Power Has Top Speed In Carb Day

Will Power (1) and Sage Karam (8) practice on Carb day at Indianapolis.  [Russ Lake Photo]

Vautier Replaces Huertas For 500

Indianapolis, Ind. – Carb Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway provides teams with the last opportunity to fine-tune their cars before the upcoming Indianapolis 500. All 33 teams did participate and combined they ran 1,195 laps without incident. Not surprisingly Will Power topped the speed charts with a run of 229.020 miles per hours, the only driver to exceed the 229 mark.

Pole winner Scott Dixon was next fastest at 228.585 mph and teammate Tony Kanaan was immediately behind at 228.490 mph. Simon Pagenaud, Takuma Sato, Charlie Kimball, Sage Karam, J. R. Hildebrand, rookie Gabby Chaves and three-time winner Helio Castroneves trailed the front-runners.

Will Power in turn 3 was quickest on Carb Day. [Mark Walczak Photo]

James Davison practices his car which was qualified by Tristan Vautier. [Mark Walczak Photo]

Tristan Vautier replaces Carlos Huertas who had an inner ear issue. [Mark Walczak Photo]

Scott Dixon remains among the favorites to win after being 2nd quick on Carb Day. [Mark Walczak Photo]

Ryan Briscoe got time on track with the rest of the field. [Mark Walczak Photo]

“Being fast today means nothing, really,” Power said. “It’s just a big draft. It’s more about how you get through traffic than anything. You know, we’ll see on Sunday. Our plan is to stay up there all day.”

In a last minute change, Carlos Huertas has been ruled out of the 500 due to an inner ear condition. As a result, team owner Dale Coyne beckoned Tristan Vautier to take over the car. The Frenchman was in Chicago at the time headed to Europe for a sports-car race, but his team thought he should accept the Indy invite, so he did.

Previously, he had qualified another Coyne car for James Davison, who had commitments elsewhere at the time.

In today’s run, Vautier completed 43 laps and was 18^th on the speed chart. For the 500, Vautier will start 32^nd in between Davison (33^rd) and Ryan Briscoe (31^st).

Said Vautier about making the race, “It’s not really the way you want to get back in the car honestly. I think Carlos deserves to be racing because he did a good job in qualifying and on practice. Obviously, you can’t help but be excited to start your second Indy 500. In our hour, we made the most of it and have a direction for the race.”

Joe Jennings

racingnation.com