TEAM NEWS
source:
redbullcheeverracing.com
Red Bull Cheever Racing returned to the track on Wednesday after a two-day
break with one round of qualifying under its belt. On Sunday, the team qualified
Alex Barron, while Patrick Carpentier was left in the qualifying line after
being bumped from the lineup late in the day.
With a limited number of cars remaining to qualify, the team turned its
attention to race preparation, while still pursuing higher speeds. With
questionable weather looming tomorrow, the team made the most of the practice
session, completing a total of 238 laps.
Carpentier saw the most track time, turning a total of 129 laps. Overall, his
speeds were up a bit from last week. His best average lap speed was 220.898 mph.
"We really made some improvements today, I feel. The car was good all day, and
at the end, I could run 20 laps wide open. We're just lacking a little bit of
speed for some reason. We're hoping that in the race we can keep it flat,"
Carpentier said.
Barron also got a lot of work in during the afternoon practice, completing 120
laps. His numbers also were above the 220 mark. Barron's best lap was 220.515
mph.
"We tried a lot of things for the race today, and we were able to make some
decisions. We're going to change an engine and hopefully get out tomorrow. If
not, we have two more days to set it up, so I think we got ahead of the game on
setup today. Hopefully, we'll be able to run with more traffic next time. It
seemed like every time we were in the garage, the big packs were out there. It
was good, though," Barron said.
The team will return to the track on Thursday, May 19 for another practice
session from noon to 6 p.m. in preparation for the 89th Indianapolis 500 on May
29.