Andretti’s Honda-powered Dallara has turned the fastest lap – 228.978 miles per hour (368.504k/hr) in 39.3051 seconds – in warmup sessions for time trials Saturday and Sunday at the iconic 2 1/2-mile (4km) Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Its not going to be like past year, where we had an advantage.But with qualifying set for Saturday and Sunday and the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 scheduled for May 29, Hunter-Reay expects the gap to close quickly.I fully expect things to come a little bit more into the norm by the time we get to Friday, Hunter-Reay said.
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For one day, at least, Ryan Hunter-Reay ruled the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. For now. Hunter-Reay topped the 33-car field in Wednesday’s practice with a lap of 228.202. Hopefully we can get back out in the next day or two. “It felt fast. It was definitely eye-opening in terms of not having any kind of prior comparison to a place like this”, said Rossi on his first experience on the oval. It feels great to be back in the vehicle. Franchitti went on to victory with Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon finishing second.
WHAT HAPPENED: American rookie J.R. Hildebrand was poised to take the checkered flag when his auto drifted high on the final turn of the last lap and he hit the wall.
“Race day I think it will actually sort out pretty good”, Schmidt said. With rain forecast throughout the day it’s hard to tell exactly how much track time we will see. “It’s obviously a big setback for me, for the team”. Franchitti also began to conserve fuel over the final laps, but he was able to hold off Dan Wheldon.
Karam, the 21-year-old looking to drive in his third consecutive Indy 500, enjoyed tutoring his fellow racers. “I don’t have to drive a vehicle”.
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“We’re working through things, working through setup, some qualifying stuff, some race stuff, just getting in the mix, getting in traffic and it’s been a fun day, a challenging one at times”, said Hunter-Reay, the 2012 Verizon IndyCar Series champion. For the month of May, I’ll be coming out to Indy more and staying here with him.
