Indianapolis 500 – Indianapolis Motor Speedway
IZOD IndyCar Series
CARB DAY NOTES/QUOTES — Friday, May 24, 2013
RAHAL AND JAKES ARE READY TO COMPETE IN THE 97TH RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500 AFTER STRONG CARB DAY RUNS
1) Simon Pagenaud 225.827 mph / 39.8536 41 laps
7) James Jakes 224.622 mph / 40.0674 39 laps
23) Graham Rahal 223.307 mph / 40.3033 35 laps
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Midas / Big O Tires Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “The Midas / Big O Tires car feels pretty good. I’m pleased with where we’re at – handling wise. In traffic, it felt pretty comfortable. We will keep working at it. I don’t think we’re far off at all. Now it’s just a matter of going racing in the biggest race of the year.”
JAMES JAKES, No. 16 Acorn Stairlifts Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We’ve got a great car. The Acorn Stairlifts car has been good all through the latter part of the testing week here and we’re excited about the race. I’d be happy to go out and race right now to be honest. We’ll see what happens on race day. The Honda guys have been back in the shop last week working very hard. We’ve worked hard since we got here and now there are no more setup changes needed. We knew that going in. We may make a slight adjustment here and there but nothing big.”
RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING AT INDY … The team’s highest start and finish in the event came in 2004 when Buddy Rice won from pole. In addition, the team has earned a total of four podiums (2nd – Meira 2005; 3rd – Rahal 1994, 1995). The team was in contention to win the race as recent as 2011 when Bertrand Baguette led laps 139-140 and laps 189-197 of the 200 lap race. Had a caution come our before Baguette was forced to pit for a splash of fuel, he might have been the victor. The race ultimately ended under caution when JR Hildebrand crashed on the front straight while in the lead on the final lap… The 2013 race will mark the 16th year for the team in the event. Prior to 2013, the team prepared a total of 28 entries for drivers such as Bobby Rahal (1992-1995), Mike Groff (1994), Raul Boesel (1995), Jimmy Vasser (2002-2003), Kenny Brack (2003, 2005), Buddy Rice (2004, 2006; DNC 2005 due to practice crash), Vitor Meira (2004, 2005), Roger Yasukawa (2004), Danica Patrick (2005, 2006), Jeff Simmons (2006, 2007), Scott Sharp (2007), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2008), Oriol Servia (2009), Graham Rahal (2010), Bertrand Baguette (2011), Jay Howard (2011), Takuma Sato (2012) and Michel Jourdain (2012). The No. 15 Midas / Big O Tires entry for Graham Rahal and the No. 16 Acorn Stairlifts entry for James Jakes will bring that total to 30 in 2013.
NEXT UP: The 97th Indianapolis 500 race will be Sunday, May 26 and will be televised by ABC at 12 a.m. (ET) and broadcast by the IMS Radio Network on Sirius XM (XM 94 and Sirius 212). Timing and Scoring information is available for all sessions from www.indycar.com.
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