INDIANAPOLIS – An Indianapolis 500 Carb Day tradition continued Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as Scott Dixon was one of the fastest drivers of the session.
However, it was an Indianapolis 500 rookie that may have created a new tradition as Pato O’Ward was the fastest driver of the 33-driver starting field in Friday’s final two-hour practice session.
O’Ward’s fast lap was 225.355 mph in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet. That was .1262 seconds faster than Dixon’s fast lap of 224.646 mph.
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“Today, we made a really good step and I’m really happy where we ended,” O’Ward said on his golf cart in front of Gasoline Alley. “It gives you a bit of a boost going into Race Day, but it’s such a long race. We are starting on row five. We need to have a clean race, no errors. Make sure I do everything perfect on my side and the team does everything perfect on their side.
“It’s a race that is going where it’s won either in the pits or whoever has the best car in traffic. The team has given me a fantastic car so far.”
O’Ward said the car was easier to drive on Friday because the track was a bit cooler with lower humidity. Temperatures are expected to increase for Sunday’s 104th Indianapolis 500.
“It’s going to be interesting to see what temps the track gets up to on Race Day,” the Indy 500 rookie said. “It’s going to be quite a bit hotter than this.
“We’re in for a treat, for sure.”
For the past decade or so, Dixon has been either the fastest or second-fastest driver in the Carb Day practice session.
No fans, no pit stop contest, no Carb Day concert, but one tradition continues with Dixon as a speed demon.
“The car was pretty comfortable,” Dixon said. “Some of those laps you can get lucky and roll into. We threw out four or five 224s (laps at 224 mph). The car was pulling up pretty well.
“Some situations are better than others and you get a little bit lucky. Pato threw up a 225 (mph). That’s a pretty stout lap.”
Alexander Rossi, winner of the 100th Indianapolis 500 in 2016, was third at 224.599 mph. Takuma Sato, the 2017 Indianapolis 500 winner, was fourth at 224.580 mph.
Arrow McLaren SP rookie Oliver Askew was fifth at 224.128 mph. Andretti’s Zach Veach was sixth at 223.957 mph and Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden was seventh at 223.764 mph as he recovers from an eye infection.
“I had some mysterious eye infection that hit me on Wednesday night. Kind of scared me pretty good. But I got it all sorted out. Got some antibiotic drops. I’m good now,” Newgarden said.
Newgarden starts Sunday’s race 13th, the inside of row five.
“I wanted to almost go back to the garage after 30 minutes and just leave the car the way it was,” Newgarden said. “It felt really good. Carb Day is one of those days where if your car feels good, you almost don’t want to use it up. If it doesn’t feel good, you’re going to use the whole session before Sunday.
“I feel confident. You can’t go in with too much confidence. You have to be cautious. Trying to make sure we have every detail in place, have a good game plan. Make sure we look at the small things that could catch us out.
“I feel good,” Newgarden continued. “I feel cautiously optimistic we have a car to fight with. I really think we have a shot to be up there and challenge the frontrunners.
“This race can take many turns across 500 miles. You never know where you are going to end up at the end. I think if we put ourselves in position, we should be able to fight. I feel confident. Our Shell car is fast, and I think we are going to be there.”
There were 2,507 laps completed in the two-hour session. Ben Hanley was the slowest at 217.984 mph in the No. 81 Chevrolet.
“I think it’s just been really important to try and get the best car under us for Race Day,” said O’Ward. “I think traffic running is going to be key. It’s going to be my first 500. From just feeling out practice and everything, it’s so important to have a car that’s able to follow closely and be able to get runs on people, ultimately move forward instead of moving backwards.
“I think today was a good step forward. Yeah, we’re just going to have to kind of go with our gut and hope this works like it did today in a race day on Sunday.”
The next time cars will be at speed on the track is when the green flag waves to begin the 104th Indianapolis 500 Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The NBC telecast begins at 1 p.m. ET.