INDIANAPOLIS – Team battles began to emerge during the second day of practice for the 105th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon was the fastest driver of the day around the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval, with a lap at 226.829 mph in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda, but he was followed by two Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolets.
Conor Daly was second in the No. 47 US Air Force Chevrolet at 226.372 mph ahead of owner/driver Ed Carpenter’s No. 20 Sonax Chevrolet at 226.103 mph.
However, Dixon was the leader of the Ganassi team, which put all four of its drivers were in the top eight at the end of the day. Marcus Ericsson was fourth in the No. 8 Huski Chocolate Honda at 226.007 mph, followed closely by teammate and 2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan’s No. 48 American Legion Honda at 225.774 mph.
Alex Palou’s No. 10 NTT DATA Honda was eighth at 225.302 mph, just behind Sebastien Bourdais’ Chevrolet in sixth and Pato O’Ward’s Chevy in seventh.
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With the Ganassi and ECR teams so close together, is that a sign or things to come for Saturday’s pole qualifications or for the race itself?
“Actually, it’s more of an indication of getting a good tow at the right time,” Dixon said, referring to the draft from another race car. “The times don’t mean that much right now, but our cars all have good speed there with four in the top eight. At least being able to get more speed out of the car is important.
“We have a long list of things to work through. We will try to zero in on some stuff, but we have a lot of work today,” Dixon added. “It is nice to have speed. I would rather knock out quick times with ease than down at the bottom, scrapping the barrel. Our cars in the past have had decent speed in race running configuration, but you need to stay close and not have any upsets back in the pack.
“It’s all about staying close.”
Carpenter is another driver who isn’t reading too much into Wednesday’s speed list.
“[The] speed chart doesn’t represent your time; it’s a matter of getting a bunch of cars in front of you with the right gap and putting up a time,” Carpenter explained. “The majority of the running we are doing is working in traffic. It’s nice for the team, but more importantly, we are all feeling pretty good and making some time with the cars.
“Soon, we’ll find out what we have for speed, too.”
Daly briefly had the fastest speed of the session before Dixon topped his fast time in the final hour of practice.
“We had a good pace, and worked through a lot of things we wanted to today,” Daly said after practice. “I think our pace is really good. Dixon got us there at the end. I had to lift on our best lap, but either way this US Air Force car is awesome.
“If you are fast every day, that means the car is fast. We are going to keep doing that. We have some things to work through. If it’s not broke; don’t fix it,” he continued. “We still haven’t let the horses run. That will happen on Fast Friday.”
Extra boost will be added to the engines beginning on Friday through both rounds of qualifications, which could increase speeds by as much as five mph. Most teams won’t begin to trim out for qualification sim runs until Friday. Most of the running in the early part of the week is in race setup for the Indy 500.
While those drivers topped the overall speed chart, the more telling sign of true speed in a car comes from the “No-Tow Speed” list. That is measured when a car is not aided by the “tow” from another car.
Alexander Rossi of Andretti Autosport topped that list with a lap at 221.114 mph in the No. 28 NAPA Honda. Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud, the 2019 Indy 500 winner, was second at 221.037 mph in the No. 22 Menards Chevrolet, followed by Max Chilton’s Chevrolet at 220.799 mph.
Two-time Indy 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya was next at 218.525 mph in the No. 86 Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren SP. Ericsson was fifth in no-tow speed at 218.459 mph in the No. 8 Honda, while Felix Rosenqvist’s No. 7 Chevrolet clocked in at 218.348 mph and Ganassi’s Palou followed that at 218.332 mph in the No. 10 Honda.
Practice continues Thursday from 12 noon to 6 p.m. Eastern Time.