SPEEDWAY (May 19, 2022) – After sitting out Wednesday practice runs due to rainstorms, the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing driving pair of Santino Ferrucci and Sage Karam returned to the famed 2.5-mile oval and worked through a variety of car settings in Thursday’s six-hour practice for the May 29 Indy 500.
With more breezy and humid conditions on Thursday, Ferrucci and Karam used the afternoon practice to concentrate on several qualifying and race setups and worked closely with their respective lead engineers, Charlie Ping and Jeff Britton, as the team prepares for the ‘Fast Friday” practice.
Ferrucci, driving the No. 23 DRR Screamin’ Sicilian Pizza/Barrett-Jackson Chevrolet completed 57 laps Thursday with a best speed of 223.918 miles per hour, while Karam, in the No. 24 AES Indiana/500 Festival Chevrolet, clocked in 31 laps with a top speed of 223.556 m.p.h.
“It was a little bit of any up and down day for us,” said Ferrucci, whose team announced an additional partner Thursday with the famed Barrett-Jackson organization joining the No. 23 car. “We got some qualifying running early in the session and we have an idea for the direction for the car. The race car setup felt pretty good, and we are happy there. We’ll see what happens on ‘Fast Friday’ and it’s supposed to be windy. So, we’ll see how things go throughout the day.”
“Day 3 in the books at IMS and we did mostly qualifying stuff throughout the day,” said Karam, who won the “Hard Charger Award” in the 2021 Indy 500 by passing 24 cars for a seventh-place finish. “We worked through many different trim levels, and I think we were decent on the ‘no-tow’ speeds. The car felt pretty good. Santino also worked more on the race trim settings, and I worked on more qualifying trim. We plan to do a little more setups early Friday, but the forecast is pretty gusty with the winds. We’ll have to wait and see what the weather brings.”
The DRR drivers are scheduled to get on track at 12 p.m. Friday, May 20, for the popular “Fast Friday” practice session as speeds move towards qualifying readings. Qualifying for the Indy 500 is set for this Saturday, May 21, and Sunday, May 22. The 106th 200-lap “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” will begin at 12:45 p.m. on Sunday, May 29.
About Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing was founded in 1999 by Indianapolis car dealer Dennis Reinbold. The legacy of the Dreyer and Reinbold family dates back to the 1920s with Reinbold’s grandfather, the legendary Floyd “Pop” Dreyer, a former factory motorcycle racer. Dreyer served as a crewman and mechanic on the famed Duesenberg driven by Benny Shoaff and Babe Stapp in the 1927 Indy 500. Dreyer went on to build Indy 500 cars in the 1930s which many started on the front row. In addition, Dreyer constructed championship-winning sprint cars and midgets as well as quarter midgets called Dreyerettes. Dreyer & Reinbold Racing captured its first win in 2000 with driver Robbie Buhl at Walt Disney World Speedway in Orlando, Fla., and has fielded a variety of drivers including Buhl, Buddy Lazier, Sarah Fisher, Buddy Rice, Al Unser Jr., Sage Karam and J.R. Hildebrand. Dreyer & Reinbold Racing has successfully qualified all 43drivers for the Indy 500 in its history. DRR, who competed in the Rallycross for the first time in 2015, captured the 2016 Lites rallycross championship
