Simon Pagenaud is fastest on the Carbuetion Day

Top-5 Practice Speeds (mph): 1. Simon Pagenaud (225.827); 2. E.J. Viso (225.304); 3. Ryan Hunter-Reay (225.053); 4. Scott Dixon (224.870); 5. Sebastien Bourdais (224.848).

Race Temperatures: Temps ranged from 83°-92° F (28°-33° C) track and from 55°-57° F (13°-14° C) ambient.

Firestone Tire Performance Recap: Firestone Racing brought the same tire specification to Indianapolis that received wide-spread praise in 2012 and it has again performed to exemplary standards. The 33 drivers completed 1,305 laps today, bringing the month’s practice total to 14,695 laps or 36,737.5 miles logged on the Firestone Firehawk tires heading into Sunday’s race.

From fastest in practice Simon Pagenaud, #77 Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports/HP Dallara/Honda/ Firestone: “We’ve been working on the race car for the last two weeks and it behaved really good in traffic today. So far we’re really easy on our Firestone tires and I’ve got to say the car is very nice throughout the whole stint. That might be the key of the race. Our tires are behaving really and my engineer is very happy about it. I think that’s one of the strengths of our car, how nice it is on the tires with a fairly aggressive mentality (in car set-up) anyway. It’s looking pretty good.”

From Al Speyer, Executive Director, Firestone Racing: “Race weekend at Indianapolis is upon us and there’s no place we’d rather be than right here. Carburetion Day is traditionally one of the most exciting days of the month and today’s ranks right up there. The weather was sensational, there was plenty of action in IndyCar Series practice and then we witnessed the closest finish in Firestone Indy Lights history. To see four cars flash across the finish line inches apart was a sight to behold. This is the next generation of IndyCar Series drivers and they certainly showed their potential today. Now the focus shifts to Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 and we feel primed and ready at Firestone Racing. Our tires have already racked up more than 36,000 solid miles, with most every team completing numerous long runs to demonstrate the longevity and consistency of the Firehawk tires over a full run. The tires are looking good, the cars are looking good and I expect we are going to see a fantastic race. We’ve learned to expect the unexpected at Indy, so no one knows for certain what will happen, but we are confident that the Firestone tires will once again give drivers the confidence to make this another magnificent race in Indy 500 history.”

Firestone Racing