Friday morning update from Indy (Update)
Chip Ganassi Racing managing director Mike Hull gave me some insight into what it will take today to get a good idea of the real speeds. Hull commented, "Today will be all about patience. We will work on trying to understand the mechanical advantage of the car for the race. That is huge when you get in a pack of cars because the air gets taken off the front of the car. So you work on that and today we will exactly diametrically opposed to that. We put full aero and the mechanical grip on the car for qualifying. And then we have to sit there in the pits and then we have to wait and wait and wait to go out to get 4 laps undisturbed by air. That is what we work extremely hard on. It is very different. It 's like two races. So if we get four or five quality runs today, that will be more than we probably deserve."
Lucille Dust reporting from IMS
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| Hunter-Reay leads Montoya and Kimball in Thursday action. RHR lost an engine Thursday as did one or two others. Do they have an engine reliability issue? |
05/20/16
Good morning from the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It is cooler today, high of only low sixties predicted and over cast skies. Rain is expected later this afternoon and will continue into early morning on Qualifying Day tomorrow. At least we are not as cold as last Saturday!
Today will be the final practice day before qualifying on Saturday. Weather is expected to be warmer tomorrow. Will the Hondas stay up on the top of the timing charts after today's 50 HP increase?
Charlie Kimball talked about the track changing yesterday. "I am blown away by how much all four corners change with a little wind direction, a little wind velocity, cloud cover and sun. So you need to make sure as far as mechanically and aerodynamically with the car, you've got a car that can work within that window as the track changes during the course of the week.
"The race track does not stay the same for 500 miles, so you have to make sure that you've got a car that you can race as the track changes."
More updates to come from Tim and I.
Lucille Dust reporting from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway