It’s only one race, but if Team Chevy has this kind of horsepower, torque, and fuel mileage to offer for the rest of the IndyCar season, the General Motors brand will be hard to beat.
Josef Newgarden, Pato O’Ward, Scott McLaughlin, and Will Power used their 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6 Chevys to trounce the field throughout Sunday’s 100-lap Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg as they locked out the top four positions, with the winner from Team Penske turning his pole position into a victory that came with the race’s fastest lap and 92 laps in the lead.
“I think we had some deficits last year. There’s no doubt. You can’t hide from that,” Newgarden told RACER. “But we also had some tremendous strengths. We leaned on a huge win at the Indy 500, we were very strong on ovals. I think you’re seeing a good ebb and flow between the manufacturers, which you want to see as a competitor and as a fan.
“For us, we would love to have it easy, but we want a strong competition between the manufacturers, and I think you had that last year. Maybe we were a little bit weak in some parts that we needed to bring up, and I think today, as I assess the race and as I assess the weekend, I think you see a lot of parity.
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“I would say there was more parity than last year here. I think Honda looked pretty strong at this event for the [2023] opener [which it won]. I think this weekend we looked even in a lot of respects, but we certainly have strength on our side that we can lean on now. This is one example right now, one data point. Let’s keep going a couple more rounds.”
Although Chevrolet won last year’s Manufacturers’ championship, its rivals at Honda took the higher-profile Drivers’ championship, and it’s here where the Bowtie’s teams and drivers decided it was time for the car company to double down and try to rectify the situation. Based on Sunday’s performance, Team Chevy was listening.
“I’ve got to say, Chevrolet, they work hard every off-season,” Newgarden added. “They worked really hard this off-season. We were hard on ourselves. It’s not just them. We had to really improve our side on the chassis, and we were hard on them, too. We said, ‘We’ve got to make all of these things better,’ and they delivered in spades.
“You ask for the menu, and you don’t get the whole menu [of improvements]. They somehow gave us the whole menu. It’s pretty cool. They did a great job, and it makes me very encouraged for 2024.”