NTT IndyCar Series News Conference
Sunday September 22, 2019
Press Conference
Felix Rosenqvist
Chip Ganassi Racing
THE MODERATOR: We welcome to the press conference room, driver of the No. 10 NTT DATA Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing, Felix Rosenqvist, who is IndyCar's Rookie of the Year for 2019, and honestly, that might have been the best fifth-place finish of the season right there. Congratulations. A big charge, obviously you started deeper in the field than you wanted. Can you describe how aggressively you drove in this race today?
FELIX ROSENQVIST: Yeah, it was an interesting race because there was a lot of deg on the tires, and we all knew that. It was not just being aggressive all the time. It was kind of pick your moment and then after that trying to save the tires, trying to save the fuel.
You can feel every time you push through a corner properly, the next corner you're just on high. It was really tricky managing that, but I think we did a really good job with it. We were really good on the reds, maybe a little bit worse on the blacks, at least compared to the Penske cars. They seemed to come back a bit at the end of the stint.
Yeah, strategy was perfect, I'd say. That safety car helped us a little bit for sure. Yeah, it was a hell of a year. My Chip Ganassi NTT DATA crew has just been flawless all season, especially the pit crew. They've just never done any mistakes, just a few slip-ups, but I think we had the most solid crew of anyone this year, and I think they deserve this sixth finish in the championship and Rookie of the Year. Really good finish.
THE MODERATOR: I would think a pretty gratifying day even though a victory would have been the most complete part of the day.
FELIX ROSENQVIST: Yeah, that's still the missing part. I think we had a good chance this weekend for sure. Yesterday we were really fast, but yeah, we had to start from 14th, and that's how it is. At least we made it more exciting with the rookie championship. Colton did an amazing job, his second win this year. I think he's going to be one to watch next year, so big congrats to him. He did an amazing job this year.
Q. I understand that you won 50 grand for winning the Rookie of the Year title. Will that cover whatever fine you're going to get issued for your comment yesterday?
FELIX ROSENQVIST: I haven't heard about any fine yet. No, I mean, obviously yesterday was a tough day. We were all -- if I didn't get angry, I think there was something wrong with me. We all go 100 percent into this with full hearts, and when something like that happens, which I still think was pretty bad decision, but anyways, that's passed, an opportunity to get angry. It's part of the show, I guess, for you guys.
Q. When you dropped down to 12th in the championship overall at some point in the year, did you believe that you would end up finishing sixth overall, that you'd have such a strong second half of the season?
FELIX ROSENQVIST: Honestly not. As I said, we were really far behind at one point, and I just tried to focus on the rookie championship. I knew technically I could get sixth today, but I didn't know until I finished the race, and I was kind of shocked about it.
I guess the rail cars didn't finish that well, so yeah, I'm actually more happy about that than the rookie title. Being sixth, that's probably best of the rest, I'd say, all the guys in front of me have done a better job for sure, but all the Penske guys and Scott and Rossi, they've done a hell of a job this year, so hopefully we can be in that mix next year.
Q. Felix, how big of a deal is it with what happened with qualifying yesterday to get this good finish?
FELIX ROSENQVIST: It was a big deal. You know, this weekend was our time to sort of end the season on a high, and starting 14th is not normally the way to do that. Yeah, tried to use that little bit of anger to go forward today.
That was good, I think, and still, I think, it was a controlled drive. As I said before, you kind of had to be sensible when you had to and aggressive when you had to, and actually made a really interesting race here at Laguna. I think everyone enjoyed that, so looking forward to coming back here next year.
Q. You brought in a new audience, you're Swedish, et cetera, a European audience to watch the series this year. What would you tell other drivers in your situation that are looking at this series now that you've actually had a full season under your belt?
FELIX ROSENQVIST: I mean, I would encourage anyone to come over here. I know many guys are looking to do it, and some of my friends, they're always asking about how IndyCar, how are the ovals. That's probably the biggest question I get. Maybe a lot of drivers are scared of the ovals, which I can understand. I challenge anyone to come here and do well on the ovals immediately.
Doing well in the championship itself for sure is not easy. It's been the biggest challenge I've had. But yeah, I really hope that more Europeans come over here and show -- bring IndyCar more to Europe because there's a big racing audience there, as well. With me and Marcus, we probably increase that audience a lot, so yeah, hopefully more guys come in.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
Rev #1 by #206 at 2019-09-22 21:56:00 GMT
