Andretti Autosport ready for 'interesting afternoon'

After three Chevrolet drivers flipped during practice, IndyCar has handed down new specs for the 34 cars lined up to qualify for the 99th Indianapolis 500.

All cars will now revert back to the race trim boost levels from this weeks practice, while a one-and-done qualifying format puts serious pressure on the teams.

Andretti Autosport’s Director of Race Operations Rob Edwards spoke on IMS Radio, saying that while the morning has been filled with rumours and here-say, his teams have been patiently awaiting word prior to today’s time trials.

“Most teams are fortunate because they spent a lot of the week last week running race setups,” explained Edwards. 

“It’s just a case of turning back a page a day earlier than expected. We were trying to not react to the rumor and what people were saying was going to happen. We have been keeping the temperature and heat in the cars because we weren’t sure what timeline we would be running.”

With one 30 minute practice session slated before the qualifying later this afternoon, Edwards added that there isn’t a lot of time to mess with the race trim setups to squeeze that extra speed out of.

“We think we are in pretty good shape in race spec. How that translates to qualifying spec will be interesting now. It’s going to be an interesting afternoon for everyone,” he said.

“At the end of the day the race is the important thing, we want to qualifying well, but winning the race is what we came here to do.”