Andretti Autosport Chief Operating Officer Rob Edwards says that the GMR Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the IMS road course was challenging and that two-day NTT INDYCAR SERIES events are always challenging.
Speaking following the action, Edwards said:
“It was a challenging weekend. A two-day event is challenging because if you don’t get off on the right foot, then you don’t have that night to recover and look at things before you go to qualify. That obviously affects how the rest of the weekend goes. You know we had some signs of promise during the race. I definitely think we learned some things when we come back later in the year. I think there are some questionable calls around two cars that could have went further up.”
Colton Herta in the No.26 Gainbridge Honda started the race in 14th place and finished the race in ninth place and speaking following the action, he commented saying:
“We moved up which was nice, but we still should have been in a lot better position. Over the last two road course races, we’ve felt like we’ve had some questionable tires. We need to go and talk to Firestone about what they see and what we see so we can get a resolution. The No. 26 Gainbridge Honda itself was great – but it didn’t all come together today. Full focus is on the oval now.”
Kyle Kirkwood in the No.27 AutoNation Honda started the race from sixth place and came home in 14th place and he heads to the Indianapolis 500 in tenth place in the championship. Speaking following the action he commented saying:
“This was not the best race of the year. We started in sixth and kind of got boxed in at the start and fell back in 10th. That wasn’t fun. We were looking like we would have a better strategy, but we got caught up in an incident with Will Power. Ultimately, the stewards deemed me responsible for the incident, so I had to drop back which put us in 23rd. My team did an amazing job getting us back up to 14th. They got us on a good strategy and on the right tires when we needed to be.”
Romain Grosjean in the No.28 DNS Filters DHL Honda started the race from 18th place and came home in 11th place and is currently in fourth place in the championship on 134 points and speaking following the action he commented saying:
“All in all a good day with a good recovery. We had damage after the first lap when we got crashed into. So, knowing that we changed the front wing and still came back to P11 is pretty good. That pit stop cost us one position, but that happens. There’s some more work to be done, but I’m generally happy with the direction and approach that we took over the weekend with the No. 28 DNSFilter / DHL Honda.”
Devlin DeFrancesco in the No.29 Sodexo Honda started the race from 15th place and came home in 17th place and speaking following the action he commented saying:
I’d say tough day for the No. 29 Sodexo Andretti Steinbrenner Honda. We had a good start and seemed strong on blacks, but we were drowning on the reds after lap 10. I think that hurt us and the rest of our race. Things to take away and things to look forward to though. I’m very excited for the 500. We’ve got a very good car there so I’m looking forward to getting to it.”
Marco Andretti will join the team on Tuesday for the opening day of practice ahead of the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on Sunday, May 28.