Chevy Racing–Indianapolis 500- Practice Day 5

Drastic Change in Air and Track Temperature Produce Varying Conditions for Chevrolet IndyCar V6 Teams and Drivers on Day Five of Practice for Indianapolis 500
 
INDIANAPOLIS (May 15, 2013) – With a drastic change in air temperatures that reached 91 degrees at one point, and track temperatures in excess of 125 degrees, Chevrolet IndyCar V6 teams and drivers worked through a new set of conditions as they continue their preparations for the 97th running of the Indianapolis 500.
 
Townsend Bell in the No. 60 Sunoco “Turbo” Panther Racing Chevrolet put up a speed of 223.716 m.p.h. to stand second at the end of the day on the final speed chart.
 
“The Panther guys have done an awesome job,” said Bell. “We had a rocky start with me coming in late from Laguna (Seca), but we’ve rebounded nicely since then.”
 
Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves, No. 3 Shell V-Power Pennzoil Ultra Team Penske Chevrolet was third on the speed charts followed by defending IZOD IndyCar Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 1 DHL Andretti Autosport Chevrolet who put up the fourth fastest speed of the day.
 
Posting speeds that landed them in the final top-10 of the 32 cars taking laps around the famed 2.5-mile speedway were Team Chevy drivers Marco Andretti, EJ Viso and Carlos Muñoz.
 
Pole Day for the Indianapolis 500 is set for Saturday, May 18, 2013 when in addition to the pole sitter being crowned; the fastest 24 cars and drivers locked into the field.
 
Practice will continue Thursday, May 16, 2013, from noon to 6:00 p.m. EDT.
 
CHEVROLET DRIVER QUOTES – PRACTICE DAY FIVE:
 
POST PRACTICE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
TOWNSEND BELL, NO. 60 SUNOCO “TURBO” PANTHER RACING CHEVROLET:
 
IS IT MORE FUN TO GO FAST THAN JUST TALK ABOUT PEOPLE GOING FAST?
“It is, it’s a lot more fun.  It feels a lot more at home for me to just jump in and not have to say anything.  Not have to smile, nobody can see you behind the helmet and just get after it.  It’s been great.  The car is solid. The Panther (Racing) guys have done an awesome job.  We got off to a rocky start when we came in late from Laguna (Seca) and car wasn’t ready.  My first run was like happy hour on the third day.  I came on track and you know what it’s like (talking with Dario Franchitti) when you haven’t been here for a while it’s all the little things.  At the last second my spotter just said ‘you might consider the warm-up lane’ at that point I was already doing about 200 (m.p.h.) and wouldn’t make the warm-up lane and would cause an even bigger accident.  So I just kind of squeezed up and tried to drive near the grass and it was not good, but we have come a long way since then.”
 
IT SEEMS TO BE VERY SURPRISING YOU JUMP FROM SPORTS CAR INTO OPEN WHEEL CARS AND BACK INTO SPORTS CARS.  IS IT DIFFICULT TO ADAPT?  IF YOU ARE AN ACCEPTABLE OR GOOD RESULT HERE AT THE INDY 500 ARE YOU NOT THINKING OR PLAYING WITH THE IDEA TO DO A WHOLE SEASON IN INDYCAR AGAIN?
“Your first question about adapting it’s like I said, it’s a whole lot easier adapting from a sports car to an IndyCar than from the telecast booth to being a racing driver (laughs).  In Laguna Seca we had a great weekend there, finished fourth in GT.  Which was our best result and a great result for all our partners.  The nice thing about Laguna (Seca) is you do a lot of left-hand turns so it’s nice to just shake off the rust driving anything.  Whether it’s a shifter cart or a GT car, luckily this is my seventh time at Indianapolis and so it feel pretty familiar.  The track hasn’t changed.  The equipment is largely the same year over year.  I’m driving for a team that I have driven for in the past, although everybody is kind of new for the most part. Still got JB (John Barnes) there, but engineering wise, mechanics, it’s just the chemistry of getting going.  Spotters are new, all of that.  So, it’s the non-driving things that are hardest to adjust to.  We’ve got some timing stand issues and telemetry and radio and it’s all that stuff.  Once I actually put the visor down and get out on the track and drop the hammer so to speak it feels very much at home.
“Your second question regarding full-time, I work hard to make sure I’m at the Indy 500 and I’ve got a great program this year with a bunch of great partners.  I haven’t been very successful in the past at trying to force things outside of Indy.  Usually it’s just the phone rings and somebody needs somebody for a few races or something and I’m able to jump in.  These days I’m pretty busy now between the television and the ALMS (American Le Mans Series) which I’m really enjoying.  It would be hard for me to say no to other IndyCar opportunities.”
 
LAST YEAR YOU SHARED WITH US THAT YOU LIKED GUMMY BEARS AS A CHILD… IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE WITH US IN THIS PRIVATE TIME?
“I didn’t know what you meant by revealing myself. I don’t know.  I love coming back here.  Shoot… what kind of secrets do you have over there brother (talking to Dario)?  I’m married, I’ve got two kids. I mean it’s all out there.  I Twitter, Facebook, generation you’ve got to stay high and tight. I was sworn in as the honorary Sheriff of the Pacific Palisades two weeks ago. I am a badge carrying sort of quasi law enforcement.  It’s a real gray area to be honorary Sheriff.  That is pretty cool.”
CAN YOU MAKE CITIZEN ARRESTS? “I think we all can (laughs).”
 
IN REGARDS TO DARIO FRANCHITTI MISBEHAVING IN THE AGE OF TWITTER AND FACEBOOK: “I don’t know a lot of guys that go to Sebring with their motorhome for a week just to watch (laughs). I actually went into the infield for the first time there at night. That was interesting.”
 
HELIO CASTRONEVES, NO 3 SHELL V-POWER PENNZOIL ULTRA TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: ON PRACTICE: “The Shell-Pennzoil car was good today. It was interesting out on the track with the wind conditions. We will keep finding little things and making improvements.”
 
RYAN HUNTER-REAY, NO. 1 DHL ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE:  “It was a good day for the DHL crew. We tried quite a few different setups because the weather is changing: the wind’s changing, it’s getting hotter. So we’re just logging more data for weather conditions and ended the day on a good note. We were on the top of the charts most of the day, but finished with a great race car so I’m really happy with it.”
 
MARCO ANDRETTI, NO. 25 RC COLA ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: “Today was interesting to say the least. We finished sixth overall, but we were trying new things on the car – obviously some things aren’t always going to work out for the best. It kind of goes back to ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t try and fix it’ – so not every change to the car is a good change. We made more progress yesterday than today, but that’s why we practice so much here. Tomorrow will be a better day for the RC Cola Chevy, we have a solid idea of the setup we want the car to have at this point.”
 
E.J. VISO, NO. 5 TEAM VENEZUELA PDVSA CITGO ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT HVM CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: “The preparation is still happening – we’re still following each of the steps of our test plan. Today we still answered some good questions that we had about the car, and what we are trying to do right now is make our race car even stronger. I think we are going to be good for the race, but there are still plenty of details to fix to have an even better car.”
 
CARLOS MUÑOZ, NO. 26 UNISTRAW ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: “Today’s practice was very similar to my run yesterday and we are continuing to practice different race setups before qualifying this weekend. When we got out
on the track this morning we needed to make some changes so we couldn’t get as many laps in as we would have hoped. Practice this afternoon went well when we ran as a team and I think I am improving after each run in the No. 26 Unistraw Chevrolet. The conditions on the track were similar to yesterday’s so there were no big changes, but I still need to improve running in these temperatures. Tomorrow is another day with different programs to try out. We still need to focus on figuring out what is going to work best.”
 
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: “We had a busy day. We ran 107 laps, more than twice any other day for us.  We had bad day on Tuesday, just a lot of problems.  The Fuzzy’s Chevy felt much better today and we ran in a lot of traffic.  With the heat and more cars, the track was more in a race setting.  We aren’t where we want to be just yet, but I think we are back into our scheduled plan.  We aren’t sure how the weather will play out the next two days, so we wanted more laps today.  We have been working on the race car and haven’t trimmed anything out for a qualifying setup.  Let’s just hope the weather is cooperating with us to get more laps in for Thursday and Friday.”
 
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE, NO. 27 GODADDY ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT CHEVROLET: ON TODAYS PRACTICE:  “I think the GoDaddy crew made some really good gains today. We had some troubles early on but we’ve bounced back from that. We’re still fighting the good fight that is Indianapolis. Well keep working at it – we gathered a lot of data over the five (Andretti Autosport) cars today and we’ll see where we are at come week’s end.”
 
JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 4 NATIONAL GUARD PANTHER RACING CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: “We’re feeling pretty good. We haven’t worked very much on our qualifying stuff yet, because there are still a couple of days before we really have to do that. More than anything, once we get to Friday and Saturday it’s hard to work on race stuff, so we’ve been running through a lot of things to make the National Guard car work well in traffic. And we’ve been trying to figure out what we need to do so we’ve got a fast car, but also a car that works well throughout an entire stint. I feel like we’ve made good progress the last few days. It’s always hard to tell running in traffic what other guys are doing, but we certainly aren’t one of the cars struggling to get by people out there. But we’ve got to keep working at it, because at this place you certainly can’t take anything for granted.”
 
ORIOL SERVIA, NO. 22 MECUM AUCTIONS PANTHER DREYER AND REINBOLD RACING CHEVROLET: ON TODAY’S PRACTICE:  “It was again a difficult day in terms of the conditions. It was very hot and even windier than yesterday. It’s tricky because the car wants to slide around.There towards the ends, we made a couple of changes that gave me more grip which is what we were after. Honestly, it’s hard when you do changes to get a read sometimes because you’re out there and do some laps alone and you get a perfect read. Then all of a sudden you’re behind a big pack of cars and you basically lose 200 pounds of downforce. We get caught in trying to see both things – how the changes are and how your car is in traffic because that’s how it’s going to be during the race. It’s an interesting dynamic that happens out there. I think we made the best of it today.”
 
A.J. ALLMENDINGER, NO. 2 IZOD TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:  ON TODAY’S PRACTICE: “It was warmer outside today than it was yesterday which changed some of the things the IZOD crew out into the set up of the IZOD Chevrolet. The track had less grip than the day before as well. I got to experience being in race traffic along with practicing pit stops which was a first for me. Overall, it was another solid day on the track. We continue to learn more and more as the week goes on.”
 
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: ON PRACTICE: “We did a lot of race set-up work today – some long runs and the guys worked on pit stops too. It was a good day for the Verizon team we accomplished a fair bit of work today. There is bit more in the car and I feel pretty good about it.”