Dale Coyne Racing Qualifying Report Sonsio Grand Prix at IMS

INDIANAPOLIS (Friday, May 10, 2024) – Dale Coyne Racing continued to show progress on Friday, as the team put in their best qualifying performance so far this season. Jack Harvey (#18 INVST, Dale Coyne Racing) qualified 17th for Saturday’s Sonsio Grand Prix, while his teammate Luca Ghiotto (#51 Bimecc, Dale Coyne Racing with RWR) qualified 22nd for his second NTT INDYCAR SERIES race.

 

Jack Harvey, #18 INVST, Dale Coyne Racing Honda

 

Starting: 17th

 

• Harvey went out in Group 1, Round 1 of the 10-minute qualifying session.

• He was sitting 11th in his group when he entered pit lane for a set of alternate Firestone tires about halfway through the session.

• The driver of the #18 INVST Honda then jumped up to second in his group with a lap of 1:09.3254 on his penultimate lap of the 2.439-mile circuit.

• Harvey ended up 9th in his group and 17th on the starting grid once all cars had taken the checkered.

• He was less than two tenths of a second from transferring to the second round.
   

Post Qualifying Quote

“Progress is relative, however you want to slice it, if you take out the ‘coulda, shoulda, woulda’, this is the best qualifying we’ve had this season so that’s a positive step for us. Everyone knows that Indy is a good track for me, so if you’re basing it off of what I’ve done here in the past, then maybe not my best day here. However, as a global effort, there’s a lot of effort going in right now and that’s the bit people don’t see and don’t appreciate. Everybody at Dale Coyne Racing is working really hard to try and put us in a position to improve. Practice 2 didn’t go the way we wanted it to, I had a spin and that put us on the backfoot so in the end it was a pretty good recovery going into qualifying. Like I say to everybody, if we just keep chipping away, we’ll get there.”

 

Luca Ghiotto, #51 Bimecc, Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda

 

Starting: 22nd

 

• Ghiotto took to the track in Group 2, Round 1 of qualifying.

• The rookie, who discovered the track for the first time, earlier that day in practice, registered a fastest lap of 1:09.4519 which initially placed him second.

• Unfortunately for the #51 driver, a local yellow flag on his final lap meant he wasn’t able to improve his lap time and he had to settle for 11th in his group and 22nd on the starting grid.

• In such a close and competitive field, his time was just three tenths from making it to the second round.

 

Post Qualifying Quote

“It was an improvement compared to Barber, so we’re happy with that but at the same time I’m a bit frustrated because on my best lap there was a local yellow flag. I was improving by a couple of tenths on that lap so if I hadn’t slowed a bit to acknowledge the yellow, I think we could have improved a couple of positions. I’m still happy but it was a bittersweet qualifying I would say.”

 

Next up: Sonsio Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Saturday, May 11 at 3pm ET on NBC and Peacock.