Friday, May 17, 2013

Fast Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

EJ Viso posted the fast average speed on the rain-shortened Fast Friday at 229.537 MPH. He led an Andretti Autosport 1-2-3 for the second consecutive day with Marco Andretti (228.754 MPH) and Carlos Muñoz (228.520 MPH) behind the Venezuelan. Chevrolet continued their dominance with Will, Power (228.401 MPH), JR Hildebrand (227.549 MPH), Oriol Serviá (227.237 MPH), AJ Allmendinger (227.199 MPH) and Townsend Bell (227.160 MPH) taking positions fourth through eighth. Dario Franchitti was the fastest Honda at ninth quickest (227.080 MPH) and Takuma Sato rounded out the top ten (227.038 MPH).

Rain hit about halfway through the practice session. Thirty-two cars took to the track with the lone driver not to take a lap was Conor Daly. Daly had an accident on Thursday. Buddy Lazier made his first official laps of practice and was thirty-first quickest at 222.464 MPH.

Other notables from Fast Friday:
Past Winners: Helio Castroneves eleventh (226.988 MPH), Scott Dixon nineteenth (226.162 MPH).
Rookies: Tristan Vautier twenty-ninth (223.369 MPH).
Others: James Hinchcliffe twelfth (226.983 MPH), Ryan Hunter-Reay thirteenth (226.919 MPH), Tony Kanaan fourteenth (226.822 MPH), Josef Newgarden eighteenth (226.372 MPH), Graham Rahal twentieth (226.152), Ryan Briscoe twenty-fifth (225.265 MPH).

No more news has come out about the #99 Schmidt Honda. The #40 Ed Carpenter Racing entry did draw the first position in line for Pole Day tomorrow however that car has never been a serious contender to actually take laps at the Speedway.

Forecast for Pole Day calls for a high of 80 degrees Fahrenheit with a forty percent chance of precipitation. Winds ESE at 10 MPH.