Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist in the No.60 Honda says that the team will hope to move up the field during the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at the World Wide Technology Raceway on Saturday by staying out of the pits. The Swede, who set the second fastest time in qualifying but starts from 11th due to an engine penalty, says due to the pit limiter, the drivers will lose three extra seconds on the pit road. Speaking to Paddock Eye following qualifying he said:
Yeah, we’ve been talking about that. I think staying out of the pits would be very good. Don’t come into the pits. It’s costing a lot, especially now with the stage pit limiter. I think there’s another three seconds or so loss from going into the pits, on a track that was already very penalizing for that.
If you can do the three-stopper, I think a lot of people are going to start looking at that early, and especially if you want to go forward from a position where you feel like you deserve to be further forward, you’ve got to start making some different plans early in the race because if you want to save fuel, you’ve got to commit early.
Q. How important will the test later this evening be for arranging your race setup for tomorrow?
I think practice tonight is even later than the race, so you get a good idea how the cold conditions start — I don’t think it’s going to be that cold, to be honest. It’s pretty toasty here. You don’t see that on TV, but it is. I think a lot of that is going to stay. But there’s going to be some differences.
I think the high line practice is going to be really interesting. There’s been a lot of talk about that. Especially having it after qualifying basically, going into the race. I think that’s what all the drivers were asking for, so we’ll see. If the high line comes, it comes. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. I think it will be tough to run up there, but in the restarts for sure it will be open. So we’ll see.
Rosenqvist who set a two-lap average of 179.796MPH went on to say:
It was a pretty solid run, no major mistakes. I had a little bit of understeer on the first lap so I tweaked the car a little bit for the second lap. We have a nine-place grid drop so we need to be up there, so I gave it everything I had. It felt like it was a solid run, it’s a solid car, so we’ll hang tight and see where we end up
David Malukas in the No.66 Honda starts the race from second place following a two-lap average of 179.503MPH and moved up to second following Felix Rosenqvist’s penalty commented saying:
We definitely did a really good job with the setup. Missed it a little bit, but it’s so hard to judge, with the temperature changing and the track being so green. There’s a little bit more time in it, but coming from practice one, it was pretty good.(On using every inch of the racetrack) It was definitely getting a little bit close! On that exit from Turn 2, I had to lay on the deployment of the hybrid, I was really pushing it, getting close to those walls – and that’s what it takes to get a good lap.
Team co-owner Mike Shank was happy with how the team performed on Friday saying:
We’ve been quick on ovals this year, which has been great. I give a lot of credit to our Andretti technical alliance for the basis for that. There’s a lot more going on back in the garage before qualifying, to get these cars to their optimum – there’s quite a sequence that we got right today, same with the drivers. The deployment of energy now is really interesting, with all the tactics, I’m super proud of where we are. Obviously, tonight’s practice will be different, with the change in temperature, but we have a plan.