Honda’s focus on Indianapolis 500 paying off

Unlike last year, Honda has a fighting chance on Sunday

With cars running up front all month in preparations for the 100th Indianapolis 500 and eight of the top 12 starters in Sunday's race, Honda officials are feeling confident. Art St. Cyr, president of Honda Performance Development, said today it has been a yearlong process involving engine development and improving its superspeedway aero kit under off-season rules that permitted changes in up to three "volume boxes."

"We really worked hard, for 12 months really, on this particular race," St. Cyr said. "We used two of our three allocated boxes for an aerodynamic standpoint on the race. We have a pretty major upgrade in our engine specification for this race.

"As you have seen, it's been fairly competitive at this point. Our whole goal is to get all of our teams with a package that is capable of winning this race. All that you can hope for as a manufacturer is to have all of your teams really having a good package for this race."

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports' James Hinchcliffe is the first Honda driver to win the Indy 500 pole since Chevrolet re-entered Verizon IndyCar Series competition in 2012. The manufacturers have split the past four Indy 500 race wins, so the competition is intense.

"Part of Honda's existence is to win at racing," St. Cyr said. "It's always our goal. It's always our challenge. Whether we are behind, or whether we are ahead, we really work forward to try to win these races. Obviously, this is a big race for us, so we'd be very happy (to win.)"