But Briscoe shares one quality with the large number of drivers who are taking to the track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first time this year — he is starving for practice laps.
“It’s all about track time here,” Briscoe said Thursday afternoon.
Finally, after several days of rain that ranged from intermittent to constant, cars and drivers were finally getting that track time.
Rain, which kept practice laps to a minimum this week, didn’t close the track Thursday until just minutes before the scheduled end of the day.
That allowed teams and drivers almost six solid hours of track time and allowed Briscoe, of Team Penske, to post a day’s-best speed of 223.708 mph.
Veteran teams and drivers greeted the dry track with hugs.
“Today was a productive day for the Motorola team,” Andretti Green Racing’s Danica Patrick said. “We had some ups and downs but this is what we needed.”
Rookie teams and drivers, most of which are coming over from the now defunct and road-race-oriented Champ Car series, greeted the dry track with kisses. It is those teams, none of which were able to secure qualifying spots in the field last weekend, that need track time the most.
Fastest on the day among the newcomers was Will Power of KV Racing Technology. He had the sixth-best lap at 222.657.
“It was nice to get some dry track time today,” Power said. “We were able to get through a few test items, did one qualifying run and a couple of long runs which were interesting. But all in all, we are still at a similar pace as before. We are making slow progress.”
Veterans of the speedway praised Power on Friday.
“Power, he’s got good car control, definitely thinks about things a little more than maybe some of the others,” pole-sitter Scott Dixon said.
Second fastest among the new guys Thursday was EJ Viso. He was 12th fastest, and he too drew some comments from veterans.
“Dude, he looks nuts,” said Dan Wheldon, who qualified second fastest last Saturday. “You can tell he hasn’t hit the wall yet.”
Keith Wiggins, owner of Viso’s HVM Racing team, said it will be track time between now and the race that will keep his driver off the wall.
“The goal is of course to run as much as possible the entire month, especially with a team and driver new to the circuit,” Wiggins said. “That sounds like a good plan, but the weather hasn’t allowed us to do that. It’s challenging to get everyone up to speed with so few days running, nevertheless it’s the same for all the rookies.”
The forecast for today at Indy is for partly cloudy skies and temperatures of around 70 degrees. That should be good for Viso and good for the walls.
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