DRR / Cusick Motorsports Carb Day Report
SPEEDWAY, INDIANA (MAY 24, 2024) – Dreyer & Reinbold Racing / Cusick Motorsports have completed the final practice for the 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500. The two-hour ‘Carb Day’ session officially kicked off the race weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
In a session that saw a total of 2,721 laps turned by the field of 33, maximizing track time was critical in fine-tuning the cars ahead of the 200-lap race on Sunday. Conor Daly in the No. 24 Polkadot Chevrolet completed 74 laps with a best speed of 224.253 MPH, and Ryan Hunter-Reay in the No. 23 VensureHR / 101 Studios / 6666 Ranch Quality Beef Chevrolet completed 63 laps with a best speed of 225.124 MPH.
“We did a lot of laps, and a lot of great pit stops today,” said Conor Daly, who will make his 11th Indianapolis 500 start this weekend. “We got a lot of information and now we need to put all the pieces of the puzzle together and show up on race day with a perfect setup. Everyone’s done a great job to get us to this point and now it’s our job to execute on race day.”
“Today was a good opportunity to baseline the car in very different conditions to Monday,” said Ryan-Hunter Reay, who will become a 15-time Indy 500 starter on Sunday. “We were able to get the car within a very similar balance. I was really happy with it and we were really just fine-tuning some understeer out of the car in heavy traffic. We have some further adjustments up our sleeve, but I think all in all, a very positive day.”
“We tried some things on the No. 24 car today that we weren’t terribly happy with,” said Dennis Reinbold, who will enter his 25th year as the team owner of Dreyer & Reinbold Racing at the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday. “With the weather during practice week, we just haven’t had the same amount of time on track as we have in the past, so we had to take some swings. We may go back to what we discovered on Monday where we had a very good car. So we’ll adapt and go from there.”
“The energy at IMS today has been fantastic,” said Don Cusick, who will be making his fourth appearance as a co-entrant at the Indianapolis 500 this year. “The team is executing at a very high level and I believe we have all the pieces of the puzzle to move forward on Sunday. The race weekend is finally here and we’re ready to go.”
Tomorrow’s ‘Legends Day’ will see an all-driver autograph session and public drivers meeting at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, followed by the Indy 500 Parade in downtown Indianapolis. The green flag for the Indianapolis 500 will fly at 12:30pm EST on Sunday, May 26th on NBC.