INDIANAPOLIS – In the early days of practice for the 99th Indianapolis 500 young driver Conor Daly knows he can always go to his close friend and Month of May teammate James Hinchcliffe for advice.
As Daly prepared for his second Indianapolis 500 on a very windy day of practice, he was puzzled by the way his Honda IndyCar reacted under the conditions. As he talked to his veteran teammate, Hinchcliffe, he understood the value of running laps in those conditions and how valuable it can be later in the month.
“Running in the wind can be huge but it’s a big part of the learning curve because for all we know Race Day could be like this and qualifying could be like this and that is when it can be hairy,” Hinchcliffe said. “It’s good to run out there in these conditions even though it’s really tricky and a big risk it’s important to do.”
Daly had just completed his practice session while he heard the sound of other cars still on the race track posting fast speeds after getting big tows down the long frontstraight of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“It’s really, really sketchy with the wind – really, really sketchy,” Daly said. “It’s just not comfortable yet. We wanted to make some changes and get a feel for things and now would be a nice time to go out with everyone towing. It’s early in the week and we just wanted to test a few things. We only had two sets of tires to run so we can conserve them later in the week so it was really interesting with the wind.”
As Daly prepares for his second Indianapolis 500 he realizes he is on a different game plan than Schmidt Peterson Motorsports two full-time drivers – James Jakes and Hinchcliffe. While those two can go for speed Daly has to have the third car prepared properly because it is a part-time effort.
“We’ve also got a long week so we want to take it slow and I think that’s what we’re doing,” Daly said. “I’m not really upset with how fast we are running by ourselves but there are guys out there getting a tow. We haven’t gotten a tow yet or messed around with traffic. I’d love to get nice speeds and be up there on the list but we just weren’t out there at the right time.
“A couple runs in we found ourselves really correcting the wheel and that wasn’t good and the tires were wearing very fast so that compounded it for me in what could have been a big moment. But we’ll just test some things and get them knocked off our list. I had a couple moments in Turns 1 and 2. When you feel it you feel it so I definitely had to pit.”
Tim Neff and Chris Finch are Daly’s engineers on this Indy 500 effort that is sponsored by Smithfield – producers of Pork Products. In fact, the logo on Daly’s car says it is “Fueled by Bacon.”
“They sent me my first batch of bacon,” Daly said. “It’s in my fridge. I have a lot.”
He may need to order a batch of Canadian Bacon for Hinchcliffe, who is from the Toronto suburb of Oakville, Ontario. Hinch is always available to explain the nuances of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to Daly, who made his rookie appearance in this race for A.J. Foyt in 2013.
“He is asking all the right questions,” Hinchcliffe said of his young teammate. “We still have a lot of work to do and a lot of practice to go. The big thing is making sure everybody stays calm and works piece by piece. It’s not Fast Friday yet. Because it’s so early in the week we are still heavy on downforce. It’s a bit more manageable. But you have to run in conditions like this for when it counts on Race Day or Pole Day. The grip level isn’t bad it’s just the car behaves very bizarre when it is in this kind of wind.”
Hinchcliffe is also confident the Honda superspeedway Aero Kit is a better match for the Chevrolets than the street and road course kits this season.
“It looks pretty even with a good mix of everybody up there so it’s certainly encouraging for us and the fans,” Hinchcliffe said. “I don’t think anybody wants one manufacturer to nail it because we would like to see good competition over the week.
“Graham Rahal has had some good results and we had the fastest lap of the race in the Grand Prix so we know there is some performance in it. It’s a matter of extracting it for qualifying. If we can do that we will be in better shape.”