INDIANAPOLIS – Tony Kanaan showed there is plenty of speed left in the 46-year-old racer as the 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner was the fastest driver in Thursday’s six-hour practice session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The 2004 NTT IndyCar Series champion finished the day on top of the scoring pylon with a fast lap at 225.341 mph in the No. 48 American Legion Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
However, it was an incident at the start of practice that had the biggest impact. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing decided to have all three of its cars cross the start/finish line three-abreast for a photo op. According to IndyCar, the team never asked permission to do the slower than normal formation lap or notify any other teams what it was doing.
RESULTS: Thursday Indianapolis 500 Practice
That stacked up several cars behind them, who had to hit the brakes leading to a speed discrepancy when young Colton Herta came zooming out of turn four at 220 mph. He came upon Team Penske rookie driver Scott McLaughlin, who was running nearly 100 mph slower, and had to turn to the right to avoid running into the back of McLaughlin’s Chevrolet.
Herta’s Honda hit the turn four wall and incurred slight damage, but it could have been a serious crash.
After practice, IndyCar President Jay Frye notified IndyCar vice president of communications Dave Furst that all three Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing cars would be penalized with the loss of the first 30 minutes of Fast Friday practice. Graham Rahal, two-time and defending Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato and Santino Ferrucci, who was involved in a serious crash at 4:14 p.m. on Thursday, cannot take to the track until 30 minutes of practice have been run.
Ferrucci suffered a banged-up leg and was sent to IU Health Methodist Hospital after he backed his Honda into the turn two wall. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing is attempting to repair the car in time for Ferrucci to return to action, either Friday or on Saturday. He has since been evaluated and released.
“It’s appropriate,” Herta said of the penalty to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. “I understand what they were trying to do. It probably just wasn’t the right place or time to do it. Hopefully we learn from this. I’m ready to focus forward on tomorrow and just kind of leave this in today.”
Herta said he was not aware of the photo op until later in the day.
“I saw Scott (McLaughlin) and Simona (De Silvestro) come out in front of me,” Herta recalled. “At first, I thought they were doing pit stop practice, but they came around for a lap. I thought they were on a run. They were quite a bit ahead of me. Seemed like they were up to speed. Then lost sight of them going through three, they were exiting four.
“As I was exiting four, they were probably going like 150, 160. The three up front were probably going 90 to 100 miles an hour.
“Hopefully some good can come out of this. Hopefully we can allot some times in the beginning of sessions or later in the day if teams would like to do this sort of thing. Glad that my car is okay. Obviously, it’s my Speedway car, so it’s all done up for the Speedway. It’s the fastest one I have. I’m glad that it didn’t damage anything. Actually, really surprised that it didn’t damage anything.”
After the incident, Herta immediately spoke with McLaughlin, but was never upset at the Team Penske rookie.. He also went to the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing garage to discuss his displeasure with the team’s three drivers over the incident.
“I was never upset with Scott McLaughlin,” Herta explained. “It was nice he came down and apologized. I knew at that point what the reason was for everybody slowing down when he came down there.
“I was angry (when he went to RLL’s garage). I thought it was irresponsible that they were doing something like that going that slow. I was frustrated. I always feel like when you’re mad at somebody, it doesn’t really do much good if you just, like, yell at them. I try not to. Sometimes I do.
“But I try not to because they don’t want to hear what you have to say. Try to come out as calm as I can at the time.”
Herta finished Thursday’s practice with the 10th fastest speed of the day at 223.944 mph.
Conor Daly was second fastest in the No. 47 U.S. Air Force Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing at 225.245 mph. Ferrucci’s speed of 224.922 mph, set shortly before his crash, was good enough for third place. Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden was fourth at 224.885 mph and 2008 Indianapolis 500 winner and six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon’s No. 9 Honda rounded out the top five at 224.666 mph.
Jack Harvey had the fastest no tow speed at 222.091 mph in the No. 60 Honda and 2019 Indianapolis 500 winner Simon Pagenaud was second at 221.659 mph in the No. 22 Chevrolet. Alexander Rossi, the 100th Indianapolis 500 winner, was next at 221.607 mph. Kanaan followed at 217.596 mph.
Each car gets extra boost on Fast Friday, which should increase speeds by 10 mph. The extra boost is available through Saturday and Sunday’s qualifications before boost levels are lowered before Carb Day next Friday.
“When you get that extra boost, you can really feel it in the car, how much faster you are going,” Herta explained. “You also really feel it going into Turn 1 for the first time faster than you have all month.
“An extra 10 miles an hour is really going to be fast.”