Pigot Overcomes Adventurous Day for Top 10 at INDYCAR GP

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer

SPEEDWAY, Indiana- Spencer Pigot had a mountain to climb after qualifying 16th for Saturday’s INDYCAR Grand Prix of Indianapolis at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.

Unloading his No. 20 Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka Chevrolet off the trailer in fifth place during the first practice session, Pigot struggled in qualifying, unable to make it out of his group in the first round.

“It seemed yesterday that we kind of struggled when the track was getting hotter, today we didn’t,” Pigot said. “I think we made some good changes overnight [and] after the warmup and the car was really good in the race, especially,” Pigot added.

Pigot made it up to sixth place before his first pit stop before the car misfired and stalled. However, he made up spots wherever he could and was able to get into the top 10 by race’s end.

“We could’ve ended up right around there (top five) as well, but yeah, something weird happened on that first launch out of the stops but at least we’re finishing P9 knowing we could’ve finished in the top five, not finishing a lucky ninth [by] getting a big break or a lucky yellow. I can’t say that we’re totally 100% satisfied but some stuff will definitely go our way later on this year and we’ll definitely be right up there,” Pigot said.

Pigot’s setup from Ed Carpenter Racing made the biggest difference in what made his car so good.

“I think a lot depended on tires but we seemed to be really good in this final half of the track. The car’s working well from Turn 7 all the way through Turn 13 so I was able to kind of get really close and then use overtake and get runs and could brake pretty deep compared to some guys into Turn 1,” Pigot said.

“This track always kind of I think produces good racing and lots of passing zones, but the car was really good, have to thank the Fuzzy’s guys and have good stops, just have to see what happened with the stall.”

“I think our tire degradation was one of the best out there, it seemed like later on in the stint we could definitely catch a lot of guys so that’s encouraging, but like I said before, finishing ninth, we all know that we could be better and we’ll be trying to show that next time out.”