From the catchfence to the grid: Carpenter's turnaround day at Indy
INDIANAPOLIS – After starting on pole position for the Indianapolis 500 the last two years running, Ed Carpenter walked out of Gasoline Alley at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Sunday morning confident he could make another run at the No. 1 starting position.
When Carpenter was told that no driver had ever won three Indy 500 poles in a row, the popular hometown driver said, “I think we have the speed that we can make a good run at it later today.”
That was at 7:45 a.m.
Carpenter was set to take part in an 8 a.m. practice session before qualifications for the 99th Indianapolis 500 were set to begin at 10 a.m. By 8:14 a.m., Carpenter’s hopes of a third Indy 500 pole appeared over as he lost control of his Chevrolet IndyCar entering the second turn, spun backwards and slammed into the Turn 2 wall. The car flipped over on its side, went into the fence and skidded down the race track on its side.
At that point, Carpenter thought he would go from contending for the front row to thinking he would be lucky to start on the last row.
“I thought we would be out there qualifying for the last row if anything,” Carpenter said. “When I was upside down in the car I wasn’t sure if we would have a chance to qualify at all.”
Carpenter is owner/driver at CFH Racing – a partnership with former driver Sarah Fisher and Kansas businessman Wink Hartman. His team went to work on a backup car that had previously been driven by Luca Fillipi. He was greatly aided by a lengthy track repair to fix the damage he created in Turn 2 and helped out even further when INDYCAR officials met with Honda and Chevrolet team owners and manufacturers to change the rules before qualifications. Instead of starting at 10 a.m., qualifications were moved to 3:15 p.m.
Most importantly, instead of the low-downforce Aero Kit parts, teams were required to revert to the parts that would be used for Race Day. Turbocharger boost was cut to the levels the teams had from last week’s practice before an additional 50 horsepower was added last Friday.
Teams had to change their setups and another practice was scheduled for 1:30 p.m. That was more than enough time for CFH Racing to have another car prepared for Carpenter.
“I’m thankful for the way the day turned out for us timing wise,” Carpenter said. “I’m especially thankful for the entire CFH team for thrashing and getting a car together that handled well and had a lot of speed.
“The other car we destroyed, we spent as much time as we had on it.”
Carpenter took the rebuilt backup car onto the track for qualifications and qualified with a four-lap average of 224.883 miles per hour – not good enough for the front row but a remarkable comeback from adversity. He will start 12th on the outside of Row 4.
“The Chevy teams were talking to INDYCAR for 20 minutes and the Honda teams were out there for an hour-and-a-half,” Carpenter said. “Generally, I try to thank Chevrolet but today I want to thank Honda for giving me time to get my car fixed.
“We don’t know what is going to cause the cars to get upside down but it is more than just the Aero Kit that has changed from last year. We need to have time to figure out what those problems are and will do that over the next week.”
Carpenter, one of the more popular drivers in the Indy 500, thanked his fans for sticking by his team before heading to FOX59 in Indianapolis to talk about his day on Sports Overtime.
“I’m very proud of the team,” Carpenter said. “It’s been crazy.
“I’m glad it’s over with.”
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Be sure to catch Bruce Martin's Honda IndyCar Report on RACEDAY on FOX Sports Radio every Sunday from 6-8 a.m. ET.
