Race to Beat the Brickyard Rain …

Everyone knew.

Everyone knew that there would only be so much time. It was Tuesday already and rain was not only forecast for around 1:30 and throughout the day, but forecast all the way through “Fast Friday.”

The IndyCar teams knew that they had to choose. They had to determine the best gamble with what little time they may have.

Practice in qualifying trim? In race trim? Do you focus on running in traffic or do you spend time setting up the car to run on a full fuel load.

The answer.  Yea, do all of that!

For a furious one and half hours Tuesday, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway likely contained the busiest stretch of asphalt in America.

Cars leapt onto the Brickyard immediately at 12noon and ran fast until heavy rains shut down the entire Speedway at 1:30pm. The checkered flag flew mercifully at 2:47pm. Stats for the day revealed that 30 drivers had run 1,024 laps, indicating that they logged over two and half thousand miles in just under 90 minutes. The two busiest drivers of the day belonged to Team Penske as Will Power and Helio Castroneves laid down 57 & 56 laps respectively.

Fastest of the day was EJ Viso (in James Hinchfliffe’s No. 27 Andretti Autosport United Fiber & Data Honda/Dallara) at 224.488 mph.

Rank	Car	Driver Name	C/E/T	Time	Speed	Diff	Gap	Best Lap	Total Laps
1	27	Viso,EJ	D/H/F	00:40.0912	224.488	–.—-	–.—-	15	43
2	26	Busch, Kurt (R)	D/H/F	00:40.1501	224.159	0.0589	0.0589	26	39
3	2	Montoya,Juan Pablo	D/C/F	00:40.1580	224.115	0.0668	0.0079	2	25
4	28	Hunter-Reay,Ryan	D/H/F	00:40.2482	223.612	0.1570	0.0902	28	53
5	25	Andretti,Marco	D/H/F	00:40.2495	223.605	0.1583	0.0013	4	23
6	9	Dixon,Scott	D/C/F	00:40.3163	223.235	0.2251	0.0668	30	53
7	77	Pagenaud,Simon	D/H/F	00:40.3473	223.063	0.2561	0.0310	12	29
8	67	Newgarden,Josef	D/H/F	00:40.4218	222.652	0.3306	0.0745	16	45
9	22	Karam,Sage (R)	D/C/F	00:40.4249	222.635	0.3337	0.0031	43	46
10	14	Sato,Takuma	D/H/F	00:40.4525	222.483	0.3613	0.0276	20	20
11	34	Munoz,Carlos	D/H/F	00:40.4672	222.402	0.3760	0.0147	23	40
12	8	Briscoe,Ryan	D/C/F	00:40.4741	222.364	0.3829	0.0069	34	39
13	6	Bell, Townsend	D/C/F	00:40.4951	222.249	0.4039	0.0210	22	42
14	3	Castroneves,Helio	D/C/F	00:40.5048	222.196	0.4136	0.0097	33	56
15	10	Kanaan,Tony	D/C/F	00:40.5456	221.972	0.4544	0.0408	29	40

 

Viso commented on his day by saying:  “I’ve taken on the full role of (James Hinchcliffe). Whatever his crew and engineer had planned to test and experience, I’ve been doing. It has been a quick adaptation to the team for me and so far it’s all been pretty positive. My biggest wish is to Hinch and to his recovery. Hopefully, he’s going to be able to make it to the race. I think today he was getting checked and soon we’ll have an answer.” (About getting back into a car): “When you are driving a car that’s already up to speed and you know it’s capable of doing something, you feel very safe. After a few laps, I was flat out.”

One team attempting to take a methodical approach to dealing with the weather delays is Ed Carpenter Racing. Car owner Carpenter (driver of the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet explained: “It’s tough when you can’t get a full day of running in at the Speedway. But we expect some rain in May. We just don’t pack everything up immediately too on a day like today. We have to take our cars through tech again and clean up some things so we are ready for qualifying. I felt really good about day one (Sunday). Then day two (Monday) and first part of day three (Tuesday) have been so-so. I think we are better than what the time sheets have shown. You want to be on track as much as possible with the changing conditions at IMS. You don’t want to be surprised on race day.”

Carpenter’s teammate JR Hildebrand in the No. 21 Preferred Freezer/Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet added: “With rain coming in, we tried to do a bunch of things early today. We have a pretty extensive plan throughout the week, so we really want the track time. Everyone is in the same boat on days like today. We can then sit down and access our current situation with the cars. We just hope that rain doesn’t come back in the few days. It feels great to run with Ed, and I am enjoying this team. It is low key and very professional. I hope to expand this program at Ed Carpenter Racing because I really like working with these guys. Some of the them I have worked with in my Indy Lights and IndyCar career. So it is pretty familiar territory for me.”

The latest word on Andretti Autosport’s James Hinchcliffe surfaced late in the day, when it was learned that he had been evaluated by the INDYCAR medical team in conjunction with its neurosurgical consultant.

INDYCAR Medical Director Dr. Michael Olinger said Hinchcliffe is progressing well and has been cleared to begin light training with his athletic trainer.

Hinchcliffe, who was diagnosed with a concussion from an on-track incident during the Grand Prix of Indianapolis on May 10, has not been cleared to resume driving duties. He will be re-evaluated May 15.