INDIANAPOLIS — If there was one common trend in the first day of the Indianapolis 500 Open Test, it’s that experience matters.
The top five drivers on the speed chart Tuesday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway each have made at least 10 starts in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” as 12-time 500 starter Conor Daly led with a best lap of 225.394 mph in the No. 23 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet.
“There are several cars that aren’t running their race cars yet,” Daly said. “It’s just testing; we can’t overreact to test results. But honestly, every time we went out there, we did seem to be pretty quick, which is good. Our mission this month (May) is one day at a time.”
The most experienced driver in the field, four-time 500 winner Helio Castroneves, was second at 225.200 in the No. 06 Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Honda.
Castroneves is making his 26th Indy 500 start this season as he tries to become the first driver to win the race five times.
Another driver with vast experience, two-time Indy winner Takuma Sato, was third at 224.800 in the No. 75 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda. Sato has made 16 starts.
Daly, Castroneves and Sato each turned their best laps on the fabled 2.5-mile oval in the last 15 minutes of on-track action. Many cars circulated in large packs during “Happy Hour,” creating large aerodynamic “tows” that pulled the cars running toward the back of the line.
“Honestly, we changed pretty much everything but the color of the car for that last run, so we were not dialed in or optimized at all,” Daly said. “But this car is fast, so it’s easier to do those kinds of speeds when the car allows you to do it. It was a fun race car, but we were not in maximum race trim yet. Hopefully we’ll dial that in tomorrow and get a little more zesty with everyone out there.”
Six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon, who has made 23 500 starts and won in 2008, was fourth at 224.564 in the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Alexander Rossi, who won the 2016 Indianapolis 500 as a rookie, rounded out the top five at 224.367 in the No. 20 ECR Chevrolet.
Nearly every driver’s fastest lap was aided by the “tow” from a leading car breaking a hole in the air. Leader Daly’s teammate, veteran Jack Harvey, was the fastest driver without any aerodynamic help, turning a top non-tow lap of 220.318 in the No. 24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet in a marquee day for the team that fields cars only in the Indianapolis 500.
Four Indianapolis 500 rookies and four veteran drivers completed the Rookie Orientation Program and veteran refresher tests, respectively. The rookies: Jacob Abel, Caio Collet, Dennis Hauger and Mick Schumacher. The veterans: Ed Carpenter, Helio Castroneves, Jack Harvey and Ryan Hunter-Reay.
“I think it’s obviously the best thing I’ve done in my life,” said Collet, driver of the No. 4 A.J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet. “The first time you’re actually here, you see guys flying by and think, ‘Oh, can I really do that?’ Once you get in the car, the team does a good job prepping you to be here and to do the laps. We got it all done, got up to speed quite quickly.”
Thirty-two of the 33 cars at the track combined to turn 2,262 incident-free laps – 5,655 miles, the approximate driving distance from Los Angeles to New York and back – on Tuesday. The eight-hour session was divided into six hours of track time for veterans and two hours for Rookie Orientation and veteran refresher tests.
Katherine Legge, who was named to drive an HMD Motorsports with AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet on Monday, was the only driver not on track.
Track activity during the two-day test continues from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. ET Wednesday. The track is open to all cars from 10 a.m.-noon and 1-5 p.m., with noon-1 p.m. reserved for Legge’s refresher test.
