Teammates Matos, Luyendyk top practice chart

By Dave Lewandowski
indycar.com

KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Raphael Matos has been quick on the Homestead-Miami Speedway oval (pole) and on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla. (pole, race victory). It continued in practice for the Kansas Lottery 100 at Kansas Speedway.

Matos topped the speed chart in the No. 27 AFS Racing/Andretti Green Racing car with a quick lap of 190.432 mph (28.7346 seconds) on the 1.52-mile oval. Qualifications are scheduled for three hours before the 67-lap race April 27.

"It was a good day," Matos said. "We were able to work on qualifying runs and race setup. I think we still need to find more speed for qualifying, but we have certainly made a lot of improvements from the last oval race at Homestead. I'm pretty happy and Arie (Luyendyk Jr.) is right up there with me, so that means we have a consistent car. We'll see what happens."

Luyendyk, driving the No. 26 Andretti Green Racing/AFS Racing, was second-quick (189.543 mph; 28.8695 seconds). Ana Beatriz was third on the chart at 189.387 (28.8932) in the No. 20 Healthy Choice/Sam Schmidt Motorsports car, while James Davison checked in with a quick lap of 189.017 in the No. 11 Lifelock/Sam Schmidt Motorsports car.

"It's been difficult day for us, even though we're at the top of the charts," Luyendyk said. "We still have a lot of work to do on the cars. At Homestead, we found we had big understeer in the cars. We came here fairly aggressive and we're pretty loose out there. It's difficult to drive, but it's fast. Hopefully, we can sort it out and get a good balance for the race."