Ed Carpenter described his sixth place finish at the Indianapolis 500 as a "failure" after missing out on another opportunity to win his prestigious home race.
Carpenter admitted he is at a loss as to explain why he had a lack of race pace after the final restart, with the race having been suspended due to a multi-car pile-up on lap 178 of 200.
The Indiana-native was in third when the race restarted with 13 laps remaining, however, when the green flag dropped his #20 Preferred Freezer Services-Chevrolet was unable to keep up with the leaders, eventually finishing in sixth.
"We just didn't have the speed that we had had at the end of the day for some reason," Carpenter told IndyCar.com. "I don't know. I don't know. Standing here in pit lane, it's hard for me to tell you why we failed here.
"I'm happy for the month the team had, don't get me wrong, I don't want to sound like a whiny ass, but a sixth is a failure to me."
Ed Carpenter Racing's other drivers Ed Jones and Spencer Pigot also fell back into the field finishing 13th and 14th respectively. This came a week after a superb qualifying performance for the team, securing 2-3-4 on the grid.
"We were up there where we wanted to be most of the day, trying to just play the game," Carpenter added.
"At the end, we just didn't have anything. I got loose for the first time in the day, which was a little weird and it just didn't really seem to be running that quick.
"I thought sitting P3 that last restart was going to be a good opportunity, but on the start, I just couldn't get it rolling. Just didn't have anything, pretty disappointed in myself and for the team."
Jones will resume his duties in the #20 car for the road and street courses; Carpenter's next race will be at Texas Motor Speedway on June 6-8.
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