IRL: Indy 500 Practice Day 5 98-05-14

Indianapolis, IN (May 14, 1998) - It only took Tony Stewart seven laps to record the day's fastest speed in his primary car. Stewart's Happy Hour appearance knocked Kenny Brack off the top of the speed chart, a postition he took from Greg Ray nineteen minutes earlier. Stewart's best of the day was a lap at 223.430 mph with a time of 40.281 seconds, three one-hundedths of a second quicker than Brack. Greg Ray's lap was recorded at 40.410 at a speed of 222.717.

Taking his first laps in official practice on Wednesday, Ray was fast out of the box. Ray ran 219.952 on Wednesday and 219.539 on Thursday. "We came here for a Firestone" test with a bad motor" Ray said. "I had it floored all the way around. We spent the test working on the car. We haven't changed it since we've been back" A late caution period kept Ray from a last attempt at bumping up his speed. "I think a 225 was possible this afternoon, too bad I didn't get a chance to get my last run in".

Notes:

J. J. Yeley was the day's fastest rookie. Yeley's fast lap, his fastest so far, at 219.010 mph was set this morning.

Joe Gosek completed his refresher in Mike Groff's backup car and Jack Hewitt has passed his ROP.

John Paul Jr. has been named as the driver of Team Pelfrey's entry. Paul replaces Danny Ongais in the No. 81.

Johnny Unser will be teammate to Buddy Lazier at Hemelgarn.

Hideshi Matsuda will drive the Beck Motorsports entry.

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