KV Racing Indy 500 practice day 5 report

KV RACING TECHNOLOGY WORKS ON RACE SETUP DURING DAY FIVE OF PRACTICE AT INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

EJ Viso, KV Racing Technology Chevrolet

Photo by: Michael C. Johnson

SPEEDWAY, In. – May 16, 2012 – Day five at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway saw all three KV Racing Technology drivers work on their race setups in preparation for the 96th running of the Indianapolis 500 at in Speedway, Indiana.

Tony Kanaan, in the No. 11 GEICO | MOUSER ELECTRONICS - KV Racing Technology Chevrolet/Firestone entry, spent the day in traffic working under race conditions. He posted the team’s fastest lap for the fifth consecutive day recording a speed of 220.305 mph placing him 13th on the speed charts. This is the first time since practice began on Saturday that Kanaan has topped the 220 mark making him the only KVRT driver to do so. The 37-year-old Brazilian, who ran 54 laps, has now turned a total of 171 laps, the fewest of the KVRT trio. Kanaan is making his 11th appearance at the Brickyard and is seeking his first win. He has finished second, third, fourth and fifth with one pole.

Commenting on the day Kanaan said, “We continued to work on our race setup today and finding out how the car reacts when it is in traffic. It was an uneventful day and hopefully tomorrow will be the same.”

Rubens Barrichello, driving the No. 8 BMC | EMBRASE – KV Racing Technology Chevrolet/Firestone car, ran in traffic for the second day in a row. He posted the team’s second fastest lap at 216.741 mph and the 26th fastest of the day. Barrichello logged the most laps of any driver on a single day so far with 114 and has now completed a team high 370 laps (925 miles almost two 500 mile races). The 39-year-old Brazilian, a veteran of 19 Formula One seasons, won the U. S Grand Prix here at Indy in 2002 making him the only Indy 500 rookie to have won a race at the Brickyard. Barrichello, who will be contesting his, first oval race, is attempting to become the first driver to win both the U. S. Grand Prix and the Indy 500 at IMS.

“Today we ran a lot of miles,” Barrichello said. “I was able to experience how the car would feel in a race from when it is full of fuel to almost empty. We made some progress with some of the changes today and hopefully we are going in the right direction."

E. J. Viso, piloting the No. 5 CITGO | PDVSA - KV Racing Technology Chevrolet/Firestone machine, went on track at the drop of the green flag at noon and spend the entire day working on his race setup while avoiding traffic and therefore did not benefit from a tow . He recorded a speed of 215.512 mph putting him 28th on the practice report. Viso completed 63 laps today giving him a total of 222 since first taking to the track last Saturday. This 27-year-old Venezuelan Viso is competing at IMS for the fifth time and has a best qualifying position of 24th in 2009 and a best finish of 18th in 2011.

“It was another day of working on the race setup,” Viso said. “It definitely hasn’t been fun so far. It was a tough day. One of our big priorities is to develop a fast car for qualifying and a safe and fast car for the race, which is what we have been trying to achieve. We tried a bunch of things that didn’t really work out, however by the end of the day things took a turn to the positive side and we will keep working on that tomorrow.”

A total of 30 cars turned a total of 1632 laps today (6234 over the four days). For the third time in five days rookie Josef Newgarden, who later became the first driver to hit the wall, posted the fastest speed at 222.785 mph.