Catchfence

Rookie, Former Winner Happy with Speed, Setup at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – (May 20, 2011) – Panther Racing teammates JR Hildebrand, Buddy Rice and their respective crews were all smiles as Fast Friday concluded at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Both the IZOD IndyCar Series rookie and the former Indianapolis 500 winner have put in a productive week of work on the historic 2.5-mile oval in preparations for tomorrow’s Pole Day qualifications. There are a total of 40 car-and-driver combinations attempting to make the 33-car field that will be determined during qualifications on both Saturday and Sunday this weekend.

A total of 24 cars will be qualified, pending Bump Day, tomorrow afternoon with only the top nine qualifiers being lockedinto the field for the 95^th Indianapolis 500. For the last 90 minutes of Saturday the top nine will have a shootout for the Pole Position. Last season, Panther/Vision Racing driver Ed Carpenter made the top-nine shootout and started the race in the eighth position. Former driver Dan Wheldon qualified 18^th for the race and finished runner-up in the No. 4 National Guard car.

Panther’s best qualification effort in the Indy 500 came in 2006 when Vitor Meira started in the sixth position on the outside of the second row. Meira finished 10^th in that event.

The 95^th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race will be broadcast live on ABC on Sunday, May 29^th at 12:00 p.m. with additional coverage provided by the IMS Radio Network, www.indycar.com, XM channel 145 and Sirius channel 211.

 

JR Hildebrand

No. 4 National Guard Dallara Honda

Top Speed: 226.939 mph

Number of Laps: 45

Overall Rank: 14^th

 

JR Hildebrand, No. 4 National Guard Dallara Honda:

“I owe any success we’ve had this week to the team and also because we’ve had Buddy Rice here. That’s been a huge part of me being able to get out here and get with the program. We feel like we’ve got a shot at mixing it up with the big boys out there tomorrow. We’re trying to feel out where we really stand right now, and looking at the sheets there are a lot of guys going quick right now. We’ve got our fingers crossed and we’re hoping we’ll make the right changes going into tomorrow.”

Buddy Rice

No. 44 Panther Racing Dallara Honda

Top Speed: 226.418 mph

Number of Laps: 17

Overall Rank: 19^th

 

Buddy Rice, No. 44 Panther Racing Dallara Honda:

“Everything has gone good so far. I’m just happy John Barnes and everybody at Panther Racing have given me this opportunity to come back and given me a really good shot at having a good run here. JR and I have worked really well together and I’m just here to be a soundboard for him and to answer any questions that he might have and help speed up the learning process – but he doesn’t need much help. We did a simulated run and I think we’re in the game, we’ve just got to keep rubbing on it. We feel like we’re close and we’ll just see what tomorrow brings. It’s a different day and obviously the conditions will be different than this but we’ve got some speed in both these Panther cars so we’ll see how it plays out.”

- Panther Racing, Press Release