103rd Running of the Indianapolis 500
NTT IndyCar Series
CARB DAY NOTES/QUOTES – May 24, 2019
SATO THIRD FASTEST, KING FOURTH AND RAHAL 17TH IN CARB DAY PRACTICE: ALL HAPPY WITH RACE CAR SETUP
1) Tony Kanaan 225.517 mph
3) Takuma Sato 226.468 mph
4) Jordan King 225.337 mph
17) Graham Rahal 223.541 mph
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 United Rentals Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “The United Rentals Honda was good there at the end and I’m a cautiously optimistic person so if I tell you it’s good, it’s good. I was able to pass a lot of guys, I was up there with the Penske boys at the end. If it stays like that and we get ourselves into a good position, then I think we have a good chance at this thing. There are some things we have to overcome but it felt good; it felt really good, so we’ll see. (On brush with the wall:) The car was okay and then all of a sudden it just took off with understeer and brushed the wall. I had it one other time and I was actually leading a pack at that point and the front just gave up. With the wind like this, it get a little bit gusty. I was behind two or three cars and if you get a crosswind and hit the wake, it’s going to go. I had one close call but the rest of the time the United Rentals car was really good. (Said jokingly:) Maybe we bent something and that helped; I don’t know. We’ll have to go back and look. My car was strong at the end. If we stay like that, we’ll be I a good spot. The temperatures (on race day) should be similar. I think we got the downforce package right. We tried some things we haven’t tried yet, some wicker packages that we’ve seen other guys running that we hadn’t yet. Man, I don’t know what happened but she turned on all of a sudden. I was able to pass. To be honest, the rest of the week I said no on being able to pass and I thought that with today being a hotter day, the likelihood was that it would be even worse, but I was genuinely able to pass.”
TAKUMA SATO, No. 30 Mi-Jack / Panasonic Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “I think we have a strong package, not the strongest package we’ve had, but I think we made good progress. We will have a look at data and compare the three cars to see if there’s anything we can squeeze out of the speed and stability for Sunday. I think the Indy 500 is tough year by year, month by month, hour by hour, it’s a different scenario. One thing you know is that you’ve been there, and you know how to get the job done and what to look for. I think the guys did a great job. I’m leading the engineering data toward what I want to and I think we’re getting really close to that.”
JORDAN KING, No. 42 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Obviously we’re high up on the time screen. That’s a decent tow lap and it’s difficult to say with the track conditions, but I think we’ve got a good balance in the car but just lacking a little in traffic. I think we’ll go back and work on a bit more of our traffic pace, but overall I’m reasonably happy. I think if we can just sort a couple things out we’ll be good. I’ll let you know if I’m comfortable about 50 laps into the race.”
NEXT UP: The 2019 Indianapolis 5o will air live on NBC beginning at 11 a.m. ET on Sunday, May 26.