INDIANAPOLIS – Young drivers Rinus VeeKay and Alex Palou were the two fastest drivers in Saturday morning’s warmup session for the GMR Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The session was held without incident as 25 cars took warmup laps for the race that is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. ET. The NBC Sports telecast begins at 2 p.m.
The 20-year-old VeeKay ran a lap at 1:10.5598 around the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course for a speed of 124.439 miles per hour in the No. 21 Sonax Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing. That was a tick better than 24-year-old Alex Palou’s lap at 1:10.5924 (124.382 mph) in the No. 10 NTT DATA Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Defending GMR Grand Prix winner Scott Dixon was third at 1:10.6617 (124.260 mph) in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing. Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden was fourth at 1:10.8277 (123.968 mph) in the No. 2 Snap-On Tools Chevrolet for Team Penske.
Ed Jones rounded out the top five at 1:10.8735 (123.888 mph) in the No. 18 SealMaster Honda for Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser and Sullivan.
Pole winner Romain Grosjean was 20th at 1:11.7465 (122.381 mph) in the No. 51 Honda for Dale Coyne Racing with RWR. Jimmie Johnson was the slowest of the 25 drivers at 1:12.5622 (121.005 mph) in the No. 48 Carvana/American Legion Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing.