KV Racing Indy 500 practice day 3 report

KV RACING TECHNOLOGY CONTINUES TO MAKE PROGRESS AT INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

ALL THREE DRIVERS POST FASTEST LAPS TO DATE

Rubens Barrichello, KV Racing Technology Chevrolet and Tony Kanaan, KV Racing Technology Chevrolet

Photo by: Eric Gilbert

SPEEDWAY, IN. – May 14, 2012 – KV Racing Technology continued to make progress with their setup and found more speed during the third day of practice in preparation for this weekend’s qualifying for the 96th running of the Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana.

For the third day in a row Tony Kanaan, in the No. 11 GEICO | MOUSER ELECTRONICS - KV Racing Technology Chevrolet/Firestone entry, led the team recording a fast lap of 219.761 mph on the historic 2.5-mile superspeedway which placed him 11th on the day’s practice report E. J. Viso, who pilots the No. 5 CITGO | PDVSA - KV Racing Technology Chevrolet/Firestone machine, again logged the team’s second fastest speed with a lap of 218.345 mph placing him 18th on the speed charts. Rubens Barrichello, driving the No. 8 BMC | EMBRASE – KV Racing Technology Chevrolet/Firestone car, logged a fast lap of 216.724 good for 26th fastest. All three drivers again increased their speed over the previous days.

Kanaan, who ran 34 laps, spent the day working with his primary car He has been in or near the top-10 on the speed charts in all three full practice sessions. The 37-year-old Brazilian, making his 11th appearance at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, has one pole in 10 previous races at the Brickyard, in 2005, and has a best finish of second in 2004. He has also led a total of 214 laps and is the only driver in history to lead laps in his first seven Indy 500 starts.

‘It has been an okay day,” Kanaan said. “We made a few changes and worked through our list we had to do. We were able to run a lot more today with no problems, which I am happy about. It was just another day at the Speedway.”

Viso completed 28 laps today giving him 93 over the first three days of practice. He again spent the day working through a program that has seen him run laps consistently between the 216 and 217 mph mark without the benefit of a draft or tow. For the third day in a row the 27-year-old Venezuelan did not run during the last half hour of practice when cooler conditions, towing and drafting generally produce the fastest times. Viso is competing at the Speedway for the fifth time and has a best qualifying position of 18th in 2011 and a best finish off 24th in 2009.

“One more day of testing at Indianapolis and we accomplished every part of the plan we had for today,” Viso said. “More importantly, we are happy with the results. Now we will review all the data we have collected and start putting together the plan for the upcoming days before qualifying. There was a lot of towing and drafting going on today, but that was not something we were looking at doing, We tried to go out on a clear track, which we did, and just followed our program. I am looking forward to tomorrow’s test plan and step by step we are accomplishing what we need to do to develop the car.”

Barrichello, who spent the day in his backup 8T car, is making his first appearance at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He ran another 49 laps today and has now completed a total of 206 laps (over 500 miles). The 39-year-old Brazilian topped the 216 mph mark for the first time today and with each day gains more and more experience on the challenging Indianapolis superspeedway oval. Barrichello, a veteran of 19 Formula One seasons, who will be contesting his first oval race, is trying to become the first driver to win both the Indianapolis 500 and the U. S. Grand Prix Formula One race (won in 2002), which was run on a road course that incorporated part of the IMS oval, but was run in the opposite direction then oval races.

“I was able to run the backup car today, the same one Tony ran on Opening Day, so we could evaluate a few things,” Barrichello said. “We were able to pick up a little bit more speed but not as much as we would have liked. We still need to search for other things, aerodynamically or engine wise. I have been able to run some laps and learn the track, not worry so much about the speed but being able to get good lines.”

Practice again began at 12 noon with both Kanaan and Viso going out with the drop of the green flag. Barrichello had to wait for the backup car to be fully prepared and did not go out on track until a little later. A total of 29 cars turned a total of 1199 laps today (3030 over the three days). Josef Newgarden, for the second time in three days, posted the fastest speed at 222.486 mph.