By Roy J. Akers- www.skyviewsports.net
Indianapolis, Indiana
A.J. Foyt Enterprises– David Malukas, No. 4 Clarience Technologies Chevrolet:
“Fast Friday has been done, and it was a little bit interesting. We had some some quirks and here and there to kind of work over. But overall, we’re, we’re happy. I think we didn’t really get that much running today, but kind of going to be going in a little bit with not much information going for qualifying, but I think we’ll be okay. We have fast cars, so either way, we’ll be able to do a good run, and if we want to go again, I don’t think it’s going be too much of a problem for us, but very happy overall.”
Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet:
“Pretty happy with the Homes For Our Troops Chevy. We stopped early because the conditions were getting a little too hot for us, and we don’t want to change too much and still keep it relevant. Overall, not too bad. We didn’t get to complete a full four lap run, but I definitely got a couple laps and some good tuning in, so we look forward to qualifying.”
Arrow McLaren
Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:
“Short day for us today. The conditions are different than what it’s going to be like for Qualifying. We just wanted to check on all the little details that we need to make sure we get right, and we’ll be ready to go out tomorrow.”
Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:
“It didn’t go where we wanted it to go from a weather perspective. The track conditions were really bad for most of the day so we had decided to sit it out. It wouldn’t correlate to tomorrow, but we got the car to a happy window and got a four-lap run at the end. We know what we have tomorrow, and we didn’t waste too much time knowing what the conditions were today. We think we’ll be fast for the conditions tomorrow, and that’s when it matters.”
Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:
“Obviously, it was a positive to end the day on a high note. We were buying our time and making sure that we were in the right window. We evaluated everything and made sure we were all happy. Went back out at the end and was much happier. We’re familiar with what the car is doing, and turned some good laps in. There’s always a bit of luck of the draw with the qualifying order, but we’re feeling confident going into tomorrow.”
Kyle Larson, No. 17 HendrickCars.com Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:
“Thankfully the crash wasn’t too bad. It’s just a bummer to spin and hurt the car again, but I think we’ll be fine. We wanted to come back out, make sure we were up to speed and see that the car was fine, and thankfully it was. We’re hoping for a better day tomorrow.”
Ryan Hunter-Reay, No.23 DRR CUSICK WEDBUSH SECURITIES Chevrolet:
“Today we want out early and took a pretty conservative four-lap run. Just a balance run really, and we had a good read on that. We thought we might go out late in the day. Unfortunately, conditions deteriorated and there are a lot of mistakes being made out there. So, we decided to play it save and roll it out Saturday for qualifying. Looking forward to Saturday’s qualifications.”
Jack Harvey, No. 24 DRR CUSICK INVST Chevrolet:
“The wind and the track temp were aggressive later in the day. We were balancing the risk and reward then. We were just trying to be methodical about our day, and the first runs early were okay. I think the wind could be a little different on Saturday. The qualifying draw will be important for Saturday. Hoping we get an early draw like everyone wants. But it was smart to sit out the late part of practice today.”
Team Penske
Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Shell V-Power NiTRO+ Team Penske Chevrolet:
“So today was definitely tougher conditions. Got through a lot of good work with all three cars in various conditions. Tomorrow is going to be quite different. So, you know, contrasting weather between Friday and Saturday, but I think we’ve got enough information to try and make the best decision possible for tomorrow, feeling really confident with what Team Chevy’s brought us and excited to hopefully be in the shootout on Sunday.”
Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Pennzoil Team Penske Chevrolet:
Good day for us in the Pennzoil Yellow Submarine for Fast Friday. Ran two runs in the morning, felt a little tight in the first one, and then fixed the balance for the last and felt really, really good. So trying different strategies with the hybrid, we got an idea what we want to do for tomorrow, for the big day. But yeah, really good to get four good laps in and Yeah, put up a solid run.”
Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet:
“We definitely found a direction that we want to take the Verizon Chevy for tomorrow. The conditions out there today were very difficult, much different than they were last year. We feel like we have really fast cars and Chevy horsepower is always what you want here at Indianapolis. We still have to meet and think about what we want to do tomorrow for the morning session. It will be nice to get a good qualifying draw tonight.”
