Bring On The Boost! Newgarden Leads Third Indy 500 Practice

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — On a day that was finally completely rid of the rain, Josef Newgarden continued to show consistent race pace as he led Day Three of practice for the 109th Indianapolis 500. It’s the third day in a row the two-time winner has been in the Top Five of the speed chart.

The fast laps came in the first 45 minutes of the session at 226.632 mph, after which he was not seen on track for a solid four hours heading into Happy Hour after 5pm.

The day appeared to be a tough one for some of the Honda-powered cars. In particular, Alex Palou, who was fastest on day two, was sixth fastest today, but even with that, a visible vibration was plaguing the 10-car. Palou confirmed after he finished for the day that his crew will be changing the engine overnight ahead of Fast Friday. In fact, multiple Honda-powered teams confirmed they’d be changing engines.

Palou’s teammate, Scott Dixon, was not having any issues as he was second quick on the day. Conor Daly found speed and was the third quickest. Pato O’Ward was fourth fastest.

“I think we’ve gotten better, but I still think there are many cars that are much stronger than us,” O’Ward said. “I’m focused on what we can do to put ourselves into a position to win. We have a pretty good track record here.”

Of some of the Chevy cars that had issues was Santino Ferrucci of AJ Foyt Racing. Ferrucci, who has finished in the top ten in each of the Indianapolis 500’s he has started, tried some new setups during Thursday’s practice, and needless to say, he said they were “awful.”

Ferrucci had his crew go back to a car he has driven before at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It seemed to solve the handling issues, but not the speed issues. He was 33rd quick on the day.

The day was the worst for Christian Rasmussen. The ECR driver would bring about the first spin of practice this year during race running out of turn two. He was able to avoid any major collision.

“I had been getting understeer in turn two all day,” Rasmussen said. “Especially with the wind direction, with what it was. I was surprised to get loose there. It just got loose in the middle of two as I was walking the car up.”

The day also saw a familiar face back in the cockpit of an IndyCar. Arrow McLaren Team Principal, and 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner, Tony Kanaan completed a veteran refresher so he can act as relief driver for Kyle Larson on race day. Larson is attempting “The Double” again and will need to leave by a certain time on race day to get to the NASCAR Coke 600 in Charlotte.

Kanaan completed the refresher with ease.

Balking the Honda struggles was Kyle Kirkwood, who for the last few days has had the fastest non-tow speed of the field. His top speed without an aerodynamic tow for Day Three was 222.372 mph. This is right around what he has been averaging over the course of this week.

However, during Happy Hour, Newgarden reappeared from the garage after converting his car to qualifying trim. He uncorked non-tow laps a hair quicker than Kirkwood. His best lap was 222.555 mph.

Granted, it should be noted these speeds are without the aid of the Fast Friday boost. Once added, the boost should catapult these speeds by at least an extra 10 mph by the time practice starts on Friday. The demonstrations by Newgarden and Kirkwood also showcased how drivers will utilize the hybrid engine in qualifying.

Both Newgarden and Kirkwood enacted different hybrid deployment strategies, which will certainly make for a compelling storyline throughout qualifying. O’Ward has yet to try any kind of qualifying practice.

“We’ve done no qualifying stuff,” O’Ward said. “I’ve never had the speed in qualifying for the front row. I’d love to challenge for the front row, but we usually race really well. I’m not so worried about it, because we don’t really know how it’s going to go tomorrow.”

Fast Friday is poised to be an exciting one as always. It will be the only meaningful day of practice drivers will have for qualifying, which begins on Saturday.