INDIANAPOLIS (Saturday, May 14, 2022) – Takuma Sato and his #51 Nurtec ODT Dale Coyne Racing Honda picked up his best finish of the season on Saturday climbing up to a seventh place in the GMR Grand Prix after falling as far back as 23rd in a wet and wild race.
Started: 13th
Finished: 7th
- With the race starting under wet conditions, Sato was one of the first drivers to switch to the Alternate Firestone tires on the second lap of the race.
- The early pit stop paid off as he then found himself in seventh place once other cars headed to pit lane for dry weather tires.
- From there, Sato made his way up to fourth on a Lap 21 restart.
- He ran in fourth until he entered pit lane on Lap 32 for a fresh set of alternate tires.
- Following his stop, he climbed back up to seventh before going off track to avoid a spinning car on a Lap 42 restart.
- After falling to the back of the field, he managed to make his way back up, all while switching from wet tires to dry tires, to wet tires again.
- With the rain giving him a helping hand, and some on track battles he took the checkered flag in seventh place.
- Today’s result is his sixth top 10 finish on the IMS road course and his best finish this season.
Takuma Sato #51 Nurtec ODT Honda – Dale Coyne Racing with RWR
“That was a wild race. But it was great fun. We went back and forth and moved up as high as fourth, and that was a legitimate fourth. I think Colton (Herta) the two McLarens and myself were leaving the group behind. I think it looked pretty cool at the time but then on a later restart one car spun and to avoid it I went into the wet grass on dry tires and that was the end of the story as I spun. I felt really bad for the boys and basically went to the back of the field. Then, the rain helped me in the end. We unlapped ourselves and we put our head down and got the job done, finishing P7. It was such a dramatic race. The #51 Nurtec crew did a fantastic job to help me get me back up the field and I was able to push really hard battling side by side with very good drivers. There was some good overtaking. It’s a shame we had that moment but other than that it has given us great momentum to carry into the Indy 500.”
dalecoyneracing.com 