Andretti Global Chief Operating Officer Rob Edwards says that there were a lot of highs and lows during Sunday’s qualifying for the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.
“There were lots of highs and lows today. It was good to see Kyle up in the Fast 12, but it was a bit disappointing that he wasn’t able to break into the Fast Six. I still think that Kyle represented Honda and the team really well today, and we have a good race car so I know that we can fight from P11. This has obviously been a very difficult week for Marcus and the No. 28 Delaware Life crew, but I think that days like this show the strength that Andretti Global has and how we come together as a team to put our best out there. After the challenges we faced in the last chance qualifying, we managed to get the car where we needed it and at the end of the day, Marcus got the job done for us. Now, we move forward from qualifying and focus on the main goal of winning the race next Sunday.”
Kyle Kirkwood in the No.27 AutoNation Honda will start Sunday’s 108th running the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge from P11 after a four-lap average of 230.993MPH.
Speaking following the action he said:
Our result today isn’t exactly where we would have liked to have been, but I think our potential puts us up higher on the grid than where we are. It is what it is now. It’s still a decent starting spot for what we have, and we know we have a good race car. The No. 27 crew has worked really hard to give me a strong car so we’ll take it and move on from here into race day.”
For Marcus Ericsson in the No.28 Delaware Life Honda had a tough qualifying as the Swede, who won this race in 2022 with Chip Ganassi Racing slowed on his white flag run thinking it was his cool down lap.
Ericsson starts the race from 32nd on the grid following a four-lap average of 230.027MPH.
That was extremely tough, but this place just brings everything out of everyone. Today, I was sitting here waiting in pit lane for the chance to go out and get a speed to even make it into the race. It was just very tough mentally, but we did it. I’m very proud of my team. They’ve been fighting so hard the last few days and to finally get the reward of having the chance to fight in the race means a lot. The car has been a challenge since we had to go to the backup, but the team worked extremely hard trying to improve it and make it better. Today we had a car that should have safely put us in a guaranteed spot, but I made a mistake on the first run, so we had to dig deep. It was not easy in this heat to go for a second run but we made it work and pulled it off.”