Gustavo Yacaman established himself as a contender for the Firestone Freedom 100 by leading a one-day Open Test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday. Yacaman turned a lap of 47.2493sec (190.511mph) in his No. 10 Cape Motorsport with Wayne Taylor Racing car around the famed 2.5-mile oval.
"I'm not surprised," Yacaman said. "My engineers [Nicholas and Dominic Cape] had a great car two years ago with J.R. [Hildebrand] and the car was really good. The credit goes to them. All I had to do was sit there with the pedal to the metal. "
While Yacaman gave the credit to pre Cape Motorsport with Wayne Taylor Racing team, he also had an ace up his sleeve. Yacaman received advice from Juan Pablo Montoya, when he visited the 2000 Indianapolis 500 winner at a NASCAR tire test at the Speedway in April.
"I think spending a few days with Juan really helped me a lot," Yacaman said. "I think he helped me get really comfortable with the car and he gave me some really good tips that showed up today. Hopefully we can keep this up for the race."
Pippa Mann was second fastest with a lap of 47.3125, 190.225mph followed by Jeff Simmons (190.072), Charlie Kimball (189.864) and defending race winner Wade Cunningham (189.672).