Papis is married to Tatiana Fittipaldi, whose father, Emerson, won two 500-Mile Races and a pair of Formula One World Championships.
“Personally, he is one of my best friends,” Papis said. “When I knew I was going to drive in Indy, I called him. He told me, ‘Work on the car, you know, work on every corner, think about the race … all those things that are important to know.’
“It’s just so cool to know that you can share these things with someone who is a racing legend. We share a lot of things of racing and non-racing. He’s amazing, and it is a great opportunity for me to listen to the advice of someone who won here, won in Europe. He’s a legend. And plus he cares a lot about me.”
Papis, a 36-year-old native of Como, Italy, and Tatiana will present “Emmo” with a grandson (Marco) in July.
Papis qualified with a four-lap average of 222.058mph (2 minutes, 42.1198 seconds) – just ahead of teammate and team owner Eddie Cheever Jr. (222.028; 2:42.1420).
"It was disrespectful of him to beat me by three-tenths of a second," said Cheever, who had a big bobble on his warmup lap (216.335 mph) that cut into his first green-flag lap (220.916).
"I saw (Eddie) and the first thing I asked him is if I still had a job," Papis said.