After heavy rains forced the cancellation of Thursday's practice session,
Red Bull Cheever Racing returned to the track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
on Friday
source:
redbullcheeverracing.com
During the six-hour session, the team worked on a lot of race-day scenarios
by staying on the track for extended periods and looking for traffic to test how
the car reacts.
Alex Barron got the most work in for the team in the #51 car, completing 123
laps with a top speed of 221.375 mph.
"I think this morning, it was like it was the start of the race. Everyone was
dicing in and out. We got more done today than we thought we were going to.
We're just going to keep poking away, doing what we can to make the car better
in traffic. That's really all we have left to do," Barron said.
Meanwhile, Patrick Carpentier turned 67 laps before a gearbox problem forced him
to retire shortly after 5 p.m. During the session, his top speed was 221.382
mph.
"The gearbox blew late in the day, so we had to stop a little bit early. It's
too bad because the car was getting better and there was traffic coming, and I
wanted to test it in traffic. It's okay, though. We ran enough laps. We really
worked on race setup today. It was okay, but we need a little bit more (speed)
for the race. We're going to make the field, so we didn't work on the qualifying
setup at all. We'll just put the qualifying setup on tomorrow morning and see
what we get," Carpentier said.
The team will return to action on Saturday, May 20 for a morning practice
session from 10:15 to 11:15 a.m. with the third round of qualifications taking
place from noon to 6 p.m. During this session, Carpentier will attempt to
qualify, while Barron will watch from the pits. Since Barron qualified on Pole
Day, he won't face possible bumping until the final round of qualifications on
Sunday.