103rd Running of the Indianapolis 500
NTT IndyCar Series
PRACTICE NOTES/QUOTES – May 16, 2019
ANOTHER PRODUCTIVE DAY OF PRACTICE AHEAD OF FAST FRIDAY FOR SATO, RAHAL AND KING; INCLEMENT WEATHER CUT PRACTICE SHORT
1) Ed Jones 227.843 mph
2) Takuma Sato 226.699 mph
24) Graham Rahal 224.133 mph
29) Jordan King 223.173 mph
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 United Rentals Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I thought today was actually extremely positive. We did a lot of good things in the morning with some qualifying simulations and I thought our pace was pretty strong. It’s hard to say exactly, but I think time-for-time Takuma and I are very close together and we should be pretty strong. We tried to get some race running done there at the end but we never really got a good group (of cars) going because everybody was taking some downtime and then the (bad) weather came in, but we should be pretty solid. We found some good stuff today so we should be pretty good. Tomorrow is just a matter of turning up the boost and see how she flies’, see if it’s good and strong. We just have to put it all together and see where we stand. I feel pretty decent, but we just need to test it out tomorrow and see.”
TAKUMA SATO, No. 30 Mi-Jack / Panasonic Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I’d say it was a very productive day despite a little issue in the car and the weather. We’ve done a qualifying simulation and worked on the race setup. We found several positives and I’m pretty happy with that. We are quite satisfied with how today went. It’s a shame we weren’t able to see the performance (of the car) in a group run because of the weather, but I feel positive today. It’s Fast Friday tomorrow so we are going to be seeing another world. I think we will see five, six, seven mph faster than today so it will be a whole different game. But at least we found a very fundamental, good setup today which is going to be continued the next three days. I think that getting four laps with a good balance is extremely important so tomorrow we will be working on that.”
JORDAN KING, No. 42 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We did some qualifying runs in the morning that were pretty positive. I had a good balance with the car so no kind of real stress from that side. We were a little bit down on those guys (Rahal, Sato) but they were trying some different things. Overall I’m pretty happy. I still think we’re quite safe with the car. I think on the no tow times as a team, we’re looking better. Takuma’s up there with a big tow time, but looking at the no tow times, I think we’re all quite good. Obviously at the end there, it was a strange run. We didn’t really get much done this afternoon and then the weather came in, but I think there’s a little work from my side to be done and the car side from the race runs in traffic. We’re still struggling a little bit there.”
NEXT UP: Practice will take place from 11-6 p.m. ET tomorrow.