Andretti Autosport, IZOD IndyCar Series
Practice Report: Indy Grand Prix of Alabama
E.J. Viso, No. 5 Team Vene zuela PDVSA CITGO Chevrolet
After getting less than 10 laps in Practice One, Viso came out of the second session seventh fastest overall. The 28-year-old will qualify his Chevy-powered No. 5 car in the second group during tomorrow's qualification.
"Well it's been a pretty good day. We've gone through different car setups, and at the end we believe we found a good scenario to keep working with the car for tomorrow morning's practice before qualifying. The team has done a good job here. I believe we have a good baseline and fundamental setup shared between the four cars. Tomorrow is going to be very interesting, and we can already tell that this race, and this weekend, is going to be based all around tires. Tires is the key word - for good or for bad. We will need to be working very closely with them (tires)."
Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 1 DHL Chevrolet
Hunter-Reay stuck to a strict tire-use strategy for today's practice session - running limited laps to ensure fresh tires for Saturday's morning run. The reigning champion, who ran as high as second today, finished the day in the 12th time spot overall.
"I think it was a good, solid day for the No. 1 DHL Chevy. I think that we made some good progress this morning. We were very disciplined with the tires this afternoon - not taking a second set - which is why we're down in the charts right now. We never took the second set like most of the rest of the field. I'm feeling pretty good about tomorrow; we need to make a few changes to stay ahead of the track development but other than that... we'll see in the morning. I think we're a top five car right now so I'm happy about that."
James Hinchcliffe, No. 27 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet
Go Daddy driver James Hinchcliffe finished today's session ranked 15th overall. The recent race winner started from the second position at Barber Motorsports Park for the 2012 running of the Grand Prix of Alabama.
"Today did not go as planned, but you get these days in racing. We had a couple of things go wrong in the first session, and the way the yellow fell in the second (session) we didn't really get a proper run all day. I think we can get the Go Daddy car up there tomorrow when it counts. I think it'll be a challenge, but that's what they pay us the big bucks for."
Marco Andretti, No. 25 RC Cola Chevrolet
Andretti had a productive practice day trimming out the No. 25 car. He will take to the track tomorrow in the second qualifying group as he attempts to qualify inside the Firestone Fast Six.
"Not the greatest end of day result for the RC Cola car. Right now we have some room for improvement, but I feel that we will be in good shape by Sunday. We didn't get a chance to do a run on new tires so we still have some unanswered questions. We've had positive results here in the past so I'm confident that we can get where we need to be."
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