Indianapolis 500 – Indianapolis Motor Speedway
IZOD IndyCar Series
PRACTICE NOTES/QUOTES – Monday, May 13, 2013
RAHAL, JAKES AND JOURDAIN JR. CONTINUE TO MAKE PROGRESS ON THEIR SECOND DAY OF PRACTICE FOR THE INDIANAPOLIS 500
1) Marco Andretti 225.100 mph / 39.9823 54 laps
25) Graham Rahal 220.360 mph / 40.8423 57 laps
30) James Jakes 218.351 mph / 41.2181 114 laps
32) Michel Jourdain Jr. 216.603 mph / 41.5506 47 laps
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Midas / Big O Tires Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We started with a little bit of issues and couldn’t quite get them sorted while we were in the pits so we came back to the garage and found a couple of things. We went back out and immediately the Midas / Big O Tires car was miles and miles better. I think we are probably still conservative compared to others on wing and that sort of thing so I feel pretty good about it. Frankly I wasn’t expecting to go 220 (mph). I thought the maximum we could do at that time with the gears we had was maybe upper 218’s or something. I thought the car was really comfortable in traffic so we’ll keep working on it and getting it better.”
JAMES JAKES, No. 16 Acorn Stairlifts Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was a busy day; we got a lot of race work done. We were trying to mileage out our engine as much as possible today and ran 114 laps. We were just trying to get a feel for the Acorn Stairlifts car in traffic and work on race stuff. I’m excited to get back out there tomorrow and finish the mileage off and then we can work on qualifying stuff at the end of the week.”
MICHEL JOURDAIN JR, No. 17 Office Depot Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We went out this morning and didn’t have a lot of confidence in the car so we have been making changes to get more confidence in it. I would have liked to start running in traffic a little bit but right now, with how the car is, we don’t have the gears to do that. We learned some things but we still need to make some changes to improve the Office Depot car. I would like to have a better feel in the car but we have a little time.”
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 Yasakawa (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, No. 16 Acorn Stairlifts entry for James Jakes and No. 17 Office Depot entry for Michel Jourdain will bring that total to 31 in 2013.
NEXT UP: Practice will resume tomorrow from 12-6 PM ET. The 97th Indianapolis 500 race will be 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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