Helio Castroneves paced a frantic “Fast Friday” at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as IZOD IndyCar Series teams fine-tuned their setups in advance of Pole Day.
Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner and three-time Indy 500 pole sitter Castroneves recorded a lap of 39.7250 seconds (226.558 mph) in the No. 3 Team Penske car. Thirty cars were within a half-second of Castroneves, with 10 different teams represented in the top 15.
Castroneves’ teammate Will Power was second at 226.429, with FAZZT Race Team’s Alex Tagliani third at 226.153. 2008 winner Scott Dixon was fourth at 225.828 in a Target Chip Ganassi Racing car, with KV Racing Technology’s Mario Moraes rounding out the top five at 225.806.
The top 24 spots in the 33-car starting field will be filled through traditional four-lap attempts. The times of the top nine cars based on time from Segment 1 will advance to Segment 2 for a 90-minute shootout for the PEAK Performance Pole Award presented by AutoZone and bonus points that could impact the season-long driver championship race.
Enticements include a $175,000 payout to the pole winner along with significant paydays for the other front-row starters, championship bonus points and, of course, the No. 1 position for “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” on May 30.
DAY 7 NOTEBOOK:
Indianapolis 500 rookie Takuma Sato is using the iRacing.com motorsports simulation service this month to prepare for his first start in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”
Sato is driving the No. 5 Lotus-KV Racing Technology car this month and in the entire IZOD IndyCar Series season after racing in Formula One from 2002-08, including a third-place finish in the 2004 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis.
Sato is helping Interush, Inc. introduce iRacing.com to Japanese driving game enthusiasts.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is one of more than 40 racetracks in the U.S. and around the world that are represented in the iRacing.com internet-based motorsport simulation service. The service is inexpensive and intended to let motorsport fans and racing games enthusiasts from all around the world practice and, if they wish, compete against friends and other fans in organized races.
The tracks and cars in the service are modeled so accurately that a professional racing driver can use them to learn a track he or she has never seen before. iRacing.com uses survey-quality laser-scanning to capture data, so the finished track is accurate to with two millimeters. Every tiny bump or change in road camber is accurately represented in the virtual version of the track.
Other Indianapolis 500 drivers who are iRacing.com members include Justin Wilson, Will Power, Ryan Briscoe, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dan Wheldon, Tomas Scheckter, Danica Patrick, Mike Conway, Raphael Matos, A.J. Foyt IV and Sato’s fellow IZOD IndyCar Series rookie, Simona de Silvestro.
TAKUMA SATO: “Many people think that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a simple track, just four 90-degree left-hand turns. But at speeds up to 230 mph, each turn is unique, with many subtle differences that make them completely different. Like many of the other IZOD IndyCar Series drivers, I use iRacing.com to get to know these tracks better before I get out on the actual track. I am very impressed with the realism of the iRacing.com online racing simulation. Plus it’s a lot of fun at the same time!”
Four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears talked today about working as a spotter this month for Helio Castroneves, who is attempting to match the record of four Indy victories shared by Mears, A.J. Foyt and Al Unser.
RICK MEARS: “Helio doesn’t need a whole lot of coaching or spotting. I’m a safety factor. In my mind, the driver should know what’s going on around him at all times, anyway. I’m a backup in case the driver misses something. I’m going to be helping him whenever someone is getting a run on him on the outside or the inside, and those are the things I’ll be telling him about. I try to stay out of his ear as much as I can and let him drive the car. I’ll try to give the driver a head’s up if something happens on the track up ahead so he has a quicker warning because of the closing rates and the speeds. I can also watch other cars and their lines and see if something is working better for them under the conditions on the track, and I may suggest it. I’ll answer any questions Helio has and try to help him do well.” (On working as a spotter for a three-car team): “I’ve spotted here before because it’s one of the only places we need more than one spotter per car. This year, with the three cars, I will be spotting at all of the ovals. We need more spotters for the team, and that’s a gap that I can fill.”
1979 Indianapolis 500 Chase Rookie of the Year Howdy Holmes visited the track today. Holmes, 62, is a six-time Indianapolis 500 starter, with a career-best finish of sixth in 1983. He started second in 1984.
HOWDY HOLMES: “Every time I come back, I am more in awe of the facility. Thinking back, it’s hard to believe this thing (Indianapolis 500) really happened for me. It’s like a homecoming. I really enjoy it. My best memory is when I walked out onto pit lane on race day morning in 1979, and there were hundreds of thousands of people out there. The opportunity for me to race came very late that month, and I didn’t have much time to think about it. It was very easy to be overwhelmed by all the history, but I’ll never forget that moment - that was the first time. The other five times I raced here, it was no more less, but that first time was different. For me, unlike most drivers, I sat in the stands since 1957, and that was my interest in racing, being a spectator. So to be on one side of the fence and then on the best side of the fence was very rewarding.”
Indianapolis 500 veteran Tyce Carlson visited the track today. Carlson started the Indianapolis 500 in 1997 and 1999.
TYCE CARLSON: (Was the pressure greater in qualifying when you weren’t on an elite team?): “Yes. The second you felt anything you came right in, you didn’t run that second lap. So you talked to people, went back to the scales, made a change and got back out there.” (What was your first qualifying experience like?): “Well, my first qualifying day was the first time I was ever in an Indy car. It was 1996, and Scott Brayton had passed. I had been looking for a ride all month after I passed my rookie orientation. Danny Ongais had moved to the Menards car, and PDM put me in their car at the last second. So I didn’t have any time to think. I was like, ‘All right, kid, go out there and run some laps, and let’s go qualify.’ So there was no time to think, so after it was done it was like, ‘Wow, that just happened to me.’ So the day before, I had no idea that I was going to get a ride. I woke up in the morning, I was doing yard work, and I heard what happened to Scotty (Brayton) and that the rides were changing. Big Kenny Allison, who is no longer with us, came by the house and said, ‘Listen, we had been pounding the pavement all month long, so we have to go on this last day of qualifying and see if we can find anything.’ I went to PDM, and they said, ‘Go get your suit,’ but it was in locked in Kenny’s car, so I had to break in, and the rest was history.”
Indianapolis 500 team owner Sam Schmidt talked today about his strategy for Fast Friday and qualifying for the No. 99 Herbalife Ganassi/Schmidt Racing car driven by Townsend Bell.
SAM SCHMIDT: “The second year really helps. Having done the deal with Ganassi last year, the only effective new variable is Townsend, and he picked up right where he left off last year. I’m really pleased with the progress today. And today is one of those days, more than anything, you don’t want to screw up which you’ve built all week because there is no time to recover if you make a mistake. The conditions are going to be dramatically different tomorrow, so parking the car (with two hours remaining in practice) is a wise decision. We’re not going to be a shot for the pole, but were definitely going to be in the hunt for the top nine. It’s going to be very interesting tomorrow to see the strategy play out with three attempts and all the other changes. I’m just, overall, really pleased with where we’re at right now.”
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