“I’m super proud of the work that they [his team] did all month, all year, to get to this point.”
The Spaniard had to weather a lurid moment on the final lap of his qualifying run, showing just how on the edge his car was.
“That was too much!” he said. “We knew that we had to go aggressive, trim the car a lot to get a good first lap and try and be consistent. The fourth lap was really tough to keep it flat. But we did it – man, there was one chance only.”
While his team boss Chip Ganassi said the feeling of success at ‘The Brickyard’ “never gets old,” there was agony for another famous name down the other end of the grid.
500-winner Bobby Rahal’s eponymous team saw three of its four cars in the ‘Last chance qualifying’ knockout round, with the slowest car not making the race.
While Christian Lundgaard secured his place in the 500 in 31st, a duel developed between Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan team-mates Jack Harvey and Bobby’s son Graham.
Harvey got himself into the race at the expense of Rahal Letterman Lanigan team-mate Graham Rahal
IndyCar
While the latter was provisionally in the race after the first run, Harvey went for broke with two more efforts, and dramatically bumped out Graham Rahal by the tightest of margins. His four-lap average of 229.166mph managed to best the 229.159mph.
“I knew from the start of the week were in trouble,” he said, before breaking down in tears as he sat on the side of his beleaguered machine.
“It’s bittersweet, and pretty humbling” said Harvey about making it to the race in such circumstances. “I don’t want to do this dance again.”