INDIANAPOLIS — High-heat and very windy conditions created a difficult time for the 33 drivers that participated in the first day of the Indianapolis 500 Open Test on Thursday.
But after 33 drivers ran a total of 3,108 laps around the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway, there were no incidents despite the stiff wind.
Friday’s forecast calls for rain and could wash out the second day of the Indy 500 Open Test. So, teams got as much track time as possible with the session starting one hour early at 10 a.m. (ET) and running 30 minutes later until 6:30 p.m. (ET). Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden was the fastest driver with a fast lap of 227.686 mph in the No. 2 Chevrolet. He ran a total of 93 laps.
“Really great day,” Newgarden said. “I wish it was race day today. But you can’t choose those. You have to show up on that day and be very good. I told the team that if it was race day, don’t touch it because it was very good. Sometimes you show up and the car is great. and sometimes you have to work on it. Today was one of those really good days.
“We got through our list, as well, and we learned a lot, which is always positive. Sometimes you can go around in circles at this place, but today as a team I felt like we were very efficient with our time. We split everything up and divided and conquered. Really, really happy for Team Penske today, and I feel good for next month with the Shell car.”
Conor Daly of Ed Carpenter Racing was second fastest at 227.466 mph in the No. 20 Bitnile.com Chevrolet. He was followed by six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion and 2008 Indianapolis 500 winning driver Scott Dixon at 226.788 mph in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Kyle Kirkwood, who won last Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, was fourth at 226.727 mph in the No. 27 AutoNation Honda.
Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato of Chip Ganassi Racing rounded out the top five at 226.265 mph in the No. 11 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing.
“This is the first time we get to see what we’re doing on computers actually makes sense on a race track, and we think it does,” Kirkwood said. “They’ve done a really good job. We’re able to race really close with everyone. The racing is a lot closer this year in this front pack than it was last year, which is cool to see.”
All five veterans and three rookies required to participate in refresher tests and the Rookie Orientation Program completed those sequences of laps successfully and are eligible for full participation in May. Veterans completing refreshers were Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Tony Kanaan, Katherine Legge and Stefan Wilson.
First-year Indy 500 drivers completing ROP were Augustin Canapino, Benjamin Pedersen and Sting Ray Robb.
Testing is scheduled to continue for all drivers from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET Friday, with live streaming coverage on Peacock in the United States and INDYCAR LIVE internationally, and the INDYCAR Radio Network also broadcasting live. Live timing will be available at INDYCAR.com and the INDYCAR App powered by NTT DATA.
The Turn 2 Viewing Mounds will be open for public viewing at IMS.
Four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves believes any time spent in an Indy car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is valuable.
“It’s priceless. You don’t have much chance to have an Indy car running in good weather with all the drivers on the track because it changes the way the car reacts. It’s important to have all the other cars out there at the same time to see how it will react in the race.”