2016 ABC Supply 500 Reaction: 'A Very Good Comeback'

Will Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Mikhail Aleshin and others react to the wild day for the Verizon IndyCar Series in the 2016 ABC Supply 500 at Pocono.

IndyCar drivers had a lot to talk about following the 2016 ABC Supply 500.

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Whether it was the shake-up in the league championship picture, an unbelievable day for one driver or a wreck on pit lane, there was no shortage of material to comment on from Monday’s event at Pocono Raceway.

Team Penske’s Will Power earned his fourth win at Pocono, tying him with Simon Pagenaud for the most victories this season – and bringing himself to within 20 points of Pagenaud in the IndyCar championship hunt. Here’s what Power had to say through a league statement in Victory Lane:

"It was a very good comeback and I am very happy to win here. I love winning 500-mile races and this is one of the toughest ovals that we race on. We are chipping away at [the championship] and obviously there is still a lot to go. Now we will give it everything because we really want to win this championship.The car started off really, really difficult to drive. We adjusted on it all day and for the second half of the race, the car was just awesome. Awesome in traffic, really fast. Just a lot of fun to drive. The Firestones were really good today. Very consistent the whole stint. Just lost a little at the end there so thank you Firestone, as always awesome tires and very reliable.Mikhail [Aleshin] was giving me a lot of heat there at the end. I was like, ‘Man, is he going to get me?’ He was close. I felt like if I could take his air in [Turn] 3 but I felt if he had to lift there, I would be okay, but he was very strong. That is as good as it gets. No mistakes. Great stops. As an overall team effort, that was as good of a day you could possible get. Thanks to my team."

Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay delivered the performance of the day. The defending race winner overcame a poor qualifying position and engine trouble to finish third on Monday, but he was still not satisfied afterward:

"It’s heartbreaking. This the type of year it’s been for us. Really heartbreaking. The No. 28 DHL Honda really deserved to be in contention for the win there at the end.Going through Turn 2 it just shut off. I cycled the car once, nothing happened and then I got on pit lane and cycled it again. It turns off then it re-fired and we were a lap down. I had to come through the field twice. The car was a rocket ship. It’s a shame."

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ Mikhail Aleshin began the ABC Supply 500 on the pole and ran within the Top 2 most of the day, ultimately finishing second as a great follow-up to his strong performance at Mid-Ohio. Aleshin spoke about battling Power and how he’s taken so well to oval racing:

"The team did an amazing job with all the pit stops and the car was good. We needed some changes on some of the stops. One of which wasn’t very good and that’s when I dropped [back in the field] but on the next pit stop we gained everything we had lost. Unfortunately, in the end, I just couldn’t get Will. He was just too fast. Seriously, I was on the edge. I almost crashed a couple times when I was right behind him. I had wiggles and I just couldn’t get him.Now I like ovals. I like them even more than most of the road courses. Here, it was just awesome, such intense racing. You’re always at the edge and at speeds of 220 mph, you never know what is going to happen and plus today, you had so much wind coming in. So I’m just happy to bring the SMP Racing No. 7 up to second place. We didn’t get the victory, but we were very close.Will was just so fast. He deserves it. In the end I just couldn’t do anything with him. I’m just happy for the team. They just took an amazing step forward to bring my car home in second position and they had some amazing pit stops."

Power’s teammates Helio Castroneves and Pagenaud were both involved in crashes during the 2016 ABC Supply 500. Castroneves was taken out of the race when his car was claimed during a pit lane collision between Alexander Rossi and Charlie Kimball, and described what it was like being temporarily underneath Rossi’s No. 98:

"Inside the car, I was actually more protected than what it looked like. Sometimes people don’t realize the Verizon IndyCar series are so much about safety and today is the proof of that. Very glad that nobody got hurt. It’s just a shame. The Hitachi Chevy was really having a good day and we just had another good pit stop when I was coming out of the pits. All of a sudden there was a car on top of me. It was a little strange to be honest.The Team Penske guys worked really hard to try and fix the car but there was a lot of damage. It’s certainly unfortunate because this will hurt us in the championship battle but our team will never give up. We’ll move on to Texas where, fortunately, we’ve had a lot of success."

And here’s what Pagenaud said after a late-race, single-car spin that put him into the wall and his championship lead in jeopardy:

"I don’t know what happened at this point. The car bottomed and I went straight to the wall. Really weird because I had bottoming but not to that extent. I just lost control of the steering. It felt okay leaving the pits. Turn 1 was fine. Turn 2 was fine. I don’t know. That one’s weird but it’s definitely a bit of a shame.It’s really disappointing because the Menards Chevrolet wasn’t great, but was good enough to score some points. There’s nothing we can do about it now, so we’ll move on to Texas. I don’t think it changes anything. We’ve gone all out all season and that’s not going to change."

Pagenaud will now be looking to gain some points back on Power as the IndyCar series makes a very quick turnaround. The league is heading to Texas, where it will have to finish the second half of the 2016 Firestone 600 this Saturday, Aug. 27.

2016 ABC Supply 500 Driver Reaction: ‘A Very Good Comeback’

By Brittany Frederick | Aug 22, 2016

Will Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Mikhail Aleshin and others react to the wild day for the Verizon IndyCar Series in the 2016 ABC Supply 500 at Pocono.