LEEDS, Alabama – When Simon Pagenaud signed with Team Penske during the offseason the talent driver from Poitiers, France gave the most successful team in the Verizon IndyCar Series a four-driver lineup for the first time in its history. And after three races all four Team Penske drivers are in the top seven in the standings with Juan Pablo Montoya leading the points by three over Helio Castroneves. Defending Verizon IndyCar Series champion Will Power is sixth, seven points ahead of Pagenaud, who enters Sunday’s Honda Grand Prix of Alabama seventh in points.
Pagenaud finished fifth in the season-opening Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 29 and is coming off an impressive fourth-place finish in last Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. His one finish out of the top five was a 20th place finish in the April 12 Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana at NOLA Motorsports Park when Pagenaud was involved in a crash with Ryan Hunter-Reay and Sebastien Bourdais that ended the race under caution.
Pagenaud put the controversy and disappointment of NOLA out of his mind when he arrived at Long Beach and it showed in his effort last Sunday.
“The whole race for me was fun,” Pagenaud said. “Fighting with Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya at the start it was fun. My car was very fast. The engineering group gambled a little bit – I’m not going to say what it is – the car was really, really fast and it helped tremendously in the race. There wasn’t a drop-off in the tires.
“I just wish we had started up front. We would have had a great shot for the win.”
After hitting the streets of Long Beach the Verizon IndyCar Series heads back to a natural terrain road course at the 2.3-mile, 17-turn Barber Motorsports Park. In four previous starts at Barber Pagenaud has never finished lower than eighth and has two top-five finishes including a fifth in 2012 and is coming off a fourth-place finish in last year’s race.
“We had a really good test there and the Penske cars were really fast,” Pagenaud said. “I look forward to it. I think we could have another really good weekend. We have never been out of the top-five in any practice.
“Our momentum is just starting right now.”
Pagenaud’s long-time engineer, Ben Bretzman, moved over to Team Penske with the driver and sees tremendous potential this weekend at Barber Motorsports Park as he feels more comfortable with the operation.
“Simon is asking the right questions now and getting a lot more comfortable in the cockpit and even myself, I’m getting a lot more comfortable around the team,” Bretzman said. “As a group, the 22 group, we are gelling more and the momentum is starting to go.”
Pagenaud’s presence on the team has apparently inspired the other drivers at Team Penske.
“All four drivers are uber-competitive with themselves,” Bretzman said. “There is a reason they are always so quick – they push each other so much and always want to beat each other. Simon being one of the top drivers the last three years and coming over here has really taken it up a notch. They are all pushing each other really hard.
“At the end of the Long Beach race, Juan was smart and using his old tricks to hold Simon back but Simon was giving him everything he had. That’s what you want – you want your superstars driving hard and that is what the fans got. It’s good.”
When Bretzman is in the engineering stand on pit lane during a race he has to be cool, calm and collected. But inside, the competitive fire burns fiercely.
“I’m a big race fan,” Bretzman admitted. “When we passed Juan on the opening stint I was fist-pumping and clapping. At the end of the day we are all having fun doing this. We are all race fans and we are all racers. That’s the most important thing.”
Bretzman is confident Pagenaud can give him plenty of reasons to get excited this weekend at Barber Motorsports Park.