CHEVROLET RACING IN THE VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES

101ST RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500

INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

TEAM CHEVY DAY 2 PRACTICE RECAP

MAY 16, 2017

Will Power posted a lap of 224.656 mph/40.0613 seconds in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet to top the speed chart on the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval on the second day of practice for the 101st running of the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race.

Power, winner from the pole May 13 of the INDYCAR Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, led seven Chevrolet drivers in the top 10 and nine of the top 12.

Three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves, No. 3 Shell Fuel Rewards Team Penske Chevrolet, was second at 224.287 mph/40.1271 seconds. Gabby Chaves, who turned six laps on opening day in the No. 88 Harding Racing Chevrolet, was third quick at 223.991 mph/40.1802 seconds and turned 87 laps.

Thirty-two competitors recorded 2,404 total laps without incident as teams utilized the six hours of track time to work on aerodynamic set-ups of the Chevrolet race cars with V6 2.2-liter Chevrolet engines for qualifications this weekend, and running in packs to get assimilated to high-speed traffic and variable weather conditions, including 120-degree track temperature and wind gusts of 20 mph.

Zach Veach, driver of the No. 40 Indy Women in Tech Championship Chevrolet for AJ Foyt Racing, completed the three speed phases of the Rookie Orientation Program and totaled 68 laps with a best lap of 221.629 mph.

Practice will resume Wednesday, May 17, at noon ET and run to 6 p.m. It will be streamed live on RaceControl.IndyCar.com. The 200-lap race will be telecast live on ABC at noon ET May 28.

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES: 

SAGE KARAM, NO. 24 DRR MECUM AUCTIONS CHEVROLET: “Ended up P5. Very strong day at the Speedway with it only being our second day back. We made good strides in the race set-up. We haven’t done much with the car for qualifying set-up. The car does run pretty well on its own. I’ve been focused on the race set-up. The DRR Kingdom guys have done a great job and we’re continuing to do well.”

SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 1 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: “The Menards Chevy felt really good today. We continue to get a lot of good data from not only ourselves but also my teammates. It’s such a help to have the teammates I have. Everyone brings something a little different to the table and from that we all learn a lot. Today was a little different from yesterday in terms of what we were looking to accomplish. Obviously, speed is important, but there are so many other things to factor in. I really think we’re in a good place.”

JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 21 PERFERRED FREEZER SERVICES ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET: “Today, I felt really good. We did a lot of running and made a lot of progress. The conditions got tricky and it will continue to be windy and stay hot the next couple days. I think our goal as a team is to feel really good about our car in poor conditions and if we can do that then we will be feeling good when conditions get better, if they do, and if they don’t at least we are prepared for it on race day. We work together well and continue to get through our intended program so for Day 2, I’m pretty happy.”

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HUM BY VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: “We just continued to learn today. We’ve tested here a couple of times and now we’ve had two days of practice. Every day has a different focus, but the primary goal is speed. The hum by Verizon Chevy found some of that today. We want to be smart how we attack these days and really keep to our plan. We don’t worry about what other teams and manufacturers are doing at this point. They have their programs to run and we have ours. If we’re able to maximize what we do, then we’ll be in good shape when it’s time to put it all out there.”

ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 FUZZY’S VODKA ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET: “It’s been mostly good. Yesterday went exactly like we scripted it. Today, we had a few issues we had to deal with. Even with that being said, I’m still happy with the car. Everyone probably got a little over-excited about the speed charts yesterday, but I think we’re better than what they showed today. We’re just working through our program. We had a really good long run at the end today on a full tank, which is what we were missing yesterday. We’ve got a few gremlins to work on, but we’re doing OK. You have to look ahead at the weather. You’d look pretty silly if you didn’t get enough work done early in the week and had a bunch of tires left over while sitting in the rain. We’re trying to manage our tires to a point where we’ll be OK if we need to run those days where it looks like there might be heavy rain, but at the same time, we’re making sure we get as much work done now in anticipation of the forecasted weather.”

CARLOS MUNOZ, NO. 14 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CEHVROLET: “Today our main focus was to try the car within the pack and traffic. In the end, we had two big traffic groups. We’re just gonna keep working on the car. For sure, the ABC Supply Chevy felt a little bit better than yesterday, a little bit more racy. We still have a long way to go. I think we still need to improve. This is what we did today, and we’ll keep moving forward. But it was a good day overall.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 22 FITZGERALD GLIDER KITS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: “It’s still very much a learning process for the Fitzgerald Glider Kits Chevrolet team. We have a lot of experienced people, but this collection is new in a lot of ways. But we’re getting a good feel for one other and how we communicate when we’re on the track. The car felt good today. We’ve got some things to work on, but everything is on schedule. Tomorrow should be a day like today and we’ll be able to keep working on it.”

ZACH VEACH, NO. 40 INDY WOMEN IN TECH CHAMPIONSHIP AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: “Just really happy with the progress we made today. We got a lot of laps in, which has been nice. Toward the end, we even got to run in traffic. Just really proud of my guys here at Foyt. My engineer, Andy Brown, has been doing a great job getting me up to speed. As a rookie, we just need laps in the IWiT Champ Chevy right now. Every lap we do is making us faster for race day.”

SPENCER PIGOT, NO. 11 JUNCOS RACING CHEVROLET: “Overall, it was a good day. We definitely improved on yesterday. Our goal was to run a lot more in traffic, which we were able to do. We definitely got a lot more data today. We tried a few different downforce levels to see what we think might work best for the race and what to really focus on as far as dialing everything in later in the week. A good day and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA, NO. 17 AFS JUNCOS RACING CHEVROLET: “A very positive second day. We maintained the momentum and built from yesterday. The track conditions were definitely different, which made it a bit more challenging. We focused on continuing to work on a more traffic-friendly car and we definitely succeeded at that. Now we need to continue the momentum we have built so far and not lose our focus in the next couple days.”

CONOR DALY, NO. 4 ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: “Today we just we never really got a good run, never got a tow to do a proper lap like everyone else. We just tried a lot of things today that didn’t work, and that’s just plain and simple, so we just have to do more tomorrow.”