Justin Wilson
Rainier Ehrhardt
Justin Wilson followed up a solid performance on day 1 at Barber Motorsports Park with even quicker pace on day 2. He finished the test as the fastest Honda powered car while missing out on the fastest lap of the test by only 0.0038 seconds, which put him second overall.
The two day Verizon IndyCar open test saw cooler than average temperatures and wet conditions both mornings but teams were able to run some quick laps in the afternoons and work on car setup for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in just 12 days time.
Justin completed 31 laps on Monday and 51 laps on Tuesday. His fast time of 1:07.0646 is faster than the pole sitter's qualification time from the 2013 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama and should be an indicator that Wilson will be a contender for this year’s Verizon IndyCar championship.
When asked what he thought about finishing the test in second position Justin said, “I think it’s great. I just want to know where it puts me on the grid for the race here.” Joking aside, he continued, “We like the progress that we’ve made to the car and the work that the team is doing. It’s a completely new set of guys [and] that just keeps getting better and better every time we run. The last two days have been all about gelling as a team, coming together more than anything else, so I think that helps us going into St. Pete.”
Despite the excitement with his excellent run, Wilson expressed some caution. “We’ve got some good ideas we want to try but as far as today goes, when we come back here the track is going to be a lot warmer, it reacts totally different and the setup probably needs to change. You just have to be careful. I think we’re trying to take it very steady and one step at a time.”
The team will shift their focus to The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 30 where a yet to be named driver will join the team in the #18 Sonny’s BBQ Honda.
Dale Coyne Racing
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