Mann tops Coyne cars at Indy 500
Pippa Mann led the Dale Coyne Racing quartet on Sunday with an 18th place finish, in what was an up and down day for the team at the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500. While Mann managed to make it to the end of the race without any issues, it wasn’t the case for her teammates. Both Gabby Chaves and Bryan Clauson had to serve drive-through penalties for pitting while the pits were closed and Conor Daly suffered damage to his car while trying to avoid the car of Mikhail Aleshin that had just hit the wall. Despite the penalties, Gabby Chaves went on to finish 20th with Bryan Clauson 23rd. Conor Daly ended up 29th in the final standings. The following are additional notes and quotes for each driver following today’s activities.
18th - Pippa Mann - #63 Dale Coyne Racing supporting Susan G. Komen - Was running in the Top 10 with less than five laps to go when she had to pit for fuel. - Registered her second best result at the Indy 500.
What she had to say: “That was a little bit of a tough race for the first part of the race for us. After I made the mistake on Friday, I just had to be more careful than I wanted to be in the first part of the race. We didn’t quite have the car where we wanted it. The crew was fantastic. They kept making changes to help me make the car better. In the last couple of stints, the car was really good and we were running a really strong pace. It’s such a shame we didn’t get that lucky yellow to give us a good result but at the same time I have to be really happy with how the crew did and the way the pit stops went. Coming in cold, not having driven the race car since August, and managing to finish in the Top 20 of the Indianapolis 500, that’s not a bad day.”
20th - Gabby Chaves – #19 Boy Scouts of America - Chaves received a drive through penalty for pitting when the pits were closed after missing the blend line by fractions of a second, he was running a strong 11th at the time. - Following his first drive-through penalty, the Columbian then got caught with four wheels across the line after exiting the pits and had to serve another penalty.
What he had to say: “We had a car to put us in the top six or seven and unfortunately one of the yellows came out and we were committed to pitting and we just missed the pit commit line by probably a few feet and that just set forward a sequence of events with a drive-through followed by another drive-through and that just killed our day.”
23rd - Bryan Clauson - #88 Cancer Treatment Centers of America - Clauson finished his first Indianapolis 500 in three tries. - His 28th place finish is his best result at the 500-mile race. - Led his first Verizon IndyCar Series laps (three) in the middle of the race. - The Indiana-native had to serve a drive-through penalty after pitting when the pits were closed, following a very untimely caution period.
What he had to say: “It’s pretty special to complete your first Indy 500. I can’t thank these guys enough. We had a pretty clean race. I kind of found a home there in the middle of the race and settled in. I felt like our car was alright. I struggled in the big packs, in the small packs we were OK but in the big packs we struggled with balance a little bit. I’m just happy to get to the end of one! I caught a yellow at the wrong time and gave up four of five spots which was bad luck more than anything. Overall it was a great day for us and I’m happy to get the first 500 miles under my belt.”
29th - Conor Daly - #18 ShirtsForAmerica.com/LillyDiabetes - While trying to avoid the car of Aleshin who had just made contact with the wall on lap 114, Daly lost the rear of his car and spun, hitting the wall, which, in turn caused race ending damage. - Daly was running 14th at the time of the incident, having moved up from his 24th place on the starting grid.
What he had to say: “There was so much smoke, (Aleshin) spun right in front of us. Our car was fully loaded and as soon as you jump off the throttle the rear comes around. I thought I was going to run straight into him. We were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. The red, white and blue ShirtsForAmerica.com/Lilly Diabetes machine was just unlucky. It’s disappointing for our race to end like that.”
There won't be any time to rest for the team as they will be back in action for a couple of races in Detroit this coming weekend.
Contact:
karina.redmond@dalecoyneracing.com
