VERIZON INDYCAR SERIES
GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH
PRACTICE REPORT
04.13.18
The first day of track activity on the streets of Long Beach has concluded, with the Andretti Autosport cars showing a strong start to the weekend. The action continues Saturday when the field will have one more chance to practice before qualifying goes green at 6:30 p.m. ET. Coverage will be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network or fans can follow along with live timing and scoring at racecontrol.indycar.com.

No. 28 DHL HONDA
Finished the day second overall with a best lap time of 1:08.4285
Finished both practice session in the top two
Holds one Long Beach pole start (2014) and one Long Beach race win (2010)
“Without a doubt this is one of my favorite races – love the place, love the layout, love everything about it. The fans, the energy, the atmosphere here are all great. We’ve had some great cars here, I’ve been very fortunate to be behind the wheel of some very fast race cars here – last year being one of them. We were closing on [James Hinchcliffe], right up on his gearbox, when the car shut off for some reason – an electrical issue. We feel like we have some unfinished business here, and I think today was a pretty good start at finishing that. We are going to need to find a gap between the cooler track temps and when it heated up. It became quite a bit more difficult to get the lap time out of the car, so we have a bit of a challenge there, but it seems like everybody has their work set out for them.”

No. 27 NAPA AUTO PARTS HONDA
Finished the day third overall with a best lap time of 1:08.5567
Placed himself within the top three in both practice sessions today, finishing Practice 2 in P1
“It was good to be P1 in Practice 2, it’s where you want to end the day on Friday. To have two team cars 1-2, is pretty awesome. We have a lot of motivation after last year to come back and really be strong here this year. We have a lot of work ahead of us still, and hopefully we can continue that over the next two days. Our main focus right now is trying to win Long Beach and get redemption on last year.”

No. 26 GROUP ONE THOUSAND ONE HONDA
Finished the day 13th overall with a best lap time 1:09.2766
Completed 29 laps on the streets of Long Beach, continuing to gain valuable seat time as he prepares for his first career Long Beach IndyCar start
“Overall, I think it was a good first day here. Phoenix went better than St. Pete and so far, this weekend has been going better than Phoenix. So just one step at a time. I think we definitely have the speed to transfer tomorrow to the Fast 12, and maybe even a change to get to our first Firestone Fast Six. The Andretti cars are pretty quick – Rossi and Hunter-Reay are showing that – I have a little bit of learning to do tonight, but I’m excited to show what we can do tomorrow.”

No. 98 U.S. CONCRETE / CURB HONDA
Finished the day 20th overall with a best lap time 1:09.7632
Suffered through mechanical issues in both sessions – the team is working diligently to resolve before tomorrow’s practice.
“It was a difficult day to say the least. We’re definitely dealing with a mechanical issue – I am convinced I have a carry-over issue that has not yet been identified from Phoenix. We’ve tried some different things out, but unfortunately haven’t found a solution yet. Once we pin-point what exactly is going on, I know we’ll have a fast car. Our teammates are proving we have the set up, so we really just need to fix the issue. We really want to give this U.S. Concrete car a good run.”