By David Morgan, Associate Editor
INDIANAPOLIS – Five days removed from winning the pole for the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500, rookie Robert Shwartzman is still amazed by the enormity of it all.
Pacing the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway at a four-lap average of 232.790 mph, the driver of the No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet became the first rookie since 1983 to score the pole position and he’s been soaking it all in since then.
“Very busy,” said of his schedule over the past week. “Yeah, it’s good to be that busy, let’s say I’m very happy. Actually, I’m extremely happy. It’s still quite an unbelievable thing that happened on Sunday.”
“It obviously feels amazing,” he continued. “I’ve never felt such a great qualifying in my entire career. I come from Europe. Normally qualifying, it’s important, but it’s never something that stands out so much. The next day you go race. Here it seems like it’s a different event. The whole race separates in two phases. There is one that is qualifying, another one is the race.
“It’s unique. It’s the only where I’ve seen that so far. It’s just awesome. Honestly the whole vibe and fans that come here to watch qualifying, support drivers, support us, it’s just awesome, honestly.”
Having now proven that he and the team are capable of bringing speed, they’ll now turn their focus to dialing in their car for Sunday’s race, which begins with final practice during Carb Day on Friday.
“We’re all trying to now focus on the race and try to get our best from the car to have the most comfortable environment starting the race,” said Shwartzman.
“It’s 200 laps. Probably the conditions are going to be changing a bit. From what I’ve seen, I’ve never raced on the oval, but you can get a bit of traffic. We’ll try to find a good way for having a good car for all of these conditions…
“We’ll see how we’re going to go on Sunday. We’ll have two guys quite experienced, one guy that won twice, one guy that really wants to win. Big hunger. Twice super close to winning it. For sure it’s going to be a big challenge for me, but at the same time I want to learn, I want to experience, I want things going smooth.
“I try to be calm throughout all the race. From what we’ve seen, the race is decided on the last lap. Just hopefully be there at the top battling with the guys for the win.
“Big responsibility. You see 350,000 people, it’s quite impressive. We come here to race and win and do our best. Whenever there is a green flag, it’s just full focus on the front.”
The rookie added that since his pole win, he has received advice from all over the paddock about handling his first oval race and first Indy 500, especially starting from the front row.
Something that has been a happy surprise for the driver having come from the European feeder series where that did not happen.
“There was a lot of drivers that give their support. It’s another thing that is quite impressive here,” said Shwartzman.
“When I was in Europe, it seemed that all of the drivers were just against each other. There was nobody talking, nobody helping. There was so much tension between drivers. I understand why. When you’re going to Formula 3, Formula 2, you want to stand out to get the chance in Formula 1. You need to show yourself as something special. Therefore, the mentality of drivers were different.
“Here it seems that everybody is way more supportive. It’s may more enjoyable. It’s a competition, but at the same time it’s way more respectful, let’s say. I really like it.”
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