Indy 500: Sato puts Coyne on top on Day 1, Jimmie Johnson third
Takuma Sato’s Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda entry topped the speed charts on Day 1 of practice at the Indianapolis 500, while Jimmie Johnson starred with third fastest speed.
Sato ran only four laps in the morning’s two hour session, unhappy with the aero balance of his car, but come the afternoon, he shone. On his 63rd of 64 laps, the 2017 and 2020 Indy winner got a strong tow from several cars and lapped the 2.5-mile oval in 39.3118sec, an average speed of 228.939mph.
Despite his best effort receiving tow assists, he actually made up most of his speed on the opposition in the Turns, since his trap speeds were ‘only’ between 4th and 5th fastest.
His teammate, rookie David Malukas, was seventh fastest with his best lap coming in his 35th of 80 laps driving the Coyne w/ HMD machine.
This morning’s pacesetter Scott Dixon was second fastest on a very promising day for Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda, in which all five Ganassi entries finished in the top nine, with NASCAR legend but IndyCar rookie Jimmie Johnson clocking third fastest time ahead of Marcus Ericsson fourth, Alex Palou sixth and Tony Kanaan ninth.
No less encouraging was that four of the Ganassi cars lay between third and eighth on the no-tow charts.
The top two no-tow speeds came from Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolets of Rinus VeeKay who was fifth overall, and the team owner Ed Carpenter who was only 29th overall.
Josef Newgarden was quickest of the Team Penske-Chevrolets in eighth, while the fastest Andretti Autosport-Honda driver was the 2020 polesitter, Marco Andretti, a hair quicker than rookie teammate Devlin DeFrancesco.
P | No | Name | FTime | Diff | FL | Laps | FSpeed | Engine | Team |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 51 | Takuma Sato | 39.3118 | 39.3118 | 63 | 64 | 228.939 | Honda | Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR |
2 | 9 | Scott Dixon | 39.5139 | 0.2021 | 1 | 50 | 227.768 | Honda | Chip Ganassi Racing |
3 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | 39.5219 | 0.2101 | 77 | 79 | 227.722 | Honda | Chip Ganassi Racing |
4 | 8 | Marcus Ericsson | 39.6311 | 0.3193 | 36 | 73 | 227.094 | Honda | Chip Ganassi Racing |
5 | 21 | Rinus VeeKay | 39.6484 | 0.3366 | 67 | 76 | 226.995 | Chevy | Ed Carpenter Racing |
6 | 10 | Alex Palou | 39.6523 | 0.3405 | 45 | 68 | 226.973 | Honda | Chip Ganassi Racing |
7 | 18 | David Malukas | 39.7443 | 0.4325 | 35 | 80 | 226.448 | Honda | Dale Coyne Racing with HMD |
8 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | 39.7583 | 0.4465 | 53 | 76 | 226.368 | Chevy | Team Penske |
9 | 1 | Tony Kanaan | 39.7716 | 0.4598 | 40 | 47 | 226.292 | Honda | Chip Ganassi Racing |
10 | 98 | Marco Andretti | 39.8080 | 0.4962 | 12 | 85 | 226.085 | Honda | Andretti Herta Autosport w/ Marco & Curb |
11 | 29 | Devlin DeFrancesco | 39.8363 | 0.5245 | 60 | 82 | 225.925 | Honda | Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport |
12 | 60 | Simon Pagenaud | 39.8411 | 0.5293 | 74 | 95 | 225.897 | Honda | Meyer Shank Racing |
13 | 4 | Dalton Kellett | 39.8520 | 0.5402 | 73 | 97 | 225.836 | Chevy | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
14 | 11 | JR Hildebrand | 39.8560 | 0.5442 | 60 | 79 | 225.813 | Chevy | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
15 | 7 | Felix Rosenqvist | 39.8655 | 0.5537 | 3 | 77 | 225.759 | Chevy | Arrow McLaren SP |
16 | 12 | Will Power | 39.9234 | 0.6116 | 36 | 73 | 225.432 | Chevy | Team Penske |
17 | 15 | Graham Rahal | 39.9917 | 0.6799 | 62 | 72 | 225.047 | Honda | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
18 | 06 | Helio Castroneves | 40.0128 | 0.7010 | 37 | 98 | 224.928 | Honda | Meyer Shank Racing |
19 | 77 | Callum Ilott | 40.0133 | 0.7015 | 52 | 56 | 224.925 | Chevy | Juncos Hollinger Racing |
20 | 45 | Jack Harvey | 40.0157 | 0.7039 | 78 | 91 | 224.912 | Honda | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
21 | 14 | Kyle Kirkwood | 40.0526 | 0.7408 | 47 | 49 | 224.705 | Chevy | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
22 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | 40.0566 | 0.7448 | 70 | 83 | 224.682 | Chevy | Team Penske |
23 | 24 | Sage Karam | 40.0595 | 0.7477 | 27 | 37 | 224.666 | Chevy | Dreyer & Reinbold |
24 | 5 | Pato O'Ward | 40.0967 | 0.7849 | 19 | 76 | 224.457 | Chevy | Arrow McLaren SP |
25 | 30 | Christian Lundgaard | 40.1232 | 0.8114 | 17 | 74 | 224.309 | Honda | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
26 | 26 | Colton Herta | 40.1259 | 0.8141 | 51 | 75 | 224.294 | Honda | Andretti Autosport |
27 | 27 | Alexander Rossi | 40.1399 | 0.8281 | 64 | 71 | 224.216 | Honda | Andretti Autosport |
28 | 20 | Conor Daly | 40.1520 | 0.8402 | 17 | 53 | 224.148 | Chevy | Ed Carpenter Racing |
29 | 33 | Ed Carpenter | 40.1583 | 0.8465 | 27 | 58 | 224.113 | Chevy | Ed Carpenter Racing |
30 | 6 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 40.1913 | 0.8795 | 11 | 37 | 223.929 | Chevy | Arrow McLaren SP |
31 | 28 | Romain Grosjean | 40.3705 | 1.0587 | 69 | 83 | 222.935 | Honda | Andretti Autosport |
32 | 25 | Stefan Wilson | 40.4983 | 1.1865 | 5 | 10 | 222.232 | Chevy | DragonSpeed/Cusick Motorsports |
33 | 23 | Santino Ferrucci | 40.6529 | 1.3411 | 17 | 20 | 221.386 | Chevy | Dreyer & Reinbold |
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