By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
Oriol Servia debuted with the new Scuderia Corsa team in Sunday’s Indianapolis 500… and it nearly ended in Victory Lane.
The No. 64 Verizon IndyCar Series crew was far back in qualifying, starting the 200-lap from the 26th position. However, more speed was expected to show under the green flag. And as handling played a crucial part throughout the day, Servia made positive ground approaching the final stages of the race.
In a race that was tough to pass, 43-year-old Servia and team had to take risks to notch into the leading position.
“We started at the back and had to take risks,” Servia said. “I took risks on track a lot of them were working. I was passing cars forward, and at the end, they had to take a risk on the stand, too.”
Servia was thrown into the race lead with 24 laps to go when the leaders pitted late. The Spaniard eventually led 16 laps as the laps wound down, however, was two laps short on the tank to make it to the end.
“It just tells you that it wasn’t that crazy of a risk,” he said of being two laps short. “These guys know exactly how much fuel there is in the car. But you’re almost like, ‘What if I stay out and somehow, they miscalculated?’ You know, they don’t do mistakes like that. I’m sure I was going to run out of fuel.”
The final caution with 11 laps to go set up one more restart, giving Servia along with Stefan Wilson and Jack Harvey some more time to save fuel. The race was on until the trio were forced to pit in the last four laps.
“We’re here to win,” he said. “They take the risk to come in and at the end, we were two laps short.”
Finishing 17th, the day may not look glamorous when focused solely on the result. Servia and the first-time team put their name in the hat for the year’s biggest race. And to Servia, that was enough to leave happy.
“I’m just really proud of the whole effort,” he said. “When you come as a one-race team, it’s really hard to beat the guys who are full season. Just to give them a run for their money like we did is great.
“We showed we had the speed. We made great passes on restarts and we went from 28th to eighth legitimately on track. I’m very proud of everyone. We showed we really went for it.”