Verizon IndyCar Series
Qualifying
05.12.17

Day one of “May-aos” is in the books as the field of 23 Verizon IndyCar Series entries took to Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.439-mile road course for two rounds of practice followed by qualifying.

We’ll return to the track to the track Saturday for one final day of counter-clockwise action inside the famed Brickyard. The INDYCAR Grand Prix goes green at 3:50 p.m. ET. You can catch the race live on ABC beginning at 3:30 p.m. and listen to INDYCAR Radio on SiriusXM.

Ryan Hunter-Reay
No. 28 DHL HONDA
Qualified: 8th
Advanced to Round 2 of qualifying and ran inside the top six before taking the checkers eighth… Holds a career best starting position of third on the IMS road course (2014)
“We had some hiccups earlier in the day that prevented us from really getting a good read on the car prior to qualifying. In qualifying, we had our challenges but we stepped up. Not exactly happy with P8, but not overly disappointed either. We can work from there and hopefully tomorrow we can move the DHL car forward and challenge for a podium.”

Alexander Rossi
No. 98 NAPA AUTO PARTS / CURB HONDA
Qualified: 9th
Recorded his first IndyCar career top-10 finish in the 2016 INDYCAR Grand Prix
“It was an okay qualifying. We’re missing two-tenths (of a second) to the top-Honda and that’s not because of anything major. The NAPA AUTO PARTS car is in the window, but we’re going up against four cars from the other side who have a bit of an advantage here. We’ll just have to keep plugging away and maximize our opportunities tomorrow.”

Marco Andretti
No. 27 UNITED FIBER & DATA HONDA
Qualified: 11th
Advanced to Round 2 but fell short of the Firestone Fast Six with just tenths-of-seconds separating him.
“Hindsight is 20/20. I just wish we wouldn’t have used the second set (of tires) in Q1 because we were just handcuffed on used tires in Q2 against everybody on new (tires). We didn’t need the second set, the UFD car was fast enough on the first and we did it and that’s all we had. We had used tires in Q2 and that’s what it came down to. I think if we would’ve had new we would’ve been alright.”
Takuma Sato
No. 26 ANDRETTI AUTOSPORT HONDA
Qualified: 22nd
Holds three IndyCar starts on the IMS road course and additionally competed in the Indianapolis Grand Prix five times during his Formula One career
“Disappointing qualifying. The car didn’t seem to work as well as we planned it at all. Maybe some issues, we need to look at the data. I did try pretty hard with the driving but it was just a rough time. It just didn’t come at all.”