CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES

101ST RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500

INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DAY 3 PRACTICE RECAP

MAY 17, 2017

There’s something to learn from every practice session on the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in preparation for the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race. Even with a steady 30 mph headwind on the frontstretch and stiff crosswind in the turns, Chevrolet drivers benefitted from track time while others concentrated on pit stop practice.

Twenty-one competitors logged 408 laps, which was down significantly from the 2,404 laps recorded by 32 drivers a day earlier, as Chevrolet teams continued to work on race aerodynamic set-ups of the Chevrolet aerokit with V6 2.2-liter Chevrolet engines.

Chevrolet drivers occupied five of the top 10 positions on the speed chart on the third day of practice, led by two-time Indy 500 pole winner Ed Carpenter at 222.894 mph/40.3779 seconds in the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet. He turned the most laps (52) on the day. Ed Carpenter Racing teammate JR Hildebrand was third quick at 220.553 mph/40.4315 seconds in the No. 21 Preferred Freezer Services Chevrolet.

AJ Foyt Racing’s Conor Daly, No. 4 ABC Supply Chevrolet, Carlos Munoz, No. 14 ABC Supply Chevrolet, and Indy 500 rookie Zach Veach, No. 40 Indy Women in Tech Championship Chevrolet, also were in the top 10.

Attention turns to qualifying set-ups Thursday, with 1996 Indy 500 winner Buddy Lazier expected to run his first laps of the month in the No. 44 Lazier Racing Chevrolet. Practice will resume at noon ET and run to 6 p.m., weather permitting. It will be streamed live on RaceControl.IndyCar.com.

ABC will telecast qualifications live at 4 p.m. ET Saturday and Sunday. The 200-lap race will be telecast live on ABC at noon ETMay 28.

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES:

CONOR DALY, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: “Obviously, we didn’t do a lot of running today because of the weather conditions, but I would have loved to have run more if it was possible, but it was probably a smart decision to not go out there with how the wind was. When we did go out there the car was really good. I was really happy with the changes we made overnight so hopefully we can run more tomorrow.”

CARLOS MUNOZ, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CEHVROLET: “Today was kind of a weird day. There wasn’t much running. We just tried a lot of different numbers to have for the next few days. We’ll see if the weather will help us tomorrow. The wind has been an issue for the car. Just hoping for nice weather tomorrow so that we can tune the car.”

ZACH VEACH, NO. 40 INDY WOMEN IN TECH CHAMPIONSHIP AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: “Day three here at Indy, conditions were a little tough today for sure, just with the gusts of wind – we were fighting 20-30 mph winds all day – so really didn’t take too much to the track. I think we ran about 20 or 30 laps in the morning and then waited for it to die down until about 4 p.m. and got out there, and honestly we made a lot of progress too even with the conditions being tricky. I think (race engineer) Andy Brown and I just kept working with the set-up and it just kept getting quicker and quicker. For the conditions, I think it only set us up better for race day, so more than excited for tomorrow. I think, hopefully, we’ll have better weather where we can start running in traffic and things, but I don’t know, I’m just feeling really confident with what we can do here at Indy.”

SAGE KARAM, NO. 24 DRR MECUM AUCTIONS CHEVROLET: “We pretty much wrote off today. This is going to be windiest we’ll see. You’re not going to learn much from a day like today. It would be too risky. We went out to do some pit stop practice to get the guys ready to go and make something of the day.  We are set to do some good work on Thursday.”

SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 11 JUNCOS RACING CHEVROLET: “It’s been a long day of waiting here at the track. A few times we thought we might roll out, but our main goal today was to run in traffic and get some more race prep done and with not many cars out there it kind of defeats the purpose. So, we were just patient all day, but we needed a train of cars to do what we wanted and in the end it didn’t work out.”

SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA, NO. 17 AFS JUNCOS RACING CHEVROLET: “It was sad to lose a day of practice, but at the same time the decision of our engineers was that the conditions weren’t going to be comparable with the changes that we made overnight. We are still not in the mood to start playing around in these kind of conditions. We just need to focus on what’s to come in the next couple of days. We’ve made amazing progress since day one. Let’s focus on a good day tomorrow and go out there and pound some laps with good tires.”