CHEVROLET INDYCAR V6
VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
INDIANAPOLIS 500
DAY FOUR PRACTICE
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
INDIANAPOLIS (May 14, 2014) – For the second consecutive day, weather hampered the Chevrolet IndyCar V6 teams from getting valuable track time as they prepare for the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, May 25, 2014. The rain cleared enough to get the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway dry and cars were on-track by 5:00 p.m. ET with the Verizon IndyCar Series extending the track time to 7:00 p.m. ET.
But a single-car accident at approximately 6:00 p.m. halted the action, and as they were cleaning up the debris, and repairing the safer barrier, the rain began again, and Series officials were forced to end the day’s activities.
JR Hildebrand, in his No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet entry, led the way for Team Chevy turning in the second quickest time of the day, 225.854 mph/39.8488 seconds. Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet driver Scott Dixon was third in the final order, with Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves in the No. 3 Chevrolet in fourth.
Ryan Briscoe put his Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet in the 225 mph club and the top-10 in the final order, as did Juan Pablo Montoya behind the wheel of his Team Penske Chevrolet
Practice resumes tomorrow, Thursday May 15, 2014 from noon to 6:00 p.m.
Qualifying for the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500 will begin Saturday, May 17, 2014 at 11:00 a.m. and conclude Sunday, May 18 with the Fast 9 Qualifying beginning at 2:00 p.m. ABC TV will air live coverage of qualifying from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, and 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Sunday.
DRIVER QUOTES:
JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 21 PREFERRED FREEZER ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, 2ND IN PRACTICE: ON HOW WEEK IS PROGRESSING: “I don’t care about putting up a big lap time; I care about how the car feels. It’s great to see that the car has the speed in it because you rarely go through practice with guys that are capable of setting those fast laps. They end up being the guys who have quicker cars. Certainly our focus is not that we can put up a big tow lap time, but we can catch-up to that guy, pass him and leap frog through the next guys ahead of that. That is what we are working on right now. I think with myself and Ed (Carpenter) we’ve both had experiences over the last few years that have made us realize that the priority really is race day. And that is it. So far it has gone well. Glad we were able to get out today. We learned a few things with the conditions being quite different than they were over the last couple of days, and we will continue plugging away.
“Obviously we would rather be on the sharp end of the stick than not. There’s two take aways I guess when looking at this. One is that Chevy and Honda seem to be quite evenly matched which I think is a good thing generally for the series. Two years ago when the engine competition first started, there was a pretty definitive difference – the Hondas were better on race day; the Chevys were better in qualifying. Last year Chevy had a little bit of an advantage across the board. It seems like we are in for a bit of a fight. That is always good to make sure everyone is in contention out there.”
ON WHAT IMS MEANS TO HIM: “It is certainly the most important event that we run during the year. For me specifically, coming back here is starting over a little bit this year. Running with Ed Carpenter Racing is a nice new beginning for me. It is a great environment for me to come back to Indianapolis. On top of that, the equipment is as good as any bodies’. I found that to be a really refreshing change from being here in the past. We are excited to see what we can do together. For myself and for Ed, we are both in different situations, so being able to work together than we have been in a long time. Once you get here, the reminiscing of what’s happened for me goes away. For me coming here means time to get down to business. It’s hard to ignore. We are in the same garage area that I’ve been in for that last couple of years. Have the same crew chief. It is a lot of the same people around. It is a new situation; it is a different environment. But there are some friendly reminders of where we have been at. For all of us we take what we’ve been strong at here in the past to try to put that into this year’s program.”
ON PREPARING FOR INDY BEING FIRST RACE: “Thank goodness once I get out on the race track, it doesn’t change that much. I was glad about that I was able to get back in the swing of things and get back in the swing of things and have it feel fairly normal. When I first went out, I had a proverbial rusty couple of laps. But I kicked myself, and realize I did the last oval race that everyone else has done, it is time to get with the program, and we are quickly up to 220 and moving along. It is great to be back. It is a little bit different. We look at this as a team something to build upon for the second half of the year. Hopefully we can show well enough and be strong enough that is where this moves along.”
SCOTT DIXON, NO. 9 TARGET CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, 3RD IN PRACTICE: “We worked on just a few things today really, given the limited track time. A lot of our focus today was on dampers and spring combinations. We made some changes, but again very limited time on track today for Team Target and everyone else.”
HELIO CASTRONEVES, No. 3 PENNZOIL ULTRA PLATINUM TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, 4TH IN PRACTICE: “It was a quick day due to the amount of rain we got this morning. The No. 3 Pennzoil team had planned to only run one lap due to our engine change last night but ended up taking it out for a few more laps to try an adjustment. Looking forward to tomorrow and hopefully the rain holds off so we can get more laps in.”
RYAN BRISCOE, NO. 8 NTT DATA CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, 6TH IN PRACTICE:
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 2 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, 7TH IN PRACTICE: “There are so many things that are within our control, but the weather isn’t one of them. We didn’t need to see that rain today, but it is what it is. The No. 2 Verizon Chevy team is sticking to the plan. The good news is the car continues to show speed out there. Hopefully tomorrow is drier than the last couple of days.”
TONY KANAAN, NO.10 TARGET CHIP GANASSI CHEVROLET (IN T CAR), 11THIN PRACTICE: “Well we waited all day for the weather to clear and we ended up getting some track time today, so I guess something is better than nothing in this case. Just more of the same running really today. We worked on long runs in the Target car and our speeds improved a bit as well so that was a plus for us.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 83 NOVOLOG FLEXPEN CHIP GANASSI RACING CHEVROLET, 13TH IN PRACTICE:
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S ULTRA PREMIUM VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, 14TH IN PRACTICE: “It was kind of nice to get out at all today. We thought it was going to be a wash out. I felt like it was a bonus session today. We were able to learn a couple of things and we are itching closer to where we want to be with the race cars. Both J.R. and I have been trying a couple of things likely and I think we are both making progress. I think we are making a step forward now. Obviously, the cars have speed. J.R. put up a big number today. That’s encouraging also. Hope to get more track time on Thursday.”
SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS: No. 11 No. 11 HYDROXYCUT/MISTIC E-CIGS – KVSH RACING CHEVROLET, 17TH IN PRACTICE:
SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA, NO. AFS 17 KV AFS RACING CHEVROLET, 23RD IN PRACTICE:
SAGE KARAM, NO. 22 COMFORT REVOLUTION/BRANTLEY GILBERT DREYER & REINBOLD KINGDOM RACING CHEVROLET, 26TH IN PRACTICE: “The day went well. It was
kind of a weird day, waiting around for the weather to clear up. We actually didn’t think we were going to get out at all today, so just to get some laps in was a plus. I got to feel a new wind direction (a tailwind into turn one), which I think was the most beneficial thing for us this afternoon. Also it was a bit colder, so I got to feel what pit road is like in cool conditions. As far as lap times, we didn’t get into a strong draft today, so we mostly worked on setting up the car to run alone or with one car in front. We’ll see how it goes the rest of the week, and we’ll try to get the No. 22 car higher up on the charts before qualifying weekend.”
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, 29TH IN PRACTICE: Only made one lap today
