INDIANAPOLIS — It has become an annual Carb Day tradition at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as Scott Dixon was the fastest in the final two-hour practice session for the 108th Indianapolis 500.
Seemingly every year for the past 15 or so years, Dixon has had the fastest speed on Carb Day leading into the Indy 500.
Friday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Dixon was once again the fastest in the final practice before Sunday’s Indy 500.
Dixon’s fastest lap was 227.206 mph in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing. He completed 90 laps in the two-hour session as he seeks to add a second Indianapolis 500 win to his 2008 Indy 500 victory.
Dixon is making his 22nd Indy 500 start from the outside of Row 7 on Sunday.
“It started off pretty good,” Dixon explained. “Conditions were definitely tricky. It changed a lot throughout. I think early on was quite comfortable. We went through some changes. Some were good, some were bad. But definitely a lot of competitive cars out there, so it’s going to be one tough race.
“As the track got a little bit warmer out there with track temp especially, it got pretty greasy and pretty slippery.
“But I think the 9 car has been fairly strong in race running, but unfortunately I think there’s about 20 others that are really strong, as well.”
Dixon had one of his poorer qualification weekends last week when none of the Chip Ganassi Racing entries could find the speed to make the Fast 12 and have a shot at the Fast Six and the pole.
But the CGR cars look impressive for race day.
“Every day is a productive day,” Chip Ganassi Racing managing director Mike Hull said. “Some days are more visible than others.
“The evidence of that is Scott from the first moment of practice going all the way back to the open test, he works on the race. What other people see during the week are other people that run without lifting off the throttle.
“What happens in the race is you have to lift off the throttle because of two things — the turbulence and the traffic. In these cars, they are sensitive to the slightest change in ride height when you get off the throttle.
“That is what Scott works extremely hard on.”
Four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves was second in the No. 06 Honda for Meyer-Shank Racing at 226.939 mph. He ran 103 laps.
“I feel pretty comfortable,” Castroneves said. “Pretty comfortable in the machine, we just have to stay out of trouble.
“This is important because it’s the last practice before the Super Bowl. Everybody tries to show their best today and have a positive vibe for the 500.
“We had no vibrations, no issues and that is what everybody achieved.”
Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren was third at 226.666 mph in the No. 5 Chevrolet. The driver from Monterrey, Mexico completed 78 laps. Colton Herta of Andretti Global was fourth at 226.220 mph in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda. He completed 79 laps.
Tom Blomqvist of Meyer-Shank Racing rounded out the top five at 225.450 mph in the No. 66 Honda. He completed 62 laps.
Graham Rahal of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing completed the most laps in the final practice with 106. He was 17th on the speed chart at 224.353 mph.
The 33-car starting lineup turned 2,721 laps during the two-hour practice. The only yellow flag of the race was when Kyle Larson ran out of fuel on the race course late in the session.
After he was moved off course, the practice was completed without issue.
Scott McLaughlin, who won the Indy 500 Pole last Sunday, was 20th with a best lap at 224.264 mph in the No. 3 Pennzoil Chevrolet.
“It’s very similar to what we started with this week,” McLaughlin said. “We haven’t really played around too much mechanically with the car. It felt good out of the box, and just sort of building my confidence with it. We tried a few different downforce levels there just to get an idea.
“It looks like cooler temps for Sunday as well as Monday if that gets pushed back. Hopefully not. But ultimately, you’re just sort of going through the motions, attacking the pit speed line. I actually sped, which was a good thing to get that out of the way now. A few other things like just pit stop practice and whatnot. I was just ticking things off the list.
“I felt really good, but didn’t put a big number up, but I think we’re OK.”