Chevy-powered Ganassi trio lead the way in opening Indy 500 practice
INDIANAPOLIS -- After a rough start to the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season, rookie driver Sage Karam needed a confidence booster. The Ganassi Racing driver got it on Monday by topping the timesheets in the opening Indianapolis 500 practice. In fact, a trio of Ganassi drivers ended Monday's rain-delayed practice on top of the scoring pylon.
Karam's fast lap of 225.802 mph on the 40th of his 41 laps in practice was faster than any driver in practice. Scott Dixon, the 2008 Indianapolis 500 winner and three-time Verizon IndyCar Series champion, was second at 225.293 mph and 2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan was third at 225.217 mph.
"It's definitely cool because this is the main race of the year right here," said 20-year-old Karam. "To start the month off like that is a good feeling. It's not about being the fastest today it's about being the fastest on May 24 in the race. This is great and everything but we can't relax and have to keep attacking and figuring out this Aero Kit.
"We've had a really big learning curve as far as the road courses are concerned but this a track that I've raced at last year and I'm coming in with my second year of knowledge and that is the difference -- I know what to expect here and that has been better for me."
Karam drove for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing in last year's Indianapolis 500 and finished an impressive ninth after starting 31st.
Chevrolet drivers swept the top three positions in Monday's practice but Honda was fourth with Marco Andretti's lap of 225.184 mph. Honda had four drivers in the top 10 including seventh-place Carlos Munoz, eighth-fastest Justin Wilson and Takuma Sato in ninth.
The Rookie Orientation Program (ROP) refresher course was completed on Monday afternoon before rain started to fall at 1:45 p.m. and that delayed the start of practice until 4:15 p.m.. Once the track went green, 30 different drivers turned a total of 1,094 laps in very windy conditions.
"Once we figured out the wind it was more just figuring out the balance of the car," Karam said. "The car was pretty loose on me earlier. We went back to the garage, came out with a new package and it was a lot better at the end there.
"The wind caught me more than I expected. I got to feel it out a little bit more. The hardest was Turn 2 because of the crosswind and then going into Turn 3. It was definitely a tough driving condition today as far as the wind was but it was a great learning experience. It might be windy on race day and this place is so long and so big that you have to go out and learn the track in all types of windy conditions and figure it out. It's a great start. I'm feeling good."
Dixon was able to effectively use the time with some fast laps on Monday but with the windy conditions many of the teams had plenty of downforce to keep the rear of the car planted on the track surface.
"Today was very windy but tomorrow looks pretty bad with wind gusts," Dixon said. "It was blowing a little bit in Turns 1 and 2 but it's really bad when it's gusty. We tried to run by ourselves as much as we could today. The car felt pretty good. The big guns at Team Penske didn't run very much. We just put some miles in and tried to get some laps in early.
"It's the new car so we shook it down and had a few laps to make sure it was running well. The car just has a lot of speed but it's early days. We have a lot of work to do later this week. Hopefully, it stays dry for us to get back on track. The weather didn't hurt us much we just weren't really ready. We had some parts arrive late. We had a couple of big things to get an idea what to work on for the next few days and go from there. It's good for Sage's confidence and he is going to be fast here, no doubt about that."
Mike Hull is the managing director of Chip Ganassi Racing and was pleased with the effort by all five of the team's drivers. Charlie Kimball was 20th at 222.100 mph and Sebastian Saavedra was 23rd at 220.438 mph.
Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing watches Indianapolis 500 practice with wife, Emma, on May 11, 2015.
"Our guys worked really hard to get all five cars out on the track in the right manner but they all ran well," Hull said. "It's good for Sage. It was a tow lap but for him it's a great thing. He's a young, aggressive American driver and we all want him to do well."
Barry Wanser is the team manager for Chip Ganassi Racing and oversees all five drivers in this year's Indianapolis 500. He believes the race is all about momentum, especially after the team had to switch the cars from road course configuration to superspeedway Aero Kit.
"We had lot of work the last two days to convert the cars over but we took our time to make sure we did it right," Wanser said. "The guys have worked hard this last month with the back-to-back races, testing and getting here. We are trying to keep that (momentum) going. It was tricky conditions today but with the amount of downforce we had to run we aren't trying to get the pole today so we don't want to make the drivers nervous.
"We're pretty happy."
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