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INDY 500: Tables might be turning on Chevy

Saturday, 21 May 2016

Marshall Pruett (words and images)
What a difference a year makes.
The 2015 Indy 500 story had Honda teams struggling to unlock the full potential of their aero kits while Chevy teams found speed and efficiency with ease. And the results showed as Juan Pablo Montoya led a Bowtie 1-2-3-4 to the checkered flag.
The script appears to be flipped in 2016 as the Honda teams are easy-fast while Chevy teams have had a harder time finding the right configuration to challenge their rivals.
And like 2015, there are also a few exceptions. Just as Honda had a few solid contenders to parry last year's Chevy onslaught, Chevy has a handful of entries ready to spoil Honda's attempts to run away with the pole and the race. Where 2016 looks different is in the limited number of rapid Chevys in qualifying trim.


James Hinchcliffe was fastest today in his Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda with a four-lap average of 230.946 mph, followed by Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay, who posted a 230.805mph in his Honda, but they were shadowed by Team Penske Chevy's Will Power in third (230.736) and Helio Castroneves (230.500). Hondas took P5-7-8 and Chevy captured P6 and 9 to close the group of pole contenders, giving the Japanese brand a 5-4 split and its most competitive outing since the new chassis and engine formula debuted in 2012.
Granted, all speeds from today will be wiped clean and the separation of 0.210mph between the best Honda and Chevy is far from a big advantage, but it does point to the difference in realities this year for both manufacturers.
Whether Chevy has more to show on Sunday when it counts will only be known at the end of qualifying; most in the Chevy camp maintain they're showing all the speed they have to offer, and some believe Honda has taken a legitimate leap forward.
"I think [Chevy] had three or four really good years and [Honda] stepped up," Chip Ganassi Racing's Chevy-powered Tony Kanaan told RACER.
There's also belief among some Chevy drivers that Honda's strength is due to its latest engine specification.
"I've followed them and it's hard to pass a Honda on the straightaways, but we're about the same in the corners," Team Penske Chevy's Simon Pagenaud reckoned. "Indeed, Honda's really strong."
And with the extra power at their disposal, Honda teams have been able to use more downforce to improve their cornering speeds without giving up much of their top speed performance.
Combined, extra power and downforce is hard to beat at Indianapolis.
"That's what we had in the past," Kanaan admitted. "We can't complain. Like I said, we've had it good the last couple of years, so we'll trust our engineers, trust the Chevy guys. I can't really say if [Honda] has more power, but we think that they do."
With all of the aerodynamic differences in 2016 – most notably the required use of dome skids that has taken downforce from the bottom of the Dallara DW12s – teams from both manufacturers have reported a higher degree of handling instability in low-downforce qualifying trim. And without the luxury of extra power to pull extra downforce through the air as Kanaan mentioned, the Chevy drivers have been forced to take greater risks to catch up to Honda.
"I think we're putting the car more on the edge than last year," said Josef Newgarden, the fastest among the Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy trio. "This morning was a big eye opener for everyone. Yesterday it felt like people were getting there and had to really trim out to get speed; you could see how upset the Ganassi boys were at how far they had to trim."
According to Penske's Helio Castroneves, taking the Chevy aero kit down to super-low downforce with the 2016 changes has produced the opposite effect they anticipated.
"I feel that right now, we're not quite as fast as we expect; we're pushed to the limit," he said. "I'm judging by my teammates only going slower [with less downforce]."
Among the Chevy teams, KV Racing's three-car effort was particularly lost on qualifying setups as team leader Sebastien Bourdais could do no better than 20th. The KV squad, as a whole, typified the newfound difficulties in getting the most out of the Bowtie's Indy 500 package.
"For whatever reason, since we trimmed the car [for qualifying], it's not very settled, not very consistent, and with today's slightly higher temperature and wind, we're nowhere," Bourdais said. "It's disturbing because we're running more downforce than most and we still can't make it work. We're clearly not where we want to be."
Don't hand the $100,000 check for pole to a Honda driver just yet. The three Penske Chevy drivers in the top nine and ECR's Newgarden are more than capable of finding 0.210 mph overnight, although with three Andretti Honda drivers and two from SPM presented with an equal chance at pole, they could also find more speed after combing through Saturday's data.
One thing is for sure: Chevy drivers aren't expecting the Hondas to go backwards.
"Honda's for real, for sure," said ECR's JR Hildebrand.
His ECR teammate isn't ready to lie down, but also knows a repeat of 2015 when Chevy ran roughshod over Honda is looking unlikely.
"I'm proud to be a Chevy boy, I'm proud to have them in my corner, but you can never count out Honda," Newgarden added. "It's great that they are coming at us strong, it's great for the series. We're not getting it easy."