Palou takes the top spot on opening day of Indy 500 practice

Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong looked like he was going to close the opening day of practice for the 110th Indianapolis 500 as the fastest driver with his lap of 225.895mph, set early in the six-hour session with the No. 66 Honda.

But defending race winner Alex Palou had a different idea as 6pm ET approached, and shot the No. 10 Honda to the top of the field of 33 –after being mired down in the 20s – with a lap of 225.937mph. Thanks to the technical alliance between Ganassi and MSR, it was akin to a 1-2 for the expanded team; 2008 Indy 500 winner Scott Dixon wasn’t far away in fifth with the No. 9 Honda (225.087mph) to give the Ganassi and Ganassi-affiliated entries a proper showing inside the top five.

Between them in third it was Conor Daly, impressive as always, in the No. 24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevy (225.838mph), and in fourth was 2023 and 2024 Indy winner Josef Newgarden for Team Penske in the No. 2 Chevy (225.121mph).

Graham Rahal was encouraged in sixth (224.769mph) as the fastest among the four-car Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing squad with the No. 15 Honda.

Palou’s performance was the lone surprise of the day, and came after the Spaniard reported feeling something he didn’t like in his brand-new Speedway car that sent the No. 10 Honda back to the garage for an in-depth inspection by the team.

The answer wasn’t what any driver would want to hear – the team couldn’t find anything that was wrong mechanically or aerodynamically – and Palou placed his faith in their assessment. Once a few setup changes were made to match the hotter afternoon conditions, the championship leader returned to the track at the end of the session and put up the big speed of the day.

“The car is good,” Palou said. “We had a couple of issues, but we fixed them. It wasn’t a mechanical issue or anything, it was just balance, not being super-happy with it. We found something that explained what I was feeling, and it was good to go back out today before we go to sleep so we can be a bit happier. The No. 10 DHL Honda feels good now.

“It’s just a shame the session is already over. You always want to do a lot more. We didn’t do many laps today. But still, we learned a lot of stuff. This is a different car than we had at the Open Test. It was very important just to see how it felt, if I was confident or not. But yeah, feeling much better than this morning.”

Like all of the best laps, Palou’s was turned in a tow. Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood held onto first on the no-tow list in the No. 27 Honda (222.062mph) and the rest of the no-tow top three were unchanged with teammate Will Power in the No. 26 Honda (221.455mph) and DRR’s Jack Harvey (220.853mph) in the No. 23 Chevy.

ECR’s Ed Carpenter, who lost the first three hours of the session due to an engine failure, recovered to complete 56 laps and land 16th on the speed chart (223.297mph) in the No. 33 Chevy.

UP NEXT: Practice Day 2, 12-6pm ET Wednesday.

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