Information By: ASHLEY KELLER / CHEVROLET – SPEEDWAY, IN
- Pato O’Ward, driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, led team chevy with third on the leaderboard in the final practice session before the 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500.
- Additionally, Chevrolet was represented by Agustín Canapino, driver of the No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, and Ryan Hunter-Reay, driver of the No. 23 Dreyer & Reinbold with Cusick Motorsports Chevrolet, finishing seventh and 10th respectively.
- During the two-hour window, Friday’s final practice session saw the field turn a total of 2,721 laps, with Chevrolet completing 1,294 laps.
- In an all-Chevy final, the Carb Day Pit Stop Challenge saw Josef Newgarden’s No. 2 Shell Chevrolet crew defeat Pato O’Ward’s No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet crew in the best of three pit stops.
- Up next, the Chevrolet drivers and teams take the green flag for NTT INDYCAR SERIES crown jewel, the 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500. Sunday at 11 a.m. ET on NBC.
TEAM CHEVY TOP-10 PRACTICE RESULT:
Pos. Driver
3rd Pato O’Ward (226.666 mph)
7th Agustín Canapino (225.320 mph)
10th Ryan Hunter-Reay (225.124 mph)
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING (QUOTES):
Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet:
“Very interesting Carb Day session for us. Our version of Monday’s carry over to Friday wasn’t exactly as planned but we got it sorted and we have some ideas of what we’re going to do for the race on Sunday. Now, we just hope for the weather to be nice.”
Sting Ray Robb, No. 41 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet:
“Had a lot of fun out there today. We spent most of the day in the pack and got some things figured out. Really excited for Sunday. I think we can go forward in the field. We’ll get the Chevy just slightly shifted over in the window a little bit, but really happy with the Goodheart Chevrolet. I think it’s feeling really racy.”
Kyle Larson, No. 17 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:
“I thought my car handling was good. I didn’t suck up as good as I thought I did on Monday, but the pit stop stuff, getting familiar with that. It’s a little bit different, obviously, than a NASCAR pit stop, like charging pit lane. I got to leave finally hard a couple of times. I felt comfortable with all of that. I feel like we checked a lot of boxes off before the race. I thought that the car handled fine. I didn’t think I could suck up as good as I could on Monday, but I don’t know what everybody else thinks. I thought (Alex) Palou and (Scott) McLaughlin and (Josef) Newgarden looked pretty good, (Colton) Herta. I don’t know. I just felt middle of the road. I’m sure there are things I could do as far as generating runs and stuff to help things, but just got to kind of talk to my teammates and see how they felt.”
Ed Carpenter, No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet:
“Getting excited for another chance to go out and win this race! It has been a bit of a different month with the way the weather and everything else has played out. All things considered, I feel really good. I have been happy and comfortable in the car. That’s the most important thing, whether you’re starting 1st or 17th – where I am starting from – is just being happy with what you’ve got and being comfortable. If I can stay comfortable all day and make steady progress, I am confident we will be a factor in the end.”
Rinus VeeKay, No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet:
“I am so excited for the Indy 500! I always am. After the great team effort on qualifying weekend, I’m really excited to start towards the front of the pack but also have a great racecar. I have had so many different learning experiences, I am ready to get out there and race for the win. We don’t come here for anything less. Second means nothing at this place. We are going for the win and give it all we have.”
Christian Rasmussen, No. 33 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet:
“I’m excited! It’s been a good month, I have learned a lot about driving around here and qualifying around here. That ultimately all comes down to the race, which is the last thing we have ahead of us. I’m just super excited to get it started. We have a good racecar, we weren’t able to qualify as well as we had the pace to. Hopefully, we’re a bit faster than the people around us and are able to move forward. It should be a good day!”
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – End of Day Press Conference:
THE MODERATOR: Wrapping up Miller Lite Carb Day practice ahead of Sunday’s 108th running of the Indianapolis 500, Scott McLaughlin, 93 laps turned in that practice session, driver of the No. 3 Pennzoil Team Penske Chevrolet. The five-time NTT INDYCAR Series race winner starts from pole for the seventh time in his NTT INDYCAR Series career.
Q. Scottie Mac, race car, how would you describe it?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Very similar to what we started with this week. We haven’t really played around too much mechanically with the car. It felt good out of the box, and just sort of building my confidence with it. We tried a few different downforce levels there just to get an idea.
Looks like cooler temps for Sunday as well as Monday if that gets pushed back. Hopefully not. But ultimately you’re just sort of going through the motions, attacking the pit speed line. I actually sped, which was a good thing to get that out of the way now. A few other things like just pit stop practice and whatnot. I was just ticking things off the list.
Yeah, felt really good, but didn’t put a big number up, but I think we’re okay.
Q. Scott McLaughlin, looking around you’re in the iconic suit now, sat next to a 500 winner, you’ve got the P1 position. Feels like the perfect storm for you this year. How are you feeling going into the 500?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Super excited. When this guy won in ’08, it made me love the Indy 500 a lot, as a Kiwi and a very proud one at that.
I guess it has been a pretty whirlwind week. Being fastest here for qualifying, obviously it’s the first box you want to tick, but ultimately you want to win on Sunday, but it’s still been a really cool week, and I’ve really enjoyed. I’ve really tried to soak it in as much as I can, but at the end of the day the job is this weekend.
But just really proud to represent Pennzoil, and obviously it’s 40 years since Rick won in this race car. It would mean a lot to the team and myself to do that, obviously. It would be a life-changing experience. But ultimately we need to go through all the process, all the execution to get to that point as 32 other amazing race car drivers out there are going to be chasing us down and working us very hard. Yeah, no doubt about that.
Just keep my emotions in check, just enjoy the moment and see what happens.
Q. With all that in mind, what you’re wearing, yellow submarine, P1 position, and also just the news surrounding Penske all season, is there any added pressure that you’re feeling going into this race?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Not really. I’m just very focused on the job at hand. I think we’ve proved that you can get a sore neck looking back. We’ll keep working forward. I’m really proud of the execution all month, but at the end of the day, the main time to execute is Sunday, and we’ll try and do that.
Q. For either of you or both of you, most tracks we go to, when conditions get cooler, you just know it’s going to increase grip, but this place kind of seems especially finicky. What kind of mystery are we looking at if we get the overcast and the cooler temperatures Sunday and Monday?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Scottie has got more experience than me.
SCOTT DIXON: I think it’s the same trend. The pack will just get tighter.
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I agree. I think it will — yeah, we’ll get more grip, but everyone will get more grip, so I think we’ll see the same gaps and stuff like that. It’s a matter of being able to follow close enough when they make mistakes and capitalize.
Q. Scott, with you guys having three Penske cars across the front row on Sunday, how if at all can you guys work together to try and control the race? Is that something you guys have talked about yet, how you guys will approach that, or is that something you guys won’t worry too much about?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I think we’ve seen over the years, I think Scottie and Alex have done this before, really controlled that first sort of 100 odd laps and whatnot, so it is able to be done. But we haven’t had an active discussion about it yet, but at the end of the day I’m sure there will be a sit-down with all three of us before the race and sort of analyze a few things.
At the same time, I guess everyone knows that when you’re out in front, you’re chewing a lot of gas, so ultimately I think we’ll take turns maybe at doing that or making sure that we keep ourselves in good track position. Ultimately that’s what I’m thinking about.
But yeah, certainly when you get back to sort of six, seven, eight deep it’s quite definitely, so we need to make sure we’re up in the front.
Just let it come, let it happen. I haven’t been at the front; starting 14th is best I’ve had. I’m excited to see what it looks like.
Q. Scottie Mac, Simon Pagenaud of course is here and we interviewed him during practice on Peacock and he confirmed to Marty that he’s your secret mentor, and he was highly complimentary of everything you’ve done and about how you came to him and have absorbed everything. Can you give us more perspective on how it came about and how much of an impact did he have on the pole? Were you using things in terms of lines and things that he was telling you?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: The line I think came a little naturally to me, but yeah, he’s a very keen observer of many things, a note taker, and we’ve been exchanging notes all week. I asked him to do this like February, January or February, and we’ve been analyzing a lot of things since.
But at the same time, he’s always been a Team Penske member. He’s won the 500 for us, and at the end of the day, we all just want him to be okay. So this is for me an opportunity for me to work with him but also an opportunity for me to help maybe bring him back to the race and get his name back involved. Whether that’s not driving a race car, at least he’s involved, and he gets that feeling of being at the 500 again. I’m sure it’s so hard for him right now. It’s his first 500 he’s missed in a long time. He’s a 500 winner, and he’s at a point in his career where he could easily keep going for many, many years.
He’s just a nice guy. I’ve always got along with him from Penske, and he’s been a lot of help. Yeah, there’s definitely a lot of things I’ve used this week that have helped, but at the same time, we’ve had great car speed, which has made it a lot easier. But just leaning on him has been nice.