{"id":9485,"date":"2017-05-26T21:34:08","date_gmt":"2017-05-27T02:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=9485"},"modified":"2017-05-26T21:55:15","modified_gmt":"2017-05-27T02:55:15","slug":"winning-the-indy-500-would-be-a-dream-come-true-for-ed-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2017\/05\/26\/winning-the-indy-500-would-be-a-dream-come-true-for-ed-jones\/","title":{"rendered":"Winning the Indy 500 would be a dream come true for Ed Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Josh Farmer<\/em><\/p>\n

INDIANAPOLIS – Ed Jones<\/strong> has quietly shown pace throughout this Month of May.<\/p>\n

The driver of the No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda qualified 11th last Sunday but had the ninth quickest four-lap average 230.578 mph. He also logged the second fastest lap of the month on Sunday at 38.6253 seconds. The lap was just .0179 of a second off teammate Sebastien Bourdais\u2019 time set on Fast Friday.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ed Jones leads a group through Turn 1 during the final practice for the 101st Indianapolis 500. Photo by Forrest Mellott<\/p><\/div>\n

With only having just a few weeks to master the 2.5 mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway<\/a> in an IndyCar, the Verizon IndyCar Series<\/a> rookie feels content with how the month has gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeen working on the car and trying to understand everything that goes on just to know how to improve and go about it that way,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like that we have been good in every circumstance, race trim as well. Being good in all of these scenarios makes it very important because race day it changes so much and you have to be available to adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones, who won the 2016 Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires championship, has softly eased his way into some good finishes so far this season. Sixth place at Long Beach stands as his best finish.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ed Jones – Dale Coyne Racing — Photo by: Chris Owens<\/p><\/div>\n

Dale Coyne Racing teammate Sebastien Bourdais also has started strong by winning the season-opener at St. Pete. He was on pace for a championship run until he was injured in a crash last week during qualifying.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have really progressed compared to the last few seasons,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it is just a combination of the new drivers, the engineering team and the investment team that Dale has put in. It\u2019s all those things working together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old has adapted well to racing on ovals since he came to America in 2015. In six oval starts, he has finished second three times. He came up .0024 of a second short to Dean Stoneman in last year\u2019s Freedom 100, which stands as the closest finish in Indianapolis Motor Speedway history.<\/p>\n

Coming from a road racing background in his native Europe, Jones noted that his even-keeled driving style has served him well as he literally goes in circles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat really helps in just rolling speed and feeling the car better,\u201d he said. \u201cThat also helps on the ovals so I can feel what I need from the car. It helps the tires last a little bit longer as well. The main thing is I have great advice all the way along and that helps move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Teammates Ed Jones and Pippa Mann cross the yard of bricks during the final practice for the 101st Indianapolis 500. Photo by Chris Jones<\/p><\/div>\n

Jones also attributes much of his success to having a great teammate in four-time Indy car champion Sebastien Bourdais.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a massive help,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery race this season, everywhere we\u2019ve gone it\u2019s been such a huge help and I owe a lot of my success to the advice that he has given me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bourdais\u2019 attempt at an Indianapolis 500 pole ended last Saturday when he crashed hard in Turn 2. The Frenchman suffered multiple pelvic fractures and a fractured femur. Despite the magnitude of his teammate\u2019s accident, Jones has managed to let it roll off his shoulders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a part of racing,\u201d he said. \u201cI went out the next morning and my second lap was my quickest run all month. You can\u2019t let it phase you.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he is a 50\/1 long shot to win the 500, Jones feels optimistic about his chances on Sunday. Last year\u2019s Indy 500 rookie winner Alexander Rossi started from the same position.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be a dream come true,\u201d he said. \u201cIt would help me out in the long run. We\u2019ve seen how it furthered Rossi\u2019s career. We\u2019ll be doing everything we can on Sunday to make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Josh Farmer INDIANAPOLIS – Ed Jones has quietly shown pace throughout this Month of May. The driver of the No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda qualified 11th last Sunday but had the ninth quickest four-lap average 230.578 mph. He also logged the second fastest lap of the month on Sunday at 38.6253 seconds. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":675,"featured_media":9490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[434,230,421,125,22,83],"class_list":["post-9485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indycar","tag-ed-jones","tag-indianapolis-500","tag-indianapolis-motor-speedway","tag-indy-500","tag-indycar","tag-verizon-indycar-series"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/FM50978.jpg?fit=4592%2C3061&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-2sZ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/675"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9485"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9494,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9485\/revisions\/9494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}