‘What They’re Saying’ from Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval open test

“Solid day at the track, I think. We managed to do a couple laps and that was important for us. It’s just good to be back here, back in the speedway car. It’s been a long time since the last time I drove one of these, so just happy to be here again. Working towards May now. Just trying to put everything together, doing laps by myself. We didn’t really run in traffic today, which wasn’t our goal, and I think it was a good shakedown for us. We finished P5 or P6, no-tow speed, so I think that was good. We’ve just gotta keep in mind that the conditions in the Month of May are going to be different, the track’s probably going to be hotter and everything, but for the first time here this year it was good. Looking forward to the Month of May now.”

MATHEUS LEIST (No. 4 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet)

“Solid first day here at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Obviously the weather conditions are not super representative of what we will face in May, and the rain didn’t help, but we got through a decent chunk of what we were hoping to accomplish, which given the time we had, was great. Off the trailer the Arrow car felt great, so a good place to start the month from.”

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda)

“It’s great to finally do my first laps in the Arrow car at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It’s a great feeling. Obviously, there’s been a lot buildup to today. Today was not the best day with the weather; we had to wait a long time before we could get on track which was frustrating… We’ve been here all day and not being able to get in the car, you just want to get out there and get going, so it was a bit of a mental challenge. But the weather came around and we got on track in the end and passed the rookie orientation. I’m feeling comfortable out there, and today was all about that really. We were just about to get into our (run) program and start trying some things when the rain picked up again, so not the ideal day, but we ticked all the boxes for today. I did my first laps and I felt happy with it, so we have something to work with for the month of ahead.”

MARCUS ERICSSON (No. 7 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda)

“It was a brand-new car and a very unexpected problem actually. We had a leak and we fixed the leak, then a leak appeared somewhere else. It’s one of those things that I don’t think it’s anybody’s fault. It’s a brand-new car – (owner) A.J. (Foyt) got me chassis number 14 – so those things happen and actually days like this are good for that. This is April, April 24th, so better today than on opening day. So we got that out of the way, but obviously the day got shortened because of the rain, so when we finally fixed the car it ended up raining. No reason to panic. We were on track, we had a fast car. (Teammate) Matheus (Leist) was pretty decent on the no-tow (speed). I’ve been around for too long, the boss has been around for too long. If you panic here, you get in trouble.”

TONY KANAAN (No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet)

“It was really good to be out on track today, especially at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Unfortunately, weather limited our track time so we weren’t able to try out as much as we would have liked. Luckily, we have four days of long practices still to go and we’re able to head back to the shop with some data. The US Concrete guys will work hard back over the next few weeks and hopefully we roll off on opening day with a car that will put us on top.”

MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 98 U.S. Concrete/Curb Honda)