Chaves quickest in Indy 500 Practice
– Three Coyne cars end the day in the Top 10 –

Indianapolis, IN (May 19, 2016) – Dale Coyne Racing had its best Indy 500 practice day in history at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Thursday, topping the time charts with Gabby Chaves and placing another two cars in the Top 10 with Conor Daly fourth and Pippa Mann 10th.

Chaves went out for the first time of the day in the noon hour, and he didn’t lose any time posting his fastest lap of 227.981 mph on only his third orbit of the 2.5-mile track. Although some competitors got close, his lap time would hold until the checkered flag nearly 6 hours later.

Daly’s quickest lap of 227.524 mph came on his 23rd of 72 laps with Mann’s lap of 226.552 mph coming on her 31st lap.

The team’s fourth car driven by Bryan Clauson was 32nd on the time charts with an average lap speed of 223.679 mph.

All four of Dale Coyne Racing’s cars will be back on track tomorrow, Friday, May 20 for Fast Friday, the final full day of practice ahead of Saturday’s qualifying session.

Dale Coyne Racing Driver Quotes:
Gabby Chaves – #19 Boy Scouts of America
1st, 227.981 mph
“It feels awesome to end the day P1 here. It doesn’t really mean anything but at the end of the day we showed that our car is strong and that we’re strong in traffic and we can definitely pass people. We have the speed to be up in first and that’s what we want to do. We want to know that the changes we’re making are giving us the results we want them to.
“We’re right on schedule with what we have as our program. We’ve focused mainly on traffic running and trying to get our car handling well around other cars and I think we’re really happy with that. Obviously our fast lap is with a tow but if you’re getting good lap times it’s because your car is handling well around traffic. I feel very confident with the car, with the team and the changes we’re making. I can’t complain. It’s never a bad day when you’re at the top of the time charts around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.”
Conor Daly – #18 ShirtsForAmerica.com
4th, 227.524 mph
“Overall, it’s really encouraging. Everyone had a big tow to get to the top of the charts and we did too but in the end, we have three cars in the top 10 and that’s a great sign for the team. From my side, I know we had some issues on our run with our best time so we had some left in the tank. We know can do even better than what we did today and that, again, is very encouraging.”
Pippa Mann – #63 Dale Coyne Racing supporting Susan G. Komen
10th, 226.552 mph
“Today was a pretty good day at the Speedway. Any day that I get to be in a race car here is a pretty good day. It’s really nice to see the 63 at the pointy end of the scoring pylon. It felt like we did some pretty good running in traffic today. Hopefully we’re working towards having a really good race car this year. There’s been a lot of progress for us as an entire team. What’s really cool is that we’ve really been able to utilize four really strong drivers to work together, gather data, test things and find solutions for each other in real time. So, as a team having four cars seems to be working really well for us at the moment. Gabby, Conor and Bryan are just such great teammates, I’m really enjoying this whole experience.”
Bryan Clauson – #88 Cancer Treatment Centers of America
32nd, (223.679 mph)
“We started the day okay but we kind of lost our balance in the middle of the day when a lot of heavy running was going on but we were able to come back and get back to our baseline. It felt really good at the end of the day. It seemed like every time we were on a good lap, guys would pull in and things like that, but I certainly feel a lot happier with our race car at the end of the day. I was able to mix it up a bit with some packs. It was the most pack running we’ve done all week. Obviously I don’t have the number to show for it but I feel a lot more confident in the race car than I did to start the day.”
All sessions will be streamed live on http://racecontrol.indycar.com, with live timing also available online and on the Verizon IndyCar Series mobile app.

Friday, May 20, 2016
Practice: Noon – 6pm

Saturday, May 21, 2016
Practice: 8am – 10am
Qualifying: Noon – 5:50pm