INDYCAR: Chaves shows no rust in return

Gabby Chaves showed no rust on his return to the Verizon IndyCar Series on Thursday during practice for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. After inking a two-race deal to drive for Dale Coyne Racing, Chaves stepped into the No. 19 Honda to turn his first laps on a road course since August in Sonoma.

The 22-year-old, who spent his rookie season in a one-car effort with Bryan Herta Autosport, nearly matched new teammate Conor Daly in his first day at DCR. Chaves' lap of 1:10.3062 on the IMS road course was good enough for 16th out of 25 cars in attendance. Daly, who went 0.0125 seconds faster, secured 14th with a 1:10.2937.

"Man, I'm three-tenths off quick time and I'm 16th," Chaves told RACER. "But it's great to be back in a car and things went well today. I think we're one of the two running the old spec Honda engines because of the mileage so we're giving up a little [on the straightaways] but the car feels good."

Finding a groove and working with a new engineer (Kyle Brannan) dominated Chaves' practice time.

"I've been trying to get myself up to rhythm again, I feel confident in myself that I can find the lap time; I just need to do it every lap," he said. "I haven't been in a car for a while so I've really pushed myself to be as good as I can be out there.

"Every session we're finding a little bit more speed. I'm pleased. Obviously we want to be up front and we'll keep working hard. I've missed out on eight months of racing so I want to take in all the information I can, better myself, so I can give the proper feedback to better the car."