INDIANAPOLIS (Friday, July 29, 2022) – Takuma Sato (#51 Deloitte) and his Dale Coyne Racing with RWR team placed 18th on the starting grid for the Gallagher Grand Prix during qualifying on Friday.
Starting: 18th
Round 1 / Group 1: 9th
Best Lap: 1:10.8276
- The two-time Indy 500 Champion went out in Group 1/Round 2 of qualifying and registered his fastest time on his penultimate lap around the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course.
- His time of 1:10.8276 placed him ninth in his group and 18th on the starting grid.
- He missed out on the second round by just a couple of tenths of a second.
- Sato is making his 13th start on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course this weekend and is one of only six drivers that has competed in all the NTT INDYCAR SERIES IMS road course events.
- In his 12-road course starts at IMS, he has a best finish of seventh (2022), and a best starting position of 11th (twice).
- He also has six top 10 finishes on the IMS road course.
- So far this season, Sato has a best finish of seventh scored at the IMS road course earlier this year during the GMR Grand Prix and he has an overall best starting position of second on the streets of Detroit this year.
Takuma Sato #51 Nurtec ODT Honda – Dale Coyne Racing with RWR
“It was a bit frustrating today. In practice we were off pace so much and we struggled. In qualifying, we adjusted the car and I think we came back halfway. In terms of the competitiveness, we just needed two more tenths to go on to the second segment. We have a warmup tomorrow and that’s a good thing. The car is getting better so hopefully we have a strong race. We do have two new sets of tires for the race and that will be an advantage for us.”
dalecoyneracing.com 