After her Carb Day crash on Friday, Pippa Mann returned to the track in her rebuilt #63 Dale Coyne Racing car on Sunday, and claimed the best finish of her five Indianapolis 500 starts in eighteenth.
The British racer admitted to being more conservative in the early stages of the race as the car was not as well set-up as she would have liked, but gained confidence throughout the race to finish inside the top twenty, just off the lead lap and the leading finisher of the four Dale Coyne Racing drivers.
Mann was happy with her efforts during the race, especially as it was her first race since she raced for team at Pocono last August, but felt it would have been an even better result had she lucked in with a late caution period.
“That was a little bit of a tough race for the first part of the race for us,” said Mann. “After I made the mistake on Friday, I just had to be more careful than I wanted to be in the first part of the race.
“We didn’t quite have the car where we wanted it. We had a minor issue on pit lane that set us back a little bit but the crew was fantastic. They kept coming back, making changes to help me make the car better.
“In the last couple of stints, the car was really good and we were running a really strong pace. It’s such a shame we didn’t get that lucky yellow to give us a good result, but at the same time I have to be really happy with how the crew did and the way all the pit stops went after that first one.
“Coming in cold, not having driven the race car since August, and managing to finish in the top 20 of the Indianapolis 500, that’s not a bad day.”
