“Today was a really good day for us; we’ve really improved the Steak ‘n Shake car a lot in race trim. Most of our day was spent working on qualifying stuff. We figured out a couple of tricks there and I’m pretty comfortable with the car. Tomorrow we will work on qualifying trim all day."
In the fourth practice for the Indianapolis 500, it'd be Simon Pagenaud topping the charts as Team Penske found the speed that has served them well so far this season to date in winning the pole for each of the first four events this season.
INDYCAR announced a post-event infraction from the Angie's List Grand Prix of Indianapolis, which was held May 9 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
“Today was a really good day. The Steak ‘n Shake car was pretty good and we had a really good long run near the end with full fuel. It was kind of a race simulation and the car was really strong. We’re just struggling with a little bit of speed, just pure acceleration speed. The car seems to be a little slower than Oriol and we’ve got to figure out why that is."
Practice sessions for the 99th Running of the Indianapolis 500 are well underway, and it’s been a rollercoaster week for Andretti Autosport’s stable of drivers. Working towards defending the team’s reign as Indianapolis 500 Champions, five Honda-powered machines took to the trackMonday afternoon to begin a week’s worth of testing, trimming and trials with the new HPD Super Speedway Aero Kits.
In Wednesday practice for the Indianapolis 500, a Honda would top the charts for the first time during the week. Carlos Munoz, driving for Andretti Autosport, would top the charts with a lap of 39.1098 seconds. In his previous two starts in the big race, he has finished in the top-five.
“All in all it was a really good day. We worked on the Steak ‘n Shake car and really improved it a lot. Like I keep saying, I think the guys are doing an excellent job and working through a lot of things here and the car already feels a heck of a lot better than it ever did the last couple of years. I’m pretty happy with it but we’ve got to keep working to catch those Penske’s."
While Team Penske has dominated the speed charts so far when it comes to the road and street courses, the tables turned as Chip Ganassi Racing would sweep the top three spots on the second day of Indianapolis 500 practice once the drivers were able to hit the track. The session was delayed as a result of rain falling throughout the early part.
"We’re going to win one of these things; I keep saying it. We’re getting closer and closer and it feels good. We had to keep fighting as hard as we could and we came up just a little bit short. It’s still good momentum going into the Indy 500. It was hard to catch Will. I could close a little bit but I wasn’t able to gain."
Bryon’s career-best finish in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs came last season during his first career appearance in the Championship 4 - finishing the season third in the final points standings.
