27 April 2024 00:00 (UTC)
"IndyCar is tight and it all comes down to a couple tenths."
Friday was a full day of on track activity.
Drivers had two practice sessions where the team worked to tweak the car to perfection for an evening qualifying.
Pato O'Ward and the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet crew transferred through Rounds 1-3 of qualifying, finishing fifth in the Firestone Fast Six.
Alexander Rossi transferred into Round 2 however just missed the Firestone Fast Six ending the session P7.
Théo Pourchaire was unsuccessful at advancing out of Round 1 and will start the race from 18th.
The team will take on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Course this Saturday, hitting the track at 11:15 a.m. ET for morning warmup before the 85-lap race on NBC.
Location | Indianapolis Motor Speedway |
Race Date | Saturday, May 11 |
Round | 4 out of 17 |
Total Laps | 85 laps |
Total Race Distance | 207.32 miles / 333.65 km |
Length | 2.44 miles / 3.93 km |
Number of Turns | 14 |
Practice 1 | 01:09.7199 | 11th |
Practice 2 | 01:09.9090 | 6th |
Qualifying - Round 1, Group 1 | 01:09.0167 | 4th |
Qualifying - Round 2 | 01:08.9928 | 4th |
Qualifying - Firestone Fast Six | 01:09.3320 | 5th |
Qualifying Results | 5th |
"Considering where we started the day, I'm pretty pleased with getting the car in the Firestone Fast 6. We're starting inside row three, which is not a bad place to start here. We'll see what Turn 1 brings, and then we just really want to have a clean race. I don't want to get too ahead of ourselves by saying that we’re expecting to win or get on the podium tomorrow, I just want to have a clean race and take advantage of the opportunity presented to us.”
Practice 1 | 01:09.6166 | 9th |
Practice 2 | 01:10.1732 | 14th |
Qualifying - Round 1, Group 2 | 01:09.0900 | 5th |
Qualifying - Round 1, Group 2 | 01:09.0801 | 7th |
Qualifying Results | 7th |
“I don’t know how excited to be with P7, but I guess where we’ve been this season, we have to be. In this sport, you’ve got to take the small victories. The whole Arrow McLaren organization has done a great job this weekend. The car is kind of back into a window we expected after the last two events that were quite a challenge. We’ve just got to keep chipping away at it. It sucks to miss it by that much, for sure. When it’s that close, there’s so many places over the lap where you feel like you could have found it. You almost would rather miss it by several tenths. But that’s the way it goes. We know that we’re strong on race day. This gives us our best opportunity, by far.”
Practice 1 | 01:10.0621 | 19th |
Practice 2 | 01:10.2204 | 17th |
Qualifying - Round 1, Group 2 | 01:09.3816 | 9th |
Qualifying Position | 18th |
“I'm a bit disappointed after qualifying. I was P5 before the run on the alternates and then I was blocked on my best chance to push. The NTT INDYCAR SERIES is one of the best motorsport series in the world with the best racing drivers in the world. It's super tight. As soon as you have those kind of things happening, you cannot aim for Q2. It’s part of the game, but I really think we have the potential to move up through the field and deliver a strong result tomorrow.”
“It seemed like fifth place was about all we could muster today. IndyCar is tight and it all comes down to a couple tenths. The No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet team did a great job advancing to the Firestone Fast 6, and Pato executed to extract the maximum. It was a very solid run by Rossi. Seventh will be the best start of the year for him and the No. 7 VELO team, so some good progress there. This track is definitely one where you can pass, so hopefully, he can make up some ground early. Theo's got a little bit of work to do from where he is, but I don’t think the results matched his pace. His pace was better than that but he just got in a bit of a mess with traffic.” |
Session Start Times
Warmup | Saturday, May 11 | 11:15 - 11:45 a.m. ET | Peacock |
Tune In | Saturday, May 11 | 3:00 p.m. ET | NBC |
Green Flag | Saturday, May 11 | 3:45 p.m. ET | NBC |
