TARGET INDY 500 DAY-END REPORT

Practice 9
P1 Oriol Servia (No.22 Chevrolet) at 223.752 mph
P2 Sebastien Bourdais (No.7 Chevrolet) at 223.479 mph
P3 Ed Carpenter (No.20 Chevrolet) at 222.886 mph
P11 Scott Dixon (No.9 Honda) at 220.090 mph
P13 Dario Franchitti (No.50 Honda) at 219.911 mph

NOTES
• Dixon ran a total of 115 laps, Franchitti a total of 114, in the ninth practice for the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
• The team focused solely on race setup and longer runs with just one practice session remaining (Carb Day on Friday) before the race next Sunday.
• As a result of yesterday’s qualifying session, the No.9 and No.50 Target teams will start the Indianapolis 500 from 15th and 16th positions, respectively.

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Scott Dixon:  “We did a lot of running today and ran in race trim.  Obviously we qualified yesterday so the boost levels went back down for the race levels, so we changed our mindset and got back into focusing on what we needed to do for the race.  Overall the car performed pretty well today.”

Dario Franchitti:  “I’m hopeful Honda brings some upgrades for the race.  We are all working hard, both Honda and the Target team.  Today we ran a lot out there, about 100 laps I think overall.  We worked hard and found some good stuff and some bad stuff.  We’re obviously hoping the good stuff pays off for us next Sunday.  We wanted to see today how little down force we could run out there with the car.  It’s going to be tricky and this place is never easy especially when it’s hot and slippery like it was today.  That might be an advantage for us as we won it here last time when it was hot and slippery.”

Target Chip Ganassi Racing will compete in the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, May 27 (12:00 pm ET on ABC).

Be sure to follow us for up-to-the-minute updates on Twitter @TCGRTeams throughout the weekend. 

Saturday, May 19

Qualifying
P1 Ryan Briscoe (No.2 Chevrolet) at 226.484 mph
P2 James Hinchcliffe (No.27 Chevrolet) at 226.481 mph
P3 Ryan Hunter-Reay (No.28 Chevrolet) at 226.240 mph
P15 Scott Dixon (No.9 Honda) at 223.684 mph
P16 Dario Franchitti (No.50 Honda) at 223.582 mph

Practice 8
P1 Helio Castroneves (No.3 Chevrolet) at 227.744 mph
P2 Ana Beatriz (No.25 Chevrolet) at 226.187 mph
P3 Ryan Briscoe (No.2 Chevrolet) at 226.027 mph
P4 Dario Franchitti (No.50 Honda) at 225.846 mph
P16 Scott Dixon (No.9 Honda) at 224.215 mph

NOTES
• Dixon ran a total of 23 laps, Franchitti a total of 15, in the eighth practice for the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
• The No.9 and No.50 Target teams each made one attempt out of a possible three in today’s qualifying 1 segment, which determined positions 1-24 of the starting grid.
• INDYCAR increased the turbocharger boost level for Pole Day practice and qualifying.
• This year’s running of the Indianapolis 500 marks Dixon’s 10th start in the event.  In his previous nine starts, he has one win, one pole and has led 303 laps.  He has completed 1,650 of the 1,746 laps run at Indy (94.5%).  The driver of the No. 9 has an average start of 5.8 and an average finish of 8.2.  Dixon’s best start and finish came in 2008 when he started and finished first.
• In eight career starts at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Franchitti has two wins and has led 306 laps.  He has completed 1,543 out of 1,546 laps (99.8%).  He has an average start and finish position of 9.0 and 8.4, respectively.  His best start is third, four times (2004, 2007, 2009, 2010) and twice he has won (2007, 2010). 

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Scott Dixon:  “I guess it just wasn’t our day today out there.  I think we just flat out didn’t have the speed.  It’s definitely not for a lack of effort that’s for sure.  The Target team is always working and trying to get the most out of what we have and today just wasn’t our day.  Fortunately we still have some practice time left so there is still a little time to make some small gains I hope.  We will regroup and hopefully come back strong for the race next week.”

Dario Franchitti:  “Every member of the Target team is working so hard.  We’re just having a hard time figuring this one out.  It's not been a very good qualifying day for us.  We’re not where we need to be to qualify for the pole.  We’ve tried a number of different things.  Maybe one of the worst things that can happen here is when you look down and see that slow number after you’ve hung it out and given it everything you’ve got.  I’ve qualified in the front here a few times and we’re working just as hard today.  We are going to keep fighting and we’ll see what happens.”

IZOD IndyCar Series Practice for the Indianapolis 500

Friday, May 18

Practice 7
P1 Marco Andretti (No.26 Chevrolet) at 227.540 mph
P2 Ryan Briscoe (No. 2 Chevrolet) at 226.835 mph
P5 Scott Dixon (No.9 Honda) at 226.224 mph
P9 Dario Franchitti (No.50 Honda) at 225.370 mph

NOTES
• Dixon ran a total of 60 laps, Franchitti a total of 54, in the seventh practice for the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
• INDYCAR approved an increase in the turbocharger boost level for Fast Friday practice today, as well as for the May 19th and 20th time trials.
• With the increase in boost the cars gain 40-50 horsepower through the 2.2-liter, turbocharged V-6 engines, which result in an increase of 4-5 mph per lap.

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Scott Dixon:  “We did our best today and made as many changes as we could.  I think we definitely have some work to do tonight to get our plan together for qualifying tomorrow.  I think the Target team picked up a few things in our last run before 6pm and we moved up about five or six spots which was encouraging, but not ultimately where we need to be with the Target car.”

Dario Franchitti:  “Scott and I are the first two of the Honda-powered cars right now and I think we have some work to do.  That’s it really, it can’t be roses every day and you just need to keep pushing.  We have some work to do and the Target guys are working very hard on this with the Honda guys to come up with something before tomorrow.  Whatever happens we’ll do our best and that is all we can do.”

Thursday, May 17

Practice 6
P1 Scott Dixon (No.9 Honda) at 223.088 mph
P2 Josef Newgarden (No.67 Honda) at 222.709 mph
P3 Graham Rahal (No.38 Honda) at 222.080 mph
P8 Dario Franchitti (No.50 Honda) at 221.344 mph

NOTES
• Dixon ran a total of 88 laps, Franchitti a total of 82, in the sixth practice for the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

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Scott Dixon:  "I think we've been concentrating on race setup and we have just been trying to get a handle on it all.  Some changes are hard to read and the feeling is different.  There is a lot of dirty air coming off the car and it's challenging for everyone.  I was happier with the car today in traffic.  I think tomorrow there will be more separation with the engine manufacturers so things will get interesting tomorrow for sure."

Wednesday, May 16

Practice 5
P1 Josef Newgarden (No.67 Honda) at 222.785 mph
P2 Marco Andretti (No.26 Chevrolet) at 222.108 mph
P5 Dario Franchitti (No.50 Honda) at 221.623 mph
P12 Scott Dixon (No.9 Honda) at 220.616 mph

NOTES
• Dixon ran a total of 98 laps, Franchitti a total of 87, in the fifth practice for the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
• Today the Target team focused on race runs/simulations, full fuel loads and running in traffic for the first time.
• TCGR has visited Indianapolis Motor Speedway 18 times, making 38 starts with 19 different drivers.  Three times, TCGR drivers have started from the pole (1993: Arie Luyendyk; 2002: Bruno Junqueira; 2008: Dixon) and 10 times from the front row.
• Franchitti currently ranks 15th in the number of laps led in the Indianapolis 500.  In eight starts, he has led 306 laps.  If he leads 27 laps, he will surpass Louis Meyer for 14th on the list.

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Dario Franchitti:  “We worked on a lot of stuff.  It was another productive day for the Target team, just finding our way around this car and just finding out what it likes.  We ran in traffic for the first time, and it actually went pretty well.  I caught a nice balance.  We’re just trying to zero in on what we need for the ‘500.’  That’s where we are.  I think we learned some big stuff today.  We put together what Scott (Dixon) learned, and Charlie (Kimball) and Graham (Rahal).  Hopefully, we’ll come out tomorrow even stronger.”

Scott Dixon:  “It was OK. We really struggled for speed early on.  We seem to have days where we roll off, and the car is a mile an hour or 2 mile an hour slower.  And that was kind of how the morning started.  We made a few changes and got the car a bit better.  In the long run, we just probably had too much down force on it.  It was OK. Comfortable to drive but just not the quickest out there.  Generally, you can mark yourself by how other people are running at the same time.  I wouldn’t say we were great.  We’ve got a bit of work to do and definitely got to find some speed.”

Tuesday, May 15

Practice 4
P1 Marco Andretti (No.26 Chevrolet) at 223.676 mph
P2 Helio Castroneves (No.3 Chevrolet) at 222.025 mph           
P8 Dario Franchitti (No.50 Honda) at 221.056 mph
P10 Scott Dixon (No.9 Honda) at 220.800 mph

NOTES
• Dixon ran a total of 52 laps, Franchitti a total of 59, in the fourth practice for the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

TCGR Quoteboard

Dario Franchitti:  “It was a very busy day for the No.50 team today.  We ran a ton of laps today and got a lot done.  We tried a lot of different things to try and find our way around this new car a little bit.  Some worked and some didn’t so we’ll keep going tomorrow with the goal of running a bit more with our teammates in a group at some point.  Not a bad day.”

Scott Dixon:  “We had a late start today and then went through a list of mechanical things we wanted to try on the No.9 car.  I didn’t really like the changes we made to the car but I found a balance I liked at the end of the day.  We ran old tires today, we didn’t really run in traffic and didn’t get any tows, so overall an average day for the Target team.”

Monday, May 14

Practice 3
P1 Josef Newgarden (No.67 Honda) at 222.486 mph
P2 Ryan Hunter-Reay (No.28 Chevrolet) at 221.639 mph         
P4 Scott Dixon (No.9 Honda) at 221.499 mph
P7 Dario Franchitti (No.50 Honda) at 220.453 mph

NOTES
• Dixon ran a total of 42 laps, Franchitti a total of 24, in the third practice for the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

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Dario Franchitti:  “We had a late start today. We did about 24-25 laps today just getting the Target car, not even race ready – but rather finding out what it does and doesn’t like. We worked on setup and what makes it handle well. We went through a list of items and expect things to get quite a bit busier tomorrow.”

Scott Dixon:  “We just ran through some mechanical options and some damper items today. We had some issues after our first run and then came back to the garage to sort that out. We came out for our last run just after 5pm and went through another sequence of mechanical and damper items and that was it.”

Sunday, May 13

Practice 2
P1 Sebastian Saavedra (No.17 Chevrolet) at 221.526 mph
P2 Bryan Clauson (No.39 Chevrolet) at 221.173 mph                               
P4 Scott Dixon (No.9 Honda) at 220.829 mph
P14 Dario Franchitti (No.50 Honda) at 217.993 mph

NOTES
• Dixon ran a total of 31 laps, Franchitti a total of 17, in the second practice for the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
• In practice two, the teams each switched to their primary cars, after using the T (backup) car in yesterday’s session.
• Four years in a row (2008-2011) a TCGR driver has led the most laps in the Indianapolis 500 (2008: Dixon – 115; 2009: Dixon – 73; 2010: Franchitti: 155; 2011: Dixon – 73).

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Dario Franchitti:  “The basic focus of today was to shake down our primary car.  We started making some smaller adjustments at the end of the session out there, but haven’t really gotten into the more in-depth changes to the Target car.  We’ll start on that tomorrow.”

Scott Dixon:  “We just shook down the primary Target car.  We started off a bit slow and we had to figure out a few issues we had.  We sort of went back at it and made some progress.  We didn’t really change the car too much, just a few mechanical things that we needed to get through.  The last run there on my first timed lap, I came up behind Graham (Rahal) and I had a tow.  I hadn’t had a tow but that was a half-tow.  My first couple of timed laps, the car seemed nice.  We’re on the same set of tires.  It seems there are a few more cars running more laps and doing a little more race stuff yet.  We’ll probably step into that the next couple of days.  Just making sure all the systems are working and everything’s okay.  Generally, I think both Team Target cars are doing pretty well.  I think the car has speed in it.  Until we get to Fast Friday and Pole Day, we really don’t know who’s going to be where.”

Saturday, May 12

Practice 1
P1 Josef Newgarden (No.67 Honda) at 220.250 mph
P2 JR Hildebrand (No.4 Chevrolet) at 219.693 mph  
P10 Scott Dixon (No.9 Honda) at 217.244 mph
P18 Dario Franchitti (No.50 Honda) at 215.896 mph

NOTES
• Dixon ran a total of 8 laps, Franchitti a total of 19, in Opening Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
• The day was spent running T (backup) cars and searching for speed.
 
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Dario Franchitti:  “We’re just shaking the spare car down today. It feels ok. We haven’t really done any work on it yet, just shaking it down. Tomorrow we’ll do the same with the primary Target car and go from there.”

Scott Dixon:  “Basically today we just ran the Target T car and give it a shake down. So far so good and that’s the way we wanted it on opening day.”

Target Chip Ganassi Racing will compete in the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, May 27 (12:00 pm ET on ABC).

Be sure to follow us for up-to-the-minute updates on Twitter @TCGRTeams throughout the weekend.