Mike Conway earned some valuable points at the weekend in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis thanks to the hard work of his team Ed Carpenter racing.

In the inaugural GP there was chaos at the start with cars stalling on the grid as they attempted standing starts, this caught out Mike as he tried to avoid the chaos in front of him.

When the green flag fell on the 25-car field, Conway launched successfully from the 24^th grid position on the standing start, as he does being a standing start specialist. However, pole sitter Sebastian Saavedra stalled his car at the start line and Conway had to make evasive action immediately. Carlos Munoz’s car made contact with Saavedra, forcing Conway into the inside wall, and thus causing significant right side suspension damage to his Chevy.

Conway was able to return to the ECR pit upon completing the first lap of the 2.4-mile road course under caution. Conway and crew immediately headed back to the garage for extensive repairs on the No. 20 Chevrolet. The team did a well-orchestrated overhaul to get Conway back into action Saturday in the first IndyCar Series road race at the famed track.

After a quick repair, Conway rejoined the race on lap 18, in the 23^rd position. He continued to make the best of the situation, rewarding the efforts of his crew and the misfortunes of his fellow competitors. Through sheer determination Conway was able to move up five positions before intentionally retiring from the race on lap 76.

Giving his thoughts after the race, Conway said: “We had a good start and I started picking my way through some guys. I went to the right and I heard on the radio that (Sebastian) Saavedra had stalled. I stayed inside and I could see that the car was stopped. I went for the spot that was open along the wall.

“(Carlos) Munoz was in front of me and he misjudged the space and clipped Saavedra. That moved Saavedra’s car out just enough that there was not enough for me and it caught me.  That put me into the inside wall and we broke the right side suspension, front and rear.

“The ECR/Fuzzy’s boys did a great job fixing it. And all I could do was go back out and salvage the points. We tried to learn something with couple of setup changes.  Still need to pick up some speed but it was good to get some points and I think we are in sixth now.”