It was a day plagued with bad luck for Red Bull Cheever Racing during the 89th Indianapolis 500. The first omen came at the command to start the car engines when Carpentier's car wouldn't fire, but the team got it started and caught up with the pack for the start.
source: redbullcheeverracing.com Both Carpentier and Alex Barron were running a clean race until lap 22 when a majority of the cars came to pit under a yellow flag. When Barron entered the pit for his stop, the team had difficulties with the fuel rig. As a result, Barron was only able to take a limited load of fuel, and had to come back a few laps later to top off the tank, setting him back a lap from the leaders. Then, his bad luck continued when he was black flagged on lap 57 for speeding in pit lane and was forced to drive by again, which cost him another lap. After the initial problems, Carpentier's day was headed in the right direction. He was running quick laps and climbing steadily in the field from his is starting position of 25th. His best lap of the day was 222.827 mph. By lap 153, Carpentier had moved into 15th before trouble came his way. During the restart, Danica Patrick spun and caused problems for several cars including the #83. It was hit from behind and also picked up a piece of debris from one of the cars involved in the incident. Carpentier was able to pull the car into pit lane, but it was smoking and the day was done as a result of an engine malfunction caused by the accident. As a result, he was left with a 21st place finish. "The car was okay. We were going as hard as we could. On that restart someone broke loose and then everybody got together there. I was happy because I thought I cleared the accident and was okay. There were cars spinning everywhere. My spotter said someone hit me at the back but the problem was a big piece came into the airbox and went into the engine and that was it," Carpentier said.
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