Photo Credit: IndyCar
The third practice session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 saw Honda showing some promise have six cars in the top-10, while Chevrolet which had shown dominance up to this point of the season had four. The practice didn’t go as well for everybody, though, with a couple issues.
The top speed of the day went to Ryan Hunter-Reay, driver of the No. 28 DHL Honda, with a 228.202 mph.
“Coming off the year we had here last year, where I couldn’t get the car to do anything I needed it to, it’s nice to have the No. 28 DHL Honda up toward the front, especially here at Indy,” he said. “This is what we wait for all year- to get back here in Indy and start working on the car and building energy of the biggest race in the world.
“We’re working through things with our set up; some qualifying things and some race things- just getting into the mix and getting into traffic. It’s been a fun day- challenging one at times. When that wind switches around, it certainly throws you for a loop, but I was definitely pretty happy with the car there at the end.”
Following him for second was his Andretti Autosport teammate Carlos Munoz, driver of the No. 26 United Fiber & Data Honda, with a 228.066 mph.
“The United Fiber & Data car feels pretty strong,” he said. “We were trying some stuff today- we were concentrating on our race car. That is our mentality right now, the race car and then trim for qualifying.
“The good thing is the speed is there. We have been running in the front and when we go out for the long runs seem competitive. It is a good point to start as a team, we still have a long way to go.”
The fastest Chevrolet for the day was Will Power, driver of the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet, with a 227.733 mph.
“Yeah, I mean, the tow is worth about six miles an hour, so (the current speeds) are not really representative,” he said. “But yeah, it’s just a matter of finding good traffic and understanding your car and seeing what works and what doesn’t work. I think the cars are a little slower this year for sure, and the Hondas look strong, very strong.”
Fourth was Josef Newgarden, driver of the No. 21 Preferred Freezer Chevrolet, with a 226.998 mph.
“Practice here at Indy is so Interesting,” he said. “Everyone’s up and down on the time sheets, and it’s kind of hard to put any stock into what you see on practice days. Everyone’s getting tow laps, some people are in qualifying trim and some aren’t.
“For us today I think we made the car better in traffic. That’s why were were able to get a better tow lap and go towards the top of the sheets. I still feel we got a little bit more to go. I think we’re feeling good. I think we’re quick, I really think our ECR (Ed Carpenter Racing) cars are going to be fast.”
Rounding out the top-five was Gabby Chaves, driver of the No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda, with a 226.889 mph.
“Good day,” he said. “I mean, we had a little bit of running, about 30 minutes of running on Monday, so today was our first full day, and we got through a lot of changes, got through all our program, did some traffic running, and like I say, I’m pretty pleased.”
Sixth through tenth were as follows: Charlie Kimball, Townsend Bell, Sage Karam, Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal.
There were two incidents during the session. The first one being Spencer Pigot, driver of the No. 16 RLL/Mi-Jack/Manitowoc Honda, who crashed after he lost control exiting Turn 1 and spun into the corner making contact with the wall on the left side of the car.
“The car was feeling pretty good, I think we’d been making improvements,” he said. “We’d jut done our quickest lap I think the run before, so everything was feeling good.
“After we looked at the data, we found that the right front tire went down followed immediately by the right rear, so I must have run over something that cut the tires and caused the spin.
“It’s obviously a big setback for me, for the team, obviously not what you want to happen on just the second day. Like I said, we’ll just try to put everything back together and then pick up where we left off.”
The second incident was Mikhail Aleshin, driver of the No. 7 Schmidt Peterson Motorports Honda, whom blew an engine.
Practice continues through Friday May 20th.
