Indianapolis, IN (May 28, 2017) – Dale Coyne Racing’s Rookie driver, Ed Jones came out of his first Indianapolis 500 with a remarkable third place finish, giving the team its best result at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Drivers Pippa Mann and James Davison placed 17th and 20th respectively, with Mann also picking up her best Indy 500 finish.

The race started out well for all three DCR drivers. By their first pit stop on Lap 30, they all had moved up from their starting positions but things would take a turn after the first full course caution on lap 53 caused by an incident between Scott Dixon and Jay Howard.

Jones who wasn’t very far behind the collision between both drivers, suffered damage to his own car when trying to avoid as best he could the carnage ahead of him. With a damaged rear wing he was forced to pit for repairs when the race resumed following a Red Flag.

The extra trip to pit lane sent him to the back of the field in 28th place. In the meantime, Davison had made his way up to 16th following his second pit stop with Mann moving into 27th.

By the half way mark of the race, Davison was running in 12th, Jones in 16th and Mann in 24th. All three drivers continued their progression throughout the second half of the race with Davison and Jones finding themselves third and sixth three quarters of the way into the 200-lap event. Davison would even take the lead on lap 166 after starting last in 33rd place before making what would be his final pit stop.

Following the last round of pit stops, Jones had moved into second with Davison in fourth. While Jones battled side by side for second place with Helio Castroneves, Davison slid down the field into 10th.

Unfortunately for Davison who was on his way to a Top 10 finish following his impressive drive from the back of the field, he was involved in a multi-car crash on the Lap 184 restart, taking him out of contention.

With the race going back to green conditions with 11 laps to go, Jones, in fourth, pushed as hard as he could to make his way to the front of the field, once again battling with former Indy 500 champions Castroneves as well as Tony Kanaan.

While Jones tried his best, his car had suffered some aerodynamic damage that prevented him from pushing as much as he would have liked. Nonetheless, the rookie placed an outstanding third, picking up his best finish of the season so far.

The Dale Coyne Racing team will be back in action next weekend for the doubleheader weekend in Detroit.

What they have to say:

James Davison – #18 Sonny’s BBQ HondaVersion française plus bas
“I am obviously very proud of the team for the strong run that we had. In all honesty, I need to see a replay. I felt I was coming out of my steering and I got hit by Servia. Whether that’s the case or not, I need to see a replay. It’s very frustrating for all of us, we all had good cars. I was racing those guys, I was ahead of Sato for a while. Yeah, he’s gone and won it, and that’s awesome for him. I did the best I could with the limited practice I had. I made a couple of mistakes here and there so sorry to any of the drivers that I may have upset. I just got a good restart and felt I got tagged, so I need to see a replay to see if that’s indeed the case.”

Ed Jones – #19 Boy Scouts of America Honda
“It was a great race for us, I had a great car all month. We were running through traffic, but the whole race was so up and down for us. It was a solid start, we were running in the top ten- eleven for most of the first half. Then when Dixon had his crash, thankfully those guys are okay, but I ran over some debris and it damaged the floor and the rear wing. We had to change the rear wing and it sent me to the back of the field, then we had to claw our way back up again. We got some luck back with the last yellow as we pitted right before it, so it put us near the front. But then I had some bad luck again, I damaged my front wing and it put a big hole in it, my legs got pretty cold to be honest. I had wind blowing into them like crazy. It also created a lot of drag. I was really good catching up to the other guys in the corners but as soon as we got to the straights I couldn’t tow up to them. We just lacked that straight line speed for the last 40 laps. It was very hard for me to defend or attack. Which is frustrating because, we had the car to win today.”

Pippa Mann – #63 Dale Coyne Racing Honda
“Today felt like a messy day out there. We struggled a little with a few things with the car, and we struggled on pit road. We had a couple of issues that were outside of our control. Overall, I’m proud of the #63 Dale Coyne Racing team. They kept digging, and kept after it. With the attrition out there on the race track, we ended up coming home in the top twenty for the second year running.”