Team Penske completes busy Bump Day in preparation for 97th Indy 500

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. –Team Penske put the finishing touches on the final full day of practice Sunday for the 97th Indianapolis 500 by combining for 715 miles around Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

All three Team Penske drivers will start among the first three rows for the start of the legendary race May 26. AJ Allmendinger qualified in the fifth position Saturday, with Will Power sixth and Helio Castroneves eighth.

A.J. Allmendinger, Team Penske Chevrolet

Photo by: Michael C. Johnson

“We had pretty good day in the Verizon car,” said Power, who will go for his sixth attempt at winning “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” next Sunday.

“We did a lot of miles and worked with AJ and Helio to optimize our efforts. At the end of the day I feel pretty good about what we’ve accomplished.

All in all we are as prepared as we can be heading into the race. The guys have done a great job preparing and setting up the Verizon Chevy all week long. Now we look forward to a shake down run on Carb Day and then we’ll give it our best come the race.”

Three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves completed 93 laps in the No. 3 Shell V-Power Pennzoil Ultra Dallara/Chevrolet. His fastest lap of 222.731 mph was the 14th-best of the day.

“Productive day for the Shell Pennzoil Chevrolet team. We got a lot of work done on some different set-ups that we wanted to test,” said Castroneves, who sits just 20 points outside of first place in the IZOD IndyCar Series Championship entering the Indy 500.

“It was a real team effort today by all the Team Penske guys to work together to find as many little things as possible. We practiced as much as we could in traffic, that is sometimes hard to do during the week and we got a lot of work there.

I think we are in a good place as we start to finalize things for the race. I know the calendar says a week but it is going to be here before we know it.”

Allmendinger also recorded 93 laps in the No. 2 IZOD Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet. His lap of 222.255 mph was the 19th-fastest of the day.

"It was a really solid week for the IZOD Chevrolet team,” said Allmendinger, who has one practice session remaining before competing in his first Indianapolis 500. “I was happy with the progress made in the last eight days. We have a good direction for next week to head into the race. It's been a great first week at Indy for me and I look forward to race day."

Power's No. 12 machine brushed the wall late in the practice session, but the damage didn’t appear to be significant.

“At the end of the today’s practice we we’re doing live pit-stop practice and I went out on cold tires and just brushed the wall at the exit of Turn 4,” explained Power. “It wasn’t too bad though as we were able to drive it back to the pits.”

Castroneves, Power and Allmendinger will attempt to win Team Penske's 16th Indy 500 when the race begins shortly after noon ET on May 26 on ABC.

Team Penske