Ryan Hunter-Reay in the No.23 Wedbush Dreyer and Reinbold Racing with Cusick Motorsports Chevrolet had a great day three practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Thursday. Hunter-Reay ended the day in fifth place on the timesheets with a fastest speed of 223.983MPH, and speaking following his day in the car in which he completed 35 laps, RHR said:
“It was definitely hotter today and there were challenging conditions. But we are going to have challenging conditions for the next few days. Again, we were trying some big swings at the car today. One of them didn’t work so we had to go back to the garage to reset the car. We validated that and went back to where we like the car. Then we went back and reset the car for qualifying trim. And we got out and got some runs in qualifying trim. So, we got the big boxes checked off today. Friday is going to be very interesting with the wind and added horsepower for qualifying. We were able to work on pit stops today again and those seemed better. We just have to get ready for qualifying now.”
Jack Harvey in the No.24 INVST Dreyer and Reinbold Racing with Cusick Motorsports Chevrolet ended the day in 28th place with a speed of 220.843MPH and speaking after completing 55 laps he commented, saying:
“It was a good day on the whole. I don’t think we are the fastest car, but I don’t think we are slowest either. Knock on wood. I think Ryan and I are super close in speed which is encouraging. We ran at different times of the day, and you can make an argument on who had the worst conditions in the afternoon. We did some qual setup early and then ran race settings later. I really appreciate the hard work of the INVST crew today. We went out late with some 45 minutes to go and baselined everything in the car. I think we have found something that works pretty well. Now we feel like we have good baselines for qualifying and race trim. Today was the hottest we have had this week, and we will be looking for more mechanical grip now. I think that will be our focus moving into Friday.”
Turtle Wax Fast Friday takes place tomorrow where teams will turn up their boost for the final full day of practice ahead of this weekend’s PPG Armed Forces Qualifying weekend.