There’s good and bad news. Carb Day is crowded! It’s so great so many people are here – everywhere. The Alphabet Letter of the Day is Q, for queue. There are lines everywhere for everything, in addition to the milling crowds filling every nook and cranny. The bad news is trying to negotiate through it.
Carb Day for the Indy 500 teams means it’s time to check everything. Most if not all cars have fresh engines. This session is for finding all actual and potential problems, trying out things, running race setups, doing installation laps, practicing pit stops, scuffing tires, etc. If something goes wrong, fix it and be glad it happened Friday and not Sunday. The weather was in the high eighties with low humidity (for Indianapolis) and little wind. Track temperature was 120+.
LEFT TO RIGHT: Danica Patrick, Tony Kanaan, and Marco Andretti. Photos by Nico Matamoros.
An example of that was the electrical issues experienced by Danica Patrick/No.13 Go Daddy Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet. The crew took the car back to the garage for diagnosis and repair, and she was able to get back out near the end of the hour-long session. She turned the fewest laps – 15.
Tony Kanaan/No.14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet was the fastest at 227.791 mph. He said “I think this is the closest that we’re going to get as far as weather for Sunday, so we tried to optimize that and run in the heat conditions and see what are we going to do. But really, if you haven’t figured it out by today, you’re in trouble.”
Second was Scott Dixon/No.9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, at 225.684 mph. Friday wasn’t about fastest overall speed. It was for making sure everything works well. He said “I’m not really sure what you can learn from the times today. There were a lot of people throwing tires at it out there. Overall, the car felt good and we were comfortable. You just never know exactly what you’re going to have until you get into the race.”
Third through fifth were Marco Andretti/No.98 US Concrete Andretti Autosport Honda, Sebastien Bourdais/No.18 SealMaster Dale Coyne Racing Honda and Charlie Kimball/No.23 Fiasp Carlin Chevrolet.
Pole Winner, Ed Carpenter/No.20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet was fourteenth. He said “”We ran through a couple of things we wanted to try after looking at the data from Monday’s practice. Carb Days are hard, though. It’s only one hour, then you have a couple more days to agonize over exactly how we start the race. The conditions are pretty similar right now to what we’ll have come race time, so the session was good for that. ”
The top Rookie was Kyle Kaiser/No.32 NFP/Juncos Racing Chevrolet, in twenty-second position. He said “Our last day of practice went very well. We got to improve the car a little bit and get a better idea of the conditions for race day on Sunday. I think we ended with a pretty good car. I still think we have a few more changes to make before the race. I am really happy with the team. We brought the car back clean for the end of the day and I am ready to go racing now.”
Graham Rahal/No.15 United Rentals Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda ran the most laps – 41. He finished twenty-first for the day. He said “We just ran used tires from the start and I know a lot of guys were running stickers (new tires), but we wanted to save a lot of stickers for the race and I think we just ran them too long, initially, and probably made our lives a little tough, but for sure we got the car much better in the end.”
Overall for nine practice sessions, Andretti continued his claim as fastest driver at 231.801 mph turned in Practice 5. Twenty-six of the thirty-five drivers were fastest in Practice 5. All but one of the remainder were fastest in Practice 7. The one exception was Helio Castroneves/No.3 Pennzoil Team Penske Chevrolet, who was fastest in Practice 6.
Castroneves also turned the most laps – 515. Rookie Matheus Leist/No.4 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet turned the fewest – 212 (of those who ran or who were eligible to run all the sessions.) Leist said his car had issues of one kind or another including electrical which was finally diagnosed and fixed. He missed the first Indy 500 practice session.
Pippa Mann/No.63 Donate Life Dale Coyne Racing Honda only ran 211 laps, but she didn’t run the two post-qualifying practice sessions.
LEFT TO RIGHT: Mike Le Gallic, Blair Julian, Alphonse Girard, Scott Dixon, Dave Pena (air Jack), Kyle Clark and Jason Beck.
Dixon and his Wolf Pack crew won the Pit Stop Competition. He won two out of three Finals against James Hinchcliffe. “It’s a big deal to show just how much of a team sport this is. It’s never just one single person. It’s many trying to achieve the same objective. Some days I’m able to make a couple passes on track, but most of the time these guys are able to make it a lot easier for me and the team by gaining places in these pit stops.”
Beck said “Biggest thing we do best. We’re not always the quickest, but most consistent. Last year we won seven of the pit stop awards during races, more on consistency than it was just trying to be outright fast all the time. I think we constantly make spots up in the pits nine out of ten times. We’ve had a few issues here and there.”
Pit Stop Competition Results
Semi Finals – Race 1
James Hinchcliffe 13.545
Will Power 14.100
Semi Finals – Race 2
Scott Dixon 12.658
Alexander Rossi 13.670
Finals – Race 1
Scott Dixon 11.717
James Hinchcliffe 13.067
Finals – Race 2
James Hinchcliffe 12.198
Scott Dixon 12.686
Finals – Race 3
Scott Dixon 11.943
James Hinchcliffe 12.495
During Carb Day Practice, Hinchcliffe was on the Pit Box of teammate, Rookie Robert Wickens/No.6 Lucas Oil SPM Honda. Wickens said “He was just listening, nothing crazy. It’s not like he’s coaching me from in there. He was giving his opinion and talking with the engineers, just trying to lend a hand in any way he can.”
Earlier in the day, Dixon, wife Emma and team owner, Chip Ganassi met with the media to promote the new documentary movie about Scott Dixon, “Born Racer.” It’s billed as a behind-the-scenes look at Dixon, his career, family, and balancing all that goes with his career and being part of a highly competitive, goal-oriented team, Indy style racing and the pressures.
All around the track the Official Speedway Merchandise outlets are staffed by non-profits who use their share of the proceeds to fund their respective organizations. The booth by the Outside Media Lot is handled by the Boy Scouts of America Avon Chapter. The two lads running it for Carb Day were Scott and Chris Supra, earning a summer campership for Chris. Their best-selling shirt was the event T Shirt.
Saturday is Firestone Legends Day presented by Miller Lite. Among activities there are The Sunoco Rookie Press Conference, Driver Autograph session, the public Driver’s Meeting, where the drivers get their Indy 500 starter rings, and an hour of historic cars on course. Then the drivers go downtown to be in the Indy 500 Festival Parade. Back at the track in the afternoon is the Legends Day Concerts, with headliner Sam Hunt.