The 29-year-old Briton will be one of three participants on Wednesday, alongside Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Armstrong and Linus Lundqvist, with 2021 NASCAR Cup champion, Kyle Larson, getting his first taste of IndyCar machinery with Arrow McLaren on Thursday.
The programme consists of three controlled speed phases at the 2.5-mile superspeedway that are required ahead of competing in the 108th Indy 500 on May 26, 2024.
“We only get three sets of tyres for the whole day and right away, we've got to run through the stages of ROP,” Meyer Shank Racing co-owner, Mike Shank, told Autosport.
“I want to see swift but sure progress through those stages. And then when he gets to run with his second and third sets of tyres, I want to see him work toward being able to be flat around the place; comfortably, not panicked.
"He was very good there on the sim, he got right to it immediately. But there's going to be [three] cars out there that are likely to see each other probably at different times on the track. So, that's going to be new.
“Certainly, I just need him to get comfortable, which is good that we have to go through these speed steps. I'm happy with that, but I just want to see sure swiftness through the steps. I don't want to see him not sure. That's why we simmed him and he understands what we need to do.”
The progress Blomqvist has made after three starts in 2023 is exactly where Shank expected. Last month’s season finale at Laguna Seca, in particular, showed promising signs, working through a race of mayhem to run as high as sixth just past the midway point until inexperience came into play followed by an incident that left him retiring after 61 of 95 laps.
Source: Autosport