American Racing News Vol 1, Issue 2 Issue 4 | Page 13

Cover Story | American Racing News |
Photo | IndyCar PR

Rossi’s Fuel Saving
Strategy was No Fluke
IndyCar.com – How did Alexander
Rossi prepare for the dramatic fuelsaving run that carried him to victory
in Sunday’s 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade
Motor Oil? By nearly running out the
night before.

I guess I got some practice in my Honda Pilot. Buy one, they're amazing,”
Rossi said today following the traditional winning driver’s photos, complete with the winning car and
Borg-Warner Trophy on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway yard of bricks.

Rossi was headed to the Andretti Autosport team dinner party on the eve
of the historic race. An admitted risk
taker when it comes to pushing passenger vehicles’ fuel tank limits, the
24-year-old Verizon IndyCar Series
rookie said today he was precariously
close to running dry.

“I like to see how far I can go (on a
tank of fuel), but I would never imagine doing that in a race, specifically
the Indy 500, for a win. I tried to turn
off the air conditioning in the race car
(to save fuel),” he joked, “but I
couldn't find the switch.”

But just as in his amazing 36-lap run to
the checkered flag on a single load of
ethanol to win Sunday’s epic race,
Rossi made it to the dinner without
the need of a splash and go.
“I was at zero miles to the gallon and I
needed two miles to get to the exit, so

How Rossi, in just his sixth series race
and second on an oval, gained the
knowledge to save enough fuel in his
No. 98 NAPA Auto Parts/Curb Honda
to travel those final 90 miles Sunday
was a prime topic today. Some of the
wisdom came almost by accident –
literally.

“I was experimenting out there, and it
was actually a little bit of a fluke that I
figured out how to save the most,”
Rossi said. “I had a big moment in Turn
2 and I had to bail out of the throttle
quite a bit behind Scott (Dixon). I
came across the line and I was still
behind Scott quite close, and the fuel
(mileage target) number was above
what I needed.
“I was like, ‘All right.’ Not that I want
to try and end up in the wall in Turn 2
every lap, but I figured out a technique that worked quite well.”
It did. Rossi squeezed enough miles
out of the 18.5-gallon tank to reach
the finish while the other leaders had
to make late stops for a splash. Many
didn’t notice, the native Californian
said, but he had been in fuel conservation mode the entire second half of
the race after a lengthy pit stop due

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