{"id":16135,"date":"2015-02-28T15:19:03","date_gmt":"2015-02-28T19:19:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=16135"},"modified":"2015-03-02T15:20:50","modified_gmt":"2015-03-02T19:20:50","slug":"payne-qauto-with-the-fastest-man-on-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2015\/02\/payne-qauto-with-the-fastest-man-on-earth","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Q&Auto with the fastest man on earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Carpenter_Focus_wide.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Over the next month, Carpenter will work furiously to prepare two team cars (each car requires a budget of at least $6 million). As a driver he trains daily. In between he promotes IndyCar. Like hosting a pre-screening of the movie “Focus” \u2014starring Will Smith, Margot Robbie, and IndyCars \u2014 in Detroit this week. I sat down with the affable, soft-spoken oval-track master to talk speed, Super Bowls, and Suburbans.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0What’s it like to be the fastest man on earth?<\/p>\n

Carpenter:\u00a0It’s a lot of fun. Speeds like that are what focused me on motorsports, especially Indy. I’ve been the fastest the last two years and now I’d like to get to the track record\u00a0(Ed. note: The track qualifying record is 237 mph set back in 1996 by Arie Luyendyk under different car rules).<\/i><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0What’s constant, 230-plus mph like?<\/p>\n

Carpenter:\u00a0The first lap feels really good at that speed. But we take out a lot of down-force (wing angle) to run at that speed and that’s tough on the tires. We wear through a set in four laps \u2014 by lap four the tires are really sliding around. We’re right on the limit of adhesion. What has gotten us on pole is the ability to run 230 consistently over four laps.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0You’ve joined forces with Sarah Fisher?<\/p>\n

Carpenter:\u00a0We talked about it in the past. We had each been trying to grow (to two car teams), but it’s a challenge \u2014 a lot of money to raise. So now we’re Carpenter Fisher Hartman Racing, operating as a two-car team. I’ll be driving ovals. And Luca Filippi will be driving the street courses.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Your sponsors?<\/p>\n

Carpenter:\u00a0On the No. 20 car it’s Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka who’s been with me full-time for four years. On No. 67 car Hartman Oil is the primary sponsor. Our engines are Chevy. Sarah hired me in 2011 for her team when she retired. Dollar General was sponsoring that car and didn’t want the confusion of Fuzzy’s on their cars because they weren’t selling any alcohol.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0TUDOR and NASCAR do their “Super Bowls” early in the year. You do yours \u2014 the Indianapolis 500 \u2014 over Memorial Day. Is that a good idea?<\/p>\n

Carpenter:\u00a0I like the way we’re set up. A lot of Indy is about tradition. It’s the focal point of our season and it’s been Memorial Day weekend forever.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Detroit comes right after Indy. How important is it?<\/p>\n

Carpenter:\u00a0Detroit is the only doubleheader\u00a0(Saturday and Sunday races)<\/i>\u00a0on the schedule which makes it important. You can make a lot of points. It’s hard coming (after Indy) because there’s one team that’s really happy and everyone else is licking their wounds. So everyone shows up in Detroit a little hung over in one way or another.<\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0Formula 1 costs have gone into the stratosphere after pressure from manufacturers to go to hybrid power plants. Do you feel pressure from manufacturers?<\/p>\n

Carpenter:\u00a0A bit. Chevy left (in 2004) and came back because IndyCar went to a smaller displacement, twin turbo, direct injection fueling. The formula is more in line with what they are building for production cars. They pull engineers from the production side and get them involved in racing to see our approach to problem solving.<\/p>\n

Q:You leave the high speeds at the track. Still driving a Chevy Suburban at home?<\/p>\n

Carpenter:\u00a0Just got my new one a couple weeks ago. I’ve got three kids so I’m always dropping somebody off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the next month, Carpenter will work furiously to prepare two team cars (each car requires a budget of at least $6 million). As a driver he trains daily. In between he promotes IndyCar. Like hosting a pre-screening of the movie “Focus” \u2014starring Will Smith, Margot Robbie, and IndyCars \u2014 in Detroit this week. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16135"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16136,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16135\/revisions\/16136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}