Thursday was a repeat of Tuesday’s practice session for the Indianapolis 500 as Scott Dixon spent most of the day on the speed map for Chip Ganassi Racing before Dale Coyne Racing drove ahead with Rick Ware Racing’s Takuma Sato to set the best lap of the day. to ride in the closing minutes of the six-hour run.
Taking advantage of a drag as nearly half the field spent the last hour on the track, Sato recorded a 227.519 mph lap in the No. 51 Honda to go P1, but on the no-tow report (NTR ) he stood as P29. While most drivers spent the middle of the session creating qualifying simulations, Sato and the DCR team chose to work on race runs, which explained the great drag speed.
For Dixon and the No. 9 Honda, the day was spent covering both needs as his best lap of 227.335 mph was good enough for P2 and matched nicely by riding P11 on the NTR. DCR with David Malukas of HMD Motorsports was P3 after following Sato’s lead by focusing on racing. His No. 18 Honda set a record 226.868 mph and went P21 on the NTR.
“It was a very productive day,” Sato said. “Two cars in the top three. More importantly, we become happy with the cars in traffic. We have made tremendous progress.”
For the second straight day of Indy 500 practice, the Ganassi team was strong.
“Interesting day,” Dixon said. “A lot of running for everyone. Racing for the majority for us. Pretty happy in some situations. Overall, I think we all had a pretty smooth day at Ganassi.”
AJ Foyt Racing’s JR Hildebrand was P4 at 226,846 mph due to a great drag; his No. 11 AJ Foyt Racing Chevy was P30 on the NTR. Dixon’s Ganassi teammate Jimmie Johnson was P5 in the number 48 Honda with a 226.409mph which was helped by draft as the rookie was P23 on the NTR.
The top six was completed by Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren SP, who ended his day of racing a bit early. His No. 5 Chevy produced a best lap of 226,048 mph with a drag that left him P27 on the NTR.
Of the other teams and drivers, Andretti Autosport has yet to flex its muscles; Marco Andretti was the best of the five-man team in P15, but Alexander Rossi moved up to P4 on the NTR, which showed promise after the 2016 Indy 500 winner completed the second-fewest laps of all drivers on Thursday.
Likewise, Team Penske didn’t make much of an effort to pull big speeds in tow as the fastest driver was Scott McLaughlin in P17, but the team’s focus was obvious as Will Power was P1 on the NTR, followed by Josef Newgarden in P4 and McLaughlin in P4. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Penske drivers ahead of the corner once a high boost has kicked in on Fast Friday and qualifying runs dominate track activity.
The overcast day started out hot, humid and windy, seeing some of the cloud cover and temperatures decrease as time went on. No crashes or dramatic moments were experiences except a warning of another fox running around the track and a few harrowing laps handed in by Romain Grosjean who found his final run – a qualifying simulation – led to some close calls with the corner 2 exit wall.
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