship Winner, Scott Dixon - his 6th career championship

THE MODERATOR: We have our 2020 NTT INDYCAR Series champion who has joined us, Scott Dixon. It is his sixth title. He beat Josef by 537 points to 521 points. Another fun fact for everyone is that he is the first 40-year-old since 1993 when Nigel Mansell won the championship. With being 40 years old, 3 months, and 3 days, he beat A.J. Foyt for a sixth title who was 40 years old, 8 months, and 23 days. That's a lot to take in there, but congratulations, Scott. Wonderful day for you. Tell us how you're feeling right now with your title.

SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, thank you so much. It was definitely stressful I guess four, five, six weeks. I think at one stage we had about a 117-point lead. It definitely started to dwindle away.

I could see some concern on Chip's face and some others. I don't know what they were so worried about (smiling). We just had a smooth day. That's all we had to do. Obviously the hardest thing about today was just the restarts. The pace car speed was pretty slow. It was hard to build temperature. That's the only thing I was really worried about, getting collected or making a small mistake. Seemed most of the others did.

I've got to thank everybody at Chip Ganassi Racing for such a tremendous season. Normally we start off a bit slow but we came out of the gate strong as a team on the first four, which was huge. Had many a podium throughout the season. Just so happy for everybody, our partners, PNC, NTT, Huski Chocolate, everybody that's involved. NTT, so proud of them, to pull up and be such a big part of our series.

I'm over the moon. Six sounds a lot better than five, so I'm definitely over the moon.

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with questions from the media.

Q. We all know this hasn't been your best track, haven't won here before. What was it like having something like this to celebrate here in St. Pete?

SCOTT DIXON: Totally right. That's what I was thinking. We've led races here, are we going to have another bad luck situation. I was really bummed in qualifying because I felt like the car had speed. We just couldn't turn it on quick enough. We had brake problems all day. Once I hit this morning on track, the car was just fantastic once we pledged every part on the car that was to the brakes.

I love this track. I love obviously what Kim and Kevin do here, the mayor, everybody embraces the race here. It makes a huge difference. It feels really cool to finally celebrate something here. We have a lot of memories here, some of them not so great. It's nice to be in this situation to celebrate, celebrate it with loved ones, my family here today, the girls. The team and crew probably later. That's what it's all about. For me it's just the people that make this possible. This journey that we've been on for so long now, 19 years with this team, this is a great way to top it off.

THE MODERATOR: It is the 13th Chip Ganassi Racing championship, two of the last three have been with you. We'll continue with questions.

Q. When you're in a position like you were in today, you played it very smart by basically shadowing Josef Newgarden. Was that pretty much the strategy you formulated before the race?

SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, we were going to stretch the windows, the Honda engine was just getting such good fuel mileage. I think they were pitting short a little bit just to try to catch that caution that they needed to, or at least one that wasn't going to ruin both of our days.

We did talk about if I saw Josef pit, should I follow him. The team were like, We'll monitor it and we can call you in. As you saw, he'd pit, the next stop we'd go in. It's a bit tense for that lap, because a caution can happen, especially when it's so aggressive with people coming in and out of the pits. We saw plenty of mistakes made coming out of the pits onto the track. That cost guys that were doing very well today.

It was a pretty hairy race. The pace car speed, it was pretty slow. It was very hard to build the tire temp. I've never used first gear so much on this track in my life. You usually normally just use it for pit lane. A lot of restarts in first gear. It was very sketchy, really was a position for myself to make many mistakes today.

Q. How nervous were you on restarts, not so much that you might make a mistake, but somebody around you would?

SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, we definitely had some great people around me I think. Askew for a lot of it, VeeKay, then Bourdais. I knew I could trust these people, they weren't going to throw it in. Some of the other guys can get a little bit aggressive. I definitely gave some others a little bit more room.

I think the closest situation I had was Harvey, he ran me basically to the wall. I had nowhere to go. We actually touched a little bit coming through six. Luckily enough it wasn't enough to damage the front wing. That was the most stressful part of the whole day. Once we got running, the pace was very good. We could just kind of maintain. The restarts were very sketchy.

Q. With three kids you can complete the collection, each one has a championship. How important was that for you?

SCOTT DIXON: It's definitely a bummer that Kit is not here. He doesn't travel super well. He's a busy boy that is definitely crawling everywhere now, pulling himself up. I'm sure in the next week or two he's going to be walking. He's only nine months and maybe a week or two. He's pretty full on.

It just gives us more fuel to try to come back and repeat, get another championship where he can be in the pictures.

Q. I have to say I realize the smart thing was to shadow Josef. If Josef had lapsed onto a three-stop strategy at any point, would you have done that as well? Yesterday you said the tires were holding on pretty well, that made it less likely you'd need a three-stop strategy. Would you have shadowed him to that extent?

SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, I think we would have. Definitely depending on the start, if we were in front, we were going to kind of delay it by a lap. Sometimes we were talking about dealing with situations if he does pit, I should just follow him into the pits because the team doesn't have enough time to call it.

We also had the other cars, then they would switch to a two, cover him if they needed to, back him up so he didn't have a clear run with clear air there.

We tried to cover it as a team I think very well with all the options and make sure that we could cover it. How that works out, half the time you're never sure. Once we saw they started on blacks, we knew they were really going to go hard for a two-stopper. That's the way it played out.

Probably the stint we struggled the most on was actually on reds, and it was only because we didn't have enough fronts on the car. It was basically like a dragster, had limited gear grip, I just couldn't turn it. We would have gone to that extent to cover them.

Q. If you had started nearer the front, do you think you had the car to win the race?

SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, I do. We definitely had a major problem yesterday with the brakes. Normally we run 55 to 57%. I was having to run up to 63, 64% on the brake bias, still locking rears. We didn't know what to do between the practice session and qualifying. We changed a small part of the braking system, but it didn't do anything. Last night we changed everything for the warmup, it was like night and day.

I actually braked deeper into turn one with full tanks and used tires than I did in qualifying just because we were struggling so much. I was really happy with the car. We didn't run reds in the warmup so we didn't know how much the balance was going to shift. We probably could have put some front wing in for the start of it.

Catching up with an old friend where each time comes through a series of different circumstances - Scott Dixon poses with the Astor Cup. Image Credit: Joe Skibinski via NICS (2020)

Q. A question about Chip actually. Any words of encouragement from him leading into the weekend or any words from him Saturday evening at all you could tell us about?

SCOTT DIXON: I think all of his meetings are pretty similar. It always ends with: Do the obvious things right.

He always goes into visualize yourself getting three, two, and one. Visualize yourself getting that checkered flag first. Visualize the pit stops going smoothly. He's always has great words of encouragement.

Honestly today I can't remember what he told me. I think he said before I got in the car, he just said, Don't worry, just do what you do. That's what we did today. We covered the bases we needed to. He's been such a big part of my life from when I joined that place in 2002. I've learnt so much through his leadership, him and Mike and everything that they've done.

The biggest thing with Chip is that he's with you through the tough times. You don't see that too often. He's the first guy when I destroyed two cars in four laps, he'd be the one that's there like, Man, are you okay? We'll get another car, don't worry about it. We'll get another car.

I'm like, No, I want to go home (smiling).

He's a team leader. You can see why he's been so successful.

Q. You talked a lot about the restarts, trying to get the tires into a good window to work with. I noticed you weren't conservative at all on the restarts. Take me through your strategy.

SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, what I noticed, especially early on, if you're too conservative, you got kind of marched offline, you were going to be in major trouble. We saw that a couple of times with Herta. I think Josef got into that situation, and a couple others, maybe Pato on one of the restarts. It was like ice.

I think the best restart was obviously when Josef had control of the field and we sped the cars up a little bit. Which I understand why the INDYCAR Series does it, sometimes to make sure we just don't let these laps fall away.

Trying to get brakes cooled, I struggled a lot with that on the race. We didn't run rear snorkels on the car because that pace you don't really need it. Once you slow down, there's no air getting into the rear brakes. My rear brakes were cooked the whole time, which makes it hard actually to build up temperature, one, in the brakes, but also to try to get that tire to come in. The pedal started to go long several times. We started to get into some pretty big red zones on the rear calipers, which then the pedal just wants to go to the bulkhead.

The strategy was to be confidently aggressive. I think we had to make sure we didn't let it slip. I think if you got caught offline, especially on some of those restarts, the train was going to come by. I was very lucky to be able to place the car where I needed to in some of those situations.

The one that raced us hardest was probably Harvey. That almost went a bit pear shaped, a bit the wrong way. Luckily we came out of it okay. Yeah, I think when you start to change the way you race, you fall into a lot of situations that don't go very nicely.

Q. I know with your awesome start, needing to just kind of hold on and be conservative to clinch things today, how much did this whole season feel like a war filled with small battles, you had to conceptualize how to attack one at a time?

SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, I think it's weird. Like you see how championships go up and down. Honestly, as a team we didn't really change anything. Some people think a bit of complacency. I think you do start to overanalyze things a little bit. I think we had a bit of a curve ball I think at Mid-Ohio, which was tough for us. We think it was something that was out of our control in qualifying one and qualifying two was fine, I come to push the envelope too much and made mistake myself, which I try to pride myself on not making those mistakes, but I definitely made that mistake.

I think every season is full of ups and downs. It's the first time I've ever led a championship from start to finish. You do have some different pressures, where you have people saying, It's all done, it's sewn up. You don't want to fall into that situation, but then you start to believe some of those things. We've seen how quickly it transforms and how quickly it can change, especially with the likes of Team Penske and Josef. He's a two-time champion and a hell of a competitor.

Yeah, I guess every weekend is its own battle. It's very easy to slip into a bit of a rut. You lose a bit of confidence as a driver, the team loses a bit of confidence if there's been a mistake on pit road or strategy-wise. You have to snap out of it. That's the hardest thing to do.

I truly believe years like '04 and '05 where we were just sucking really bad, those are the years I learnt the most. It's all about the amazing people around all of us. We work well as a team. Even Dario and what he brings to the team, to help with Felix for my teammates, Marcus and Felix, it's been a huge year for all of us. It's really knowing how to manage those moments when you're pretty down.

Q. How tough was this week given these last couple weeks? You mentioned having to not only formulate your own plan for your car but also having to try to figure out a strategy to mirror or shadow another driver.

SCOTT DIXON: I think once we got out of Indy road course, the Harvest GP, that was when we could really understand what we needed to do. Obviously race one was a huge kick. We just wanted to stop the bleeding for race two. You don't want it to get too close.

Obviously today, look, both of us moved from I think Josef was 8 and I came from 11 to first and third. That's what can happen. I could have been easily in a situation where on a restart you get knocked out, you go all the way to the back.

It's easy to kind of say, We're just doing the same thing. The team is analyzing obviously how the year's going and how it's coming down to the championship fight. But you feel super vulnerable like we did for the Harvest GP just on the black tires. We just had no pace. We couldn't figure it out. We didn't know why. That's the most horrible situation.

For us I think last year I had the best average of qualifying for the whole year for any driver. This year was horrendous for all three of us. There's definitely some areas for improvement.

I guess the short answer is you don't really know how to structure the championship apart from going to win every race every time you go to a weekend till you get to the last one, then you know what you need to manage.

Q. I've just got a message from your mum here. She's been texting me like no tomorrow. We know what your mum's like. Your mum and sister want to say they're extremely proud of you. Your mum said, I helped create you, which I'm sure you'd understand.

SCOTT DIXON: Pretty valid quote there, yeah (laughter).

Q. Your sisters have been going pretty goo-goo watching the race. Monday morning in New Zealand. You're one of the only drivers that's actually led a championship run from race one right through to this final race. All the different situations that you've been in over the years, what is it like being chased as opposed to being the chaser?

SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, I don't know. I guess it's holiday in New Zealand, too, right? Everybody has the day off. Everybody can have a beer, which is cool. I'll definitely be speaking to mum a little bit later, and dad and my sisters.

Yeah, I don't know. I've never really done it before. When we had the runaway portion, we're like, This is great, this is great. When you start to see it dwindle... I've been part of those on the other side. I've been part of those situations I think with Helio, I think maybe 2013 we had a deficit of almost a hundred points or 83 I think, something I remember. And to claw it back and win it that way, it felt tremendous. The tiebreaker we had with Montoya in '15 was crazy as well.

I got to say it feels pretty nice to lead and know that you don't have to go through all these weird and crazy scenarios to pull it off. You just got to have a clean race. But, yeah, there were definitely points through the year that you slip into issues like I did at Mid-Ohio, and came up short. You lose a boatload of points.

Again, it's nothing you change, nothing you do different. It's crazy. You see it from so many different sides. You're like, They're choking. Honestly you're doing nothing different.

Short answer, it feels great to lead from start to finish. Hope we can do it again next year.

Q. Obviously it's a team game. Those boys in the pit lane led by Blair, another New Zealander, what is it like for them in this situation? You get into the car, get into your race mode. Some of it's out of your control, some within your control. For them there's a lot of pressure in pit lane, isn't there?

SCOTT DIXON: There is. Those pressures come in different situations, especially when you come in under caution. Everybody is packed together. That's when things can go wrong really quickly.

I think for us today it was very smooth as always. They're the best on pit road year after year. Their record is almost untouched as far as pit road time, which that's why we have a lot of great championship fights, is because of them.

But yeah, I don't know, each person deals with it differently. Emma gets very stressed. She's the one that I'll wake up in the middle of the night on these weekends, it's 3:00 in the morning, she's on her phone texting people. I'm like, You need to go to bed, it's way too early.

You see that with some of the crew guys as well. Boys and girls. You can see it in their face, just their demeanor. That's what's so important because you see how much it means to them, how much it means to myself and everybody involved. That's what I think is so amazing about this team, is that everybody here gives 110% every day.

Q. You won this in the middle of the pandemic. It was a late start to the season. What was sort of the biggest challenge navigating through this?

SCOTT DIXON: There were so many. I feel bad in saying everybody -- there's people much worse off than myself. I feel extremely lucky and privileged to do what I do. I feel very lucky to be a part of the NTT INDYCAR Series.

To try to do what Roger did through this period of time and run the Indianapolis 500 with no fans, it's definitely a year that none of us are ever going to forget. That's an obvious thing. Hopefully the majority of everybody have been safe and healthy. That's the main thing.

I think for me, I don't know, it's been very strange weekends. Things I think we have done will carry through. I remember going to Texas, we flew 6:00 in the morning. You're there all day, practice, qualifying, race, fly home at 2:00 in the morning. We were lucky enough to win that race. Celebrating in Victory Circle by yourself. So many bizarre ups and downs.

I truly feel so lucky to do what I do. I guess health is everything. As long as everybody that you can help or be in a situation to cater to, I think that's what this is about. That's what these moments are about.

Q. Did you have any trepidation about starting the season at all or were you ready to go when they said 'go'?

SCOTT DIXON: I think the problem was, right, nobody had been through something like this. Sometimes in some situations there was no right or wrong answer. I think we got here in March, everybody was here in the pits, everybody had done their prep. You should just run the race, no big deal. Then you see the severity of it.

I think the protocols is what really changed I think the formula for the year. We have a lot of thanks I think for NASCAR. They really paved the way. They laid out the protocols, how everything should be structured, how the testing should be done, how the pit crews and drivers, everybody should be separated, the travel protocols. A lot of effort went into that. A lot of people don't see it. I think that's what enabled us.

Then obviously to have somebody like Roger, I think the timing in a lot of ways with the purchase of the NTT INDYCAR Series and also the Speedway I think really pulled us through. I don't know in which direction it would have gone had it not been him at the helm.

Q. You've said it's a team effort this year, you don't like to attribute any one area being any more important than the other. If we break down the two key changes you made in the off-season, it was the staff coming in from the Ford GT program, also Mike Cannon as well. Can you talk about how important those two moves were in the off-season to the success you've had this year.

SCOTT DIXON: I think it was big. The Ford GT situation, I wouldn't say we lost, they just moved to a different program through that four years. We went from two cars, three cars, four cars. We bounced around a little bit.

This year was the first year in the off-season we thought we had a lot of depth. All these teams have a lot of different programs, whether it's wind tunnels to shaker rigs to simulation, DIL, driver and loop simulations. You need a lot of manpower. A lot of our engineers, race engineers, were having to cover all those bases. They would leave a race, go straight to the simulation or the wind tunnel or whatever. It's very hard to juggle.

The biggest thing is just processing the information. This year it felt really good. I felt like we analyzed a lot at the start of the off-season to see where we faltered, what areas we really needed to improve on. Some of those we got right, some we didn't improve on. We got to try to understand why that is.

Cannon I think brought a totally different dynamic to the team. Once you're in the ecosystem, it's like when you have an Apple phone, a Mac, you try to move off to an android or PC, nobody can kind of work it for a while.

I think he brought in a lot of different views of basically saying why do you do this. A lot of questions, a lot of questioning yourself, what he had previously done for many years at different places.

Not to say that we weren't doing a good job, but it's nice to have a different perspective, get asked why a lot of times, whereas we would just keep going down that tunnel we were in.

Both of those I think attributes to a lot of performance in different areas. But there's still some shortcomings we need to really focus on.

Q. We had Josef earlier. He said he thought maybe he could have won six or seven races this year. He didn't want to take anything away from your title, was very quick to congratulate you. He said he felt he's had a lot of misfortune this year. How good do you think you've been driving-wise this year to beat Josef at the top of his game?

SCOTT DIXON: I think it was still average. I think we in some situations definitely worked well as a team, got the most out of it. I think qualifying across the board for all three of us was definitely a bit of a hindrance for us. One really big swing I think was our performance at Indy, which a lot of that you got to attribute to HPD and Honda as well. I think as a team that process was really good. I felt good in the car. It was one of those situations.

But, yeah, I think every year there's so many different situations that you could have been like, Yeah, we should have won that race, we could have turned it around. There's so many misses that I've had throughout my career that that's part of racing unfortunately. There's championships I've lost so closely. '09, '07, you thought were in the bag, they just weren't, just didn't go your way.

You do need luck. You need some of those years where the momentum is with you. A win is a win, man. You got to take it. This team definitely deserved it this year.

Q. Before this season started you said you felt adaptability was your main area of growth in this series since you started. Do you think your adaptability is what helped you this year when you had the Aeroscreen, a bizarre calendar, all that sort of stuff?

SCOTT DIXON: I think I heard most of that, adaptability throughout the season. The line is getting a bit weird.

Yeah, I think that's every year. Whether it's weather conditions to the situation with the Aeroscreen changing the balance of the car quite a lot, to the different tracks, different tires. It evolves all the time.

The hardest part is that we don't have a lot of testing these days. If you look at the races we go to, you maybe get 45 minutes to an hour practice, straight into the qualifying, then into the race. Definitely been one of those years where you need to roll off the track well or adapt very quickly. I think this team is very good at adapting. When you look at the different iterations, whether it's the engine programs to the aero kits to different chassis and things like that, that's when this team really does well and dominates.

I think not just me, but it's the tools and the people that I have around me that help me specifically with the racing, but the team as a whole I think is very good at adaptation.

Q. What is preparation for next year? When might preparation for next year start?

SCOTT DIXON: Sorry, you cut out there.

Q. What is preparation for next year going to look like?

SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, preparation starts actually this coming week. We start testing at the Speedway I think on Wednesday and Thursday. I think I'm just doing Thursday, then the following week we're at Barber Motorsports Park, having a week off, then straight into Laguna Seca test, then a Sebring 12-hour week as well. It's definitely a busy time.

I'm not sure, I always question why we test so early. I'd rather test in February when we're getting ready for the season. Weather conditions, the window we have for being able to test, I think our blackout window starts maybe middle of February. Not a lot of tracks we can test at that situation with the team.

Our preparation will start obviously this week and next week with a lot of conversation, basically trying to figure out where we can make ourselves better. That's where it always starts. We're going to start analyzing the season on stats, qualifying situations, performance laps throughout the season.

You really got to dig deep I think now with the competition at the level it's at to really focus on what you need to beat in all these great teams and driver combinations.

It will start very quickly, very aggressively.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Scott, for joining us. Appreciate it. Congratulations.
ENDS
[ht: FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports]

NBC has revealed slightly improved TV viewer numbers for the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series, across NBC, NBCSN, USA Network and NBC Sports digital platforms.

Excluding both this year’s Indianapolis 500 – rescheduled from May to August for the first time ever – and the Friday afternoon round of the Harvest Grand Prix earlier this month, which aired on USA Network – the remaining 12 races (six on NBC, six on NBCSN) averaged a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 664,000 viewers, up two percent on 2019 (15 races, 649,000).
[ht: David Malsher - Motorsport.com]

IndyCar's best just keeps getting better - crowds or no crowds, the racing on the track is still the most competitive form of high-risk open-wheel challenge available in the world today. 

All hail the new Aeroscreened platform, temporary street course, permanent road course, small oval and super speedway venues NTT INDYCAR SERIES - can not wait to attend races in the opened up 2021 racing season.

... notes from The EDJE

TAGS: NTT INDYCAR SERIES, 2020 Season Finale, Firestone Grand Prix Of St Petersburg, HPD, Honda Racing, Scott Dixon, Rinus Veekay, Josef Newgarden, Ted Klaus, Bill Patterson, The EDJE