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KV Racing Indy 500 practice day 6 report

KV Racing Technology (KVRT)

Tony Kanaan, KV Racing Technology Chevrolet

Tony Kanaan, KV Racing Technology Chevrolet

Michael C. Johnson

KV RACING TECHNOLOGY MAKES PROGRESS WITH RACE SETUP ON DAY SIX OF PRACTICE AT INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Tony Kanaan, KV Racing Technology Chevrolet
Tony Kanaan, KV Racing Technology Chevrolet

Photo by: Michael C. Johnson

SPEEDWAY, In. – May 17, 2012 – KV Racing Technology made significant progress with the race setup and showed good speed during the sixth day of practice for the 96th running of the Indianapolis 500 in Speedway, Indiana.

Tony Kanaan, 37, piloted the No. 11 GEICO | MOUSER ELECTRONICS - KV Racing Technology Chevrolet/Firestone machine to a fast lap of 220.167 mph placing him 16th on the day’s practice report. Kanaan, who struggled a bit early on in the session, came on strong late in the afternoon. He topped the 220 mph mark for the second day in a row (ran 220.305 mph yesterday) and has now posted the team’s fastest lap each of the six days of full practice. This was the third consecutive day that Kanaan has worked on his race setup and the improvement from day to day has been noticeable. Kanaan turned 48 laps today for a total of 219, the fewest of the KVRT trio. The native of Brazil 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.

“We worked well together as a team today and found a couple of improvements,” Kanaan said. “Our focus will now shift tomorrow and Saturday on our qualifying setup and then back to race setup on Sunday. This is a difficult track, you go through a lot of up and down emotions and this place can get to your head, so we just need to keep it calm and have a good weekend.”

Rubens Barrichello, 39, drove the, No. 8 BMC | EMBRASE – KV Racing Technology Chevrolet/Firestone entry to the 20th fastest lap of the day at 219.432 mph. More importantly it was by far his fastest lap (previous high 217.435) and he ran 219 more than once. This is the second day in a row that Barrichello has recorded the team’s second fastest lap and it is the third fastest the team has run (Kanaan over 220 twice). Barrichello got a late start to the day after the team made a scheduled engine change, but for the second day ran extensively in traffic. He logged 54 laps today bringing his total to date to 424 (1060 miles more than two 500 mile races). The Brazilian Formula One star, who won the U. S Grand Prix here at Indy in 2002, has run the most laps for KVRT and has steadily gained experience, confidence and speed as he prepares to contest his first Indy 500 and in fact his first oval race.

"It has been a better day,” Barrichello said. “We made some changes to the car which helped increase my speed and I also ran in traffic which was good. I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel now that the speeds are getting better, which makes me happy."

E. J. Viso, 27, in the No. 5 CITGO | PDVSA - KV Racing Technology Chevrolet/Firestone car also recorded his fastest practice lap to date topping out with a speed of 218.550 mph putting him 23rd on the practice report. Viso had his biggest gain in speed. After picking up about a mile an hour per day and reaching the 218.3 mark, he dropped to 215 yesterday before rebounding today. Viso has also been working on his race setup for three days and things seemed to have finally clicked today. He has not run extensively in traffic during that time, but was able to get in some laps in traffic late today. The young Venezuelan, making his fifth appearance at IMS, completed 67 laps today giving him a total of 289 since practice began.

“I have to take today as a positive day after having two difficult days,” Viso said. “Today we clicked most of the things we tried. This puts us in a better position to continue the work and improvement of the car tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day we need to put everything together and prepare the car for qualifying on Saturday. Then hopefully, Sunday we can finish working on our race setup and be ready to go.”

A total of 29 cars turned a total of 1391 laps today (7625 over the six days). Scott Dixon posted the fastest speed at 223.088 mph.

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