Newgarden leads Rasmussen in final Indy 500 practice

Setting ultimate lap speed is never the purpose of the last practice before an Indianapolis 500, but two-time Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden doubtless took heart from topping the speed chart with a 228.342mph effort on his 11th of 55 laps on Carb Day in his No. 2 Team Penske entry.

Most drivers’ quickest laps came early in the session, as they spent the majority of the track time running in packs, fine-tuning their handling in dirty air, trying out the race day pit entry off Turn 4, and giving their crews a chance to practice “hot” pit stops. The importance of that last task can’t be emphasized enough, as the only yellow flag of the session was caused by the 2022 Indy winner Marcus Ericsson being sent out on track with a loose wheel, and having to limp his Andretti Global car back to pitlane.

ECR's Christian Rasmussen was second quick, thanks to his eighth of 49 laps at 227.474mph, comfortably ahead of Penske's David Malukas.

Local hero Conor Daly was fourth for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, ahead of two-time winner Takuma Sato in the fourth Rahal Letterman Lanigan entry and defending winner Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing.

Palou’s teammate Scott Dixon, 2008 Indy winner, turned the most laps – 96 – and was one of the last cars on track, gaining fuel mileage data at various fuel settings. Other drivers who clicked off almost half a race distance included Sato, Romain Grosjean of Dale Coyne Racing, Kyffin Simpson (Ganassi), Will Power (Andretti) and Graham Rahal (RLL).

That will be the last track action for the NTT IndyCar Series drivers until Sunday, although the Pit Stop Challenge will be held starting at 2:30pm this afternoon, weather permitting.

OVERALL RESULTS

NON-TOW RESULTS