Qualifying Report: Indianapolis 500

INDIANAPOLIS May 18, 2013—IZOD IndyCar Series point leader Takuma Sato qualified for his fourth Indianapolis 500 driving the AJ Foyt Racing/ABC Supply Honda-powered Indy car. Posting a four-lap average speed of 225.892 mph, Sato will start 18th in the 33-car field.

Morning rain showers delayed the start of time trials by nearly two and a half hours, but once the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway was dried, the first segment of qualifying was underway. It was extended to 6 p.m. to give the 34 drivers ample opportunity to make a qualifying attempt.

Sato who posted a 226.6 mph lap earlier in morning practice (before the rains came), was unable to reach that speed again—his best lap in his qualifying run was his first -- 226.071 mph.

“I think we’ve done a solid job,” said Sato. “Personally I would love to be in the Firestone Fast Nine but now we’re focused on the race. We’ve got more work to do tomorrow and on Carb Day and I look forward to that.”

Unfortunately, 21-year-old rookie Conor Daly experienced heartache at the Speedway when he was unable to complete his qualifying run in the No. 41 because of a broken exhaust header. He brought the car to pit lane after just two laps. The car will be repaired in time for tomorrow’s qualifying.

Indianapolis 500

May 17

Takuma Sato took to the track early in his No. 14 ABC Supply car and quickly demonstrated why the day before Pole Day has been dubbed Fast Friday. It took just 11 laps for him to post his fastest lap of the day—and the month—with his 227.038 mph run. Ranking tenth overall in practice, he was the second quickest Honda-powered car,  just .042/second slower than Dario Franchitti.

Conor Daly’s No. 41 ABC Supply car was scheduled to be back on the track at 4 p.m. as the ABC Supply team worked until midnight and was back in the garage at 6 a.m.  to repair the car following Daly’s mishap yesterday. Unfortunately, thunderstorms cut practice short just after 3 p.m.  Athough Daly didn’t get any laps in today, he will have a chance to practice tomorrow morning before qualifying begins at 11 a.m.

“It's obviously not ideal that it's raining, I just got my suit on to go back out and unfortunately, we can't,” Daly said as torrential downpours soaked the Speedway and surrounding area. “At least we have a bit of practice tomorrow morning to get more comfortable with the car and get back to normal. So, it should be good, I'm confident and we'll just see what happens.”

Sato’s 227 mph  lap is his fastest of the month to date. “Today was quite straightforward,” said the current IZOD IndyCar points leader. “On Fast Friday, we have higher boost and only look for the qualifying set up. After the first run, we made some good progress and the second run was quite satisfying. We were not able to explore more due to the rain but I think we're in quite good shape. We'll review the details tonight and fine-tune the ABC Supply car tomorrow morning to prepare for qualifying. It was short but quite a good day."

Indianapolis 500

May 16

The ABC Supply team had mixed results today as practice heated up and speeds climbed at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Takuma Sato was tenth quickest of the 33 drivers on track with the No. 14 ABC Supply Honda posting a speed of 223.6mph which was his quickest of the month.

“My day went well because we learned a lot, so again it was productive,” Sato said after logging 75 laps in practice. “There were a couple of things we needed to address but we learned the car performed well in race trim and qualifying trim, so that was good.”

However, rookie Conor Daly, who had been feeling the highs of racing at Indy the past three days, felt the sport’s lows today with his hard crash into the turn one wall in mid-afternoon. Fortunately the plucky young driver escaped injury and his car, which sustained extensive damage to its right side, is being repaired. Daly is expected to get back on track on tomorrow.

“These guys work so hard—I’m incredibly thankful for the continued opportunity that I have,” said Daly, who had posted his fastest lap of the week—220.7 mph-- earlier in the day. “I’m just glad that the car wasn’t as damaged as it might have looked flying through the air. I tried to save it and I would have saved it if we had about another 100 yards wider. But I know they’re going to work hard and get it all prepared and as long as we can get out tomorrow and shake it down and make sure she’s pulling in the right direction, I think we’ll be fine. I think it should be good.”

Indianapolis 500

May 15

Under hot, sunny skies with temperatures nearing 90 degrees, Takuma Sato and rookie Conor Daly logged 213 laps around the Brickyard. Sato reached his top speed of 221.8 mph (12th fastest on the speed chart) on the 86th lap of the 87 laps he ran. Daly ran 126 laps, the most of any driver for the day. His top speed of 220.6 mph came on the 112 lap. With thunderstorms predicted for Thursday, the team wanted to get as much running in as possible.

Takuma Sato:  “It was a productive day again. After yesterday, we were delayed on the program but I think we caught up nicely and we tried several things we wanted to try over the last two days and it was good to see the changes. We collected good data today and finally we were able to run in traffic to see how the car performed. We found some positives and some not so much; we’ll sort it out in the debrief tonight and hopefully continue to progress tomorrow.”

Conor Daly (who ran the most laps today at 126): “We got over 220 today which was enjoyable. I got to run in traffic at the end of the day so that was good experience—a whole new experience for me and I really enjoyed it. As long as I can keep running like that tomorrow, I think we’ll have a good platform for the race. [Was running in traffic what you expected?] “It was a little surprising--it’s tough to really get close to people so I think there’s some stuff we can do with the car to help that, but I think mainly it’s just me trying to figure out how to navigate traffic, so it should get better.”