Juan Pablo Montoya, recorded the fastest lap at 226.772 mph (39.6874 seconds) on the 2.5-mile oval as 28 driver/car combinations became acclimated to the aero kits and developed a baseline for practice that begins May 11. The fast lap on Opening Day last year was set by Will Power at 223.057 mph.
POST-PRACTICE DRIVER QUOTES:
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA (No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, fastest of the day): “It’s OK. (Having the fastest lap) is good for Verizon and for Chevy and for everybody that is paying attention. But I think the time sheet, as always, is irrelevant until you get to the race or until you get to qualifying. Everybody is posting times in the draft and it’s a matter of who is doing the best in the draft. I’ll tell you, the Hondas are looking strong – I think they were doing a lot of race work at the end, so we’ll see.” … (On switching from today’s oval test to the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis road course): “It’s going to be a little bit of work for the team this week to switch the cars over, but it is what it is, and it’s the same for everybody. This is a pretty cool road course and the race last year was pretty amazing. With the long straights and the draft, it’s pretty exciting and it should bring really good racing.”
MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 27 Snapple Honda, third fastest of the day): “It’s interesting. I think there are definitely still some gremlins to work out. We have an overwhelming laundry list of changes to try. Luckily we have a lot of time to work with it, but we’re going to need some time. I don’t really want to go into a lot of detail, but there are a lot of things to work out still. I’m not thoroughly pleased with my car now. The good thing about that is we’re still in the hunt speed-wise.” … “I enjoy the road course. It’s tougher on the (team) because for me, you can wake me up and I’ll drive whatever and wherever. But I enjoy this layout with the long straightaways, we’re going to see a lot of different downforce levels and a lot of games being played. From that standpoint, it’s fun. We’re trying to find the ultimate lap time, do you want to trim, do you not? And it’s going to be the same for everybody.”
GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 15 Steak ‘n Shake Honda): “It was a good first day testing the aero kit. We also had to mileage out an engine, which we successfully did, but we have a little work to do with the handling of the Steak ‘n Shake car. It’s better than last year, but we’re not where we need to be. It’s the first on-track day of the month, which is good, so there is a lot of time ahead of us. The team is a little split up right now over the two cars, but once we get a full staff in here it will be a lot easier.”
DAVEY HAMILTON (No. 24 Robert Graham Special Chevrolet, filling in for Townsend Bell, who was racing sports cars at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca): “It’s cool to be back and in a race car. Townsend couldn’t be here today. We’re just running the car to shake it down and do a system check. We’re doing a few baseline runs. It’s definitely not a full test; just for today and then Townsend will take over.”
JUSTIN WILSON (No. 25 Andretti Autosport Honda): “The day started off really good, but as soon as it got a little hotter it got a little difficult and we started to slide around quite a bit. All in all I’m quite pleased with the first day, there is still a lot to work on and lots to try and understand with the new aero kits and the new downforce levels. We’re not sure what is a typical baseline for running race run trim or qualifying trim, so we’re just working it all out.”
CARLOS MUNOZ (No. 26 AndrettiTV/Cinsay Honda): “The first day with the new Honda oval aero kits – our first time at IMS with the new aero kits. Today was just a learning day. I feel really good with the car and I think we had a fast car all day. Here in Indy, it comes down to whoever has the best tow, the least amount of aero. It’s only the first day; we still have a lot of testing to go, but it feels pretty good.”
SIMONA DE SILVESTRO (No. 29 TE Connectivity Honda): “Today was a pretty good first day. … I think our speed was OK. For me, it was a really good day just being with the team and learning a little bit on the oval. I think we’re all pretty happy with the test day, and for sure we have some work to do, but I think we’ll be OK. I’m just happy to be back in the car here in Indy.”
ORIOL SERVIA (No. 32 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda): “I enjoy driving here almost every time. It felt really good, I felt at home immediately and it helped that I was with the team I drove with last year. Everything felt like it was only yesterday that I drove an Indy car here instead of a year ago. The team did a great, great job. It already felt better than last year. We just went through a lot of changes and gathered data. We have a whole week now to look at the data and basically understand the new aero package. We have wind tunnel figures, which is good, but it’s not the same as being on track so both cars tried different things to gather as much data as possible. Graham (Rahal) and I did a lot of laps today, but this week the engineers have a lot of work ahead of them to go through. I’m feeling pretty good. It’s quite amazing to see how different the two aero packages are and yet are still so close in speed.”
PIPPA MANN (No. 63 Dale Coyne Racing Honda): “First off, it was just absolutely fantastic to finally be back in an Indy car after almost a year sitting out on the sidelines. It’s great to be reunited and continue the strong relationship with my team at Dale Coyne Racing. I’m pretty happy with our performance on day one since we were able to get over 223 miles per hour. We have some work to do next week to help polish out everything, especially the driver. We certainly knocked the rust off today and I am really looking forward to getting in the car on a more consistent basis come next week. It was also great to get the INDIEGOGO logos on the pink Indy car and out on track today for people to see because our partnership with INDIEGOGO is so important to help us raise money in the fight to end breast cancer forever.”
GABBY CHAVES (No. 98 Bowers & Wilkins/Curb Honda, who completed his Rookie Orientation Program): “This was a very special day for me to be out there in an Indy car and to work with the new aero kits. The car felt great, very comfortable. I can leave today with a very positive feeling and I’m very happy with the teamwork. This is the first time I have gone over 200 miles per hour. It’s very different. I thought it would be closer to what it was like in an Indy Lights car. When you’re running 30 miles per hour faster than you have ever gone before, everything comes at you a lot quicker. That was the first thing I noticed, how quickly I am completing laps. We managed some pretty good results, top three in the trap times. We kept finding more speed all day. Now we can focus on trying to build a strong consistent race car.”