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Six Drivers Tackle Monday Test at IMS

August 09, 2016 | By Phillip B. Wilson

The never-ending search for speed and an ideal setup continued Monday with six cars participating in a Firestone tire test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay, Ed Carpenter of his own race team, Team Penske’s Juan Pablo Montoya, Ganassi Racing’s Tony Kanaan and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal turned laps in sweltering track conditions.

For Rossi, it was his first laps at IMS since winning May’s 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil.

“It’s pretty relaxed today,” said the Verizon IndyCar Series rookie. “It’s cool to roll out of pit road obviously for the first time in my car since May. It’s been positive. I’m happy to be here. You don’t get many chances to test at the Speedway, so we’re going to maximize it as much as we can.”

While Carpenter and Hunter-Reay were doing a lot of extra work with Firestone in terms of monitoring tire use, the other drivers took advantage of the opportunity to try to improve handling, a never-ending guessing game.

The series is in the middle of a two-week break before returning to race Aug. 21 at Pocono, Pennsylvania.

“We’re in charge of putting rubber on the track, so that’s what we’re doing,” said Montoya, a two-time Indy 500 winner. “We’re doing laps and trying bits for Pocono.

“We’ve got a couple things for Firestone to try, but the main two guys are Carpenter and Hunter-Reay. But they’ve got to have enough cars to put down some rubber. I don’t mind. To tell you the truth, this isn’t as exciting as normal testing, but it’s way better than what we’re used to with restrictor plate testing. That was painful.”

Montoya and Kanaan mentioned how the track time should benefit their race teams with improving the car for the next race.

“It’s more all the aero things we try, all the configurations, to make sure when we get to Pocono we have the best car possible,” Montoya said.

Kanaan, the 2013 Indy 500 winner, said the laps should help his team be better prepared for next year, too.

“A hot day, which is good for testing for the race car,” Kanaan said. “I think we’re trying to fill up the missing pieces to the puzzle that cost us the race here. We finished fourth and we have a few things we’ve developed since then. We have a few things we wanted to get a direction towards all this winter that we can work on for this car. It looks like it’s going to be the same car, the same aero kit for next year.”

The few reporters who attended the test inevitably asked questions about the death over the weekend of USAC champion Bryan Clauson, a three-time Indy 500 qualifier. While drivers paid their respects to the 27-year-old racer, they also spoke of how getting back into a race car is the best way to cope with a loss.

In the case of Rahal, he reiterated his focus on improving his car in what has been a frustrating season. After finishing a career-best fourth in the points with two wins and two seconds last year, he’s just ninth this year with one second, one third and three fourths.

“It’s a difficult situation for everybody to go through,” Rahal said of Clauson, “but our job today is obviously to focus on this car. We came back here to test and try to improve as much as we can.”