Kanaan Ready for Race Day Charge after Leading Miller Lite Carb Day Practice
May 24, 2019 | By Paul Kelly, Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Tony Kanaan qualified 16th for the 103rd Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, but his A.J. Foyt Enterprises car showed plenty of speed in traffic and led Miller Lite Carb Day practice Friday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Kanaan, from Brazil, was fastest at 225.517 mph in the No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet during the 90-minute practice, the last on-track session before Race Day.
“A good day for us,” Kanaan said. “I wasn't really happy with my car on Monday (practice), and I was extremely vocal about it, and I think my engineers heard me, so we made it better today.
“I was really working on my car, the level of downforce and grip that I wanted to have starting 16th. So we worked in traffic a lot and trying to find the grip and scan to some of the items that we had on the list to be able to -- once we put ourselves in the front during the race, to know what to do.”
The 103rd Indianapolis 500 starts at 12:45 p.m. (ET, NBC) Sunday.
“It's the most competitive field I've ever seen in my 18 years here,” Kanaan said. “Qualifying was extremely hard, and it's really tight. So I think it's going to be a difficult race. I do strongly believe that everybody, they think they can win this race, which is true.”
Rookie Santino Ferrucci was second overall in the practice, the start of which was delayed by 10 minutes due to wet track conditions from morning rain. Ferrucci’s top lap was 225.486 in the No. 19 Cly-Del Manufacturing Honda.
2017 Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato was third at 225.468 in the No. 30 Mi-Jack/Panasonic Honda. Rookie Jordan King ended up fourth at 225.337 in the No. 42 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda.
James Davison rounded out the top five at 225.314 in the No. 33 Dale Coyne with Byrd and Belardi Honda.
Chevrolet-powered machines took the top four spots in the starting lineup during qualifying, but Honda rebounded to claim the second through seventh spots during final practice.
Pole sitter Simon Pagenaud was 22nd overall in practice today at 222.856 in the No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet.
All 33 drivers in the starting field combined to turn 1,755 laps. 2017 NTT IndyCar Series champion Josef Newgarden was the busiest driver, turning 72 laps.