A
full week of practice is in the books – six full days with all cars,
plus rookie orientation on May 10, with nary a rain interruption nor a
major accident thus far.
The speeds set this week largely reflect potential race pace, as the
best laps have come via large tows, and it's been tougher to gauge the
pace in solo runs. On Friday, the series will increase the boosts, so
single-car runs will take precedence and the speeds
– roughly 218 to 219mph in solo runs thus far – are likely to increase
to at least the 223 to 224mph threshold. Here are some of the trends from the
week's worth of running to this point.
NEWGARDEN'S WEEK TO SHINE – Whether
it's down to a fresh paint job on his Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing
thanks to Indy-only sponsor Dollar General, or just the fact
the kid's a quick learner, Josef Newgarden has, by all accounts,
upstaged the usual suspects as a permanent resident on the top of the
leaderboard. Newgarden has ended the day fastest three times out of six,
earning an extra $15,000 for his team ($5,000 apiece),
and had three days where he ended over 222mph in the tow.
His week hasn't been without incident – the rookie had the
month's first spin after losing it off Turn 4 on Wednesday, but
sustaining only minimal damage to
his car. He was back out on Thursday, no issues, and posted a 222.709
for the day. It will be interesting to see how his solo laps compare and whether he stays near the top of the charts.
The
fact Newgarden's been so close to the top has overshadowed how well
fellow rookie Bryan Clauson has acclimated to the Speedway in his first
IndyCar start. Clauson
has gained experience with consistent laps, shown strongly in the draft,
and occasionally hit the 221mph lap mark as well.
IT'S STILL FAIRLY BUNCHED – Looking
through the combined practice speeds, while the strongly tow-assisted
best laps of the month from Marco Andretti and Scott
Dixon each eclipsed 223mph, and three others ran in the 222 range, the
next 23 drivers all have a best lap between 221 and 219mph – most are in
the tow, but with not quite as big a tow as the best laps.
The
top 10 combined speeds feature drivers from five different teams –
there are five Hondas and five Chevrolets apiece in the bunch. Sixteen
drivers have exceeded 221mph
for their best lap of the month, with 21 of the 32 that have posted an
official time (Katherine Legge's rookie orientation program not counted)
over the 220mph barrier.
Still,
there are a couple anomalies of that group. The Foyt cars, for
instance, made a major jump on Thursday, because throughout the week,
both Mike Conway and Wade
Cunningham struggled to top 218 with any regularity. Cunningham had a
gradual climb each day, from 216.657 Sunday to the team's best lap of
221.450 on Thursday, with roughly one mph gained each day. Conway's
2.7mph spike from Wednesday to Thursday (217.2 to
220.9) would indicate tow to help find the speed more likely than
trimming out the car to its ultimate minimum level of downforce.
WHAT'S THE BIG DOGS' BITE? – Of
the three “power teams” within the IZOD IndyCar Series, Andretti
Autosport has consistently shown pace both in single-car runs
and in the tow, while Chip Ganassi Racing has had more moments of speed
than not, and Team Penske has largely laid in the weeds. Whether that
changes for Fast Friday remains to be seen – if in fact the “big dogs”
will shoot to the top and lock out the top eight
or nine positions or whether the underdogs will continue to have their
day.
Andretti's
quintet of Marco Andretti, James Hinchcliffe, Ryan Hunter-Reay,
Sebastian Saavedra and Ana Beatriz have shown a good comfort and handle
on their cars, and
all but Beatriz has ended a day in the top five on the speed charts. The
team didn't run on Thursday, probably opting to save a day's worth of
sets of tires. So far, the pace shown by the team has erased the
memories of last year's qualifying disaster when
Andretti barely qualified, Conway didn't, and Hunter-Reay was bumped out
at the last minute and raced thanks only to a purchase of a starting
spot from Foyt.
Ganassi's
Scott Dixon, Graham Rahal and Charlie Kimball have all had some very
strong tows throughout the week, and largely stayed in the top 10. Dario
Franchitti has
been just a small fraction off his teammates' pace, but still within the
top eight each of the last four days. Rahal rebounded from the month's
lone blown engine thus far to post a 221.855 the day after changing.
As
for Penske, you wonder if their relative lack of pace has been simply
preparing for the race or if there's more of a struggle in dialing in
the setup. Similar to Andretti,
Penske's trio of cars withheld running too much on Wednesday to save
tires, and the first signs of life came Thursday when Will Power and
Ryan Briscoe each turned their fastest laps over the 221mph threshold.
Helio Castroneves' 222.025, second on Tuesday, has
been the lone eye-popping number from the group this month.
WINNING THE CONSISTENCY GAME – There's a handful of drivers who have avoided major fluctuation and ran incredibly consistent throughout the week, and might be
some potential pole or Firestone Fast Nine sleepers considering how steady and fast they have been on their solo runs.
Panther Racing's pace has carried over from the past few years at IMS
to this year with the new car. JR Hildebrand is another whose outright
fastest lap doesn't
match where he's ended each day – the sophomore Californian has ended
anywhere from second to 13th, and ended the day over 220mph each of the
last four, although his best lap is only 16th overall. Panther's new
technical partnership with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
hasn't paid off from a speed standpoint to Oriol Servia yet – Servia has
only once ended a day higher than 11th – but no doubt has the chops to
pull some rabbits out of his hat and start in the front half of the
grid.
Takuma
Sato is one to note. The Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver's best
lap is only 18th in the combined charts, but Sato ended each day from
Saturday through Wednesday
between ninth and 13th, the last three days ninth overall, each in the
220mph range. He ran fewer laps Thursday but seems to have a solid
handle on his car; teammate Michel Jourdain Jr. has been working to get
up to speed in working with engineer Bruno Couprie.
Justin
Wilson has also shown strongly in Dale Coyne Racing's No. 18 entry, in
part at least due to his engineer Bill Pappas. As the two have been
reunited for the first
time since 2009, that car currently stands ninth among all entries at a
221.677 – fourth of the Honda contingent. Outside of Tuesday when he ran
fewer laps, Wilson has ended the day between fifth and 12th on the
charts. James Jakes, too, has shown improved
speed even though he's been roughly two mph down on his teammate.
FREE AT LAST – Although
neither has been threatening the outright leaders to this point,
Panther DRR and Bryan Herta Autosport are still substantially closer
to the front of the field with their Chevrolet and Honda engines,
respectively, after each ending their contracts with Lotus.
Incidentally, the two cars driven by Alex Tagliani and Servia are next
to each other on the combined speed chart to this point - 19th
and 20th overall with best speeds of 220.703 and 220.643.
It's
an interesting year for both squads. Panther DRR, of course, has
downsized from four cars to one for this year's Indy 500, although the
Panther technical alliance
means Servia and Hildebrand are essentially teammates and able to share
information. By contrast, BHA is no longer affiliated with any other
team and back to striking out on its own, after running this race last
year with a technical partnership with Sam Schmidt
Motorsports. The team continues to make strides to match both Tagliani's
pole and BHA's race win accolades of a year ago.
KV, SCHMIDT STRUGGLING – While
Foyt broke out of this group with their Thursday runs, the trio of KV
Racing Technology Chevrolets and pair of Sam Schmidt Motorsports
Hondas have languished in the high teens and 20s all week. You'd have to
think, in some respects, engineering is an issue.
KV's
E.J. Viso, now sans Pappas tuning the wrenches on his entry, has yet to
run a lap faster than 218.550mph, a full six-tenths of a mph off Ed
Carpenter as the lowest
in the 219 range.
KV's
struggles aren't limited to Viso, though. Teammate Tony Kanaan has
shaken down both his and rookie Rubens Barrichello's cars, and hasn't
ran above 214mph in either
of his handful of laps. Kanaan, with his longtime engineer Eric Cowdin
back in the fold, has only had two days where he's ended the day above
220mph – and his best speed of 220.305 is just 21st. Barrichello's
initial week on the IMS oval has been more about
learning the nuances of the track, but it took him until Thursday to run
faster than 217. His 219.432mph is just 26th on the combined speed
charts.
The
Schmidt squad – which secured three of the top six spots on the
starting grid a year ago (two Schmidt entries and the technical
partnership with eventual winners
Bryan Herta Autosport) – has not been able to show the same pace of a
year ago and the lack of Allen McDonald's presence is obvious. For all
his success on the road courses, it's easy to forget this is still Simon
Pagenaud's first oval race, and he's having
to learn a lot in a short amount of time. Pagenaud and Townsend Bell
have been consistent with their speeds, but neither has ended a day
higher than 17th and haven't hit the magic 220mph barrier yet.
THE DRAGON AND LOTUS SAGAS –
Until Thursday, the Dragon cars hadn't turned a wheel on track – yet in
one day with Chevrolets, both of the Dragon cars had already
eclipsed the best speeds of cars with their former engine supplier. In
his refresher test, Sebastien Bourdais showed he hadn't forgotten how to
drive an oval, although he hinted at a loose car, while Katherine Legge
made it on track after a daylong battle to
complete two phases of her rookie orientation battle.
It's
become painfully apparent the only way both Lotus entries will race a
week from Sunday is if there are only 33 cars. There's a 12mph gap
between Andretti's fastest
lap – a tow-assisted 223.676 – and Jean Alesi's best lap for Lotus, with
a boost increase, of 211.516.
Alesi,
for what it's worth, has shown he can handle an IndyCar and has
exceeded Simona de Silvestro's pace every day thus far. That speaks
highly of the Fan Force United
team, led by Tyce Carlson and with big engineering help from Tim Wardrop
and Greg Beck. Unfortunately, both are hamstrung by the powerplant, and
unable to make miracle gains overnight.
COMBINED SPEEDS THROUGH THURSDAY
Pos Driver Team/Car Speed
1. Marco Andretti Andretti DW12-Chevrolet 223.676
2. Scott Dixon Ganassi DW12-Honda 223.088
3. Josef Newgarden Fisher DW12-Honda 222.785
4. Graham Rahal Ganassi DW12-Honda 222.080
5. Helio Castroneves Penske DW12-Chevrolet 222.025
6. Will Power Penske DW12-Chevrolet 221.932
7. James Hinchcliffe Andretti DW12-Chevrolet 221.864
8. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti DW12-Chevrolet 221.814
9. Justin Wilson Coyne DW12-Honda 221.715
10. Charlie Kimball Ganassi DW12-Honda 221.677
11. Dario Franchitti Ganassi DW12-Honda 221.623
12. Sebastian Saavedra Andretti DW12-Chevrolet 221.526
13. Ryan Briscoe Penske DW12-Chevrolet 221.510
14. Wade Cunningham Foyt DW12-Honda 221.450
15. Bryan Clauson Fisher DW12-Honda 221.173
16. JR Hildebrand Panther DW12-Chevrolet 221.022
17. Mike Conway Foyt DW12-Honda 220.900
18. Takuma Sato Rahal DW12-Honda 220.856
19. Alex Tagliani BHA DW12-Honda 220.703
20. Oriol Servia Panther/DRR DW12-Chevrolet 220.643
21. Tony Kanaan KV DW12-Chevrolet 220.305
22. James Jakes Coyne DW12-Honda 219.826
23. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt DW12-Honda 219.802
24. Ana Beatriz Andretti DW12-Chevrolet 219.761
25. Townsend Bell Schmidt DW12-Honda 219.724
26. Rubens Barrichello KV DW12-Chevrolet 219.432
27. Michel Jourdain Jr. Rahal DW12-Honda 219.280
28. Ed Carpenter Carpenter DW12-Chevrolet 219.095
29. EJ Viso KV DW12-Chevrolet 218.550
30. Sebastien Bourdais Dragon DW12-Chevrolet 214.715
31. Jean Alesi Fan Force DW12-Lotus 211.516
32. Simona de Silvestro HVM DW12-Lotus 210.315
33. Katherine Legge Dragon DW12-Chevrolet ROP Only