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Australia

Indy 500 test day ends early after third pit-exit incident

The first day of Indy 500 testing was halted 45 minutes early after a third baffling incident on the exit of pit road.

Watch: Indy test: Helio Castroneves pit exit crash

Alexander Rossi had a harmless spin exiting pit road for an installation lap in the morning session that involved the 22 veterans plus two rookies – Romain Grosjean and Jimmie Johnson – that had already concluded their orientation program to IndyCar’s satisfaction.

The eight-car ‘rookies and refreshers’ session went without a hitch in the early afternoon. However, as four-time Indy winner Helio Castroneves sped up on the pit-out warm-up lane on the inside of the short chute between Turns 1 and 2 and, his Meyer Shank Racing-Honda snapped into a spin. The momentum carried him across the grass that separates that warm-up lane from the racing surface at Turn 2, across the track and into the outside wall, heavily damaging the right side of his car.

Trackside Online has confirmed with Meyer Shank that the wrecked machine was last year’s winning car and it will not be back on track tomorrow, nor will Castroneves run a spare car.

Barely 20mins after the Brazilian veteran’s incident, 2018 Indy winner Will Power’s Team Penske Chevrolet suddenly spun as the car left pitlane. He partially crossed the strip of grass that divides pit-out from the track at Turn 1, and the rear of the car jutted out onto the racing line. Colton Herta, running full speed on track moved up half a lane to avoid striking the Penske, and this was enough to turn the Andretti Autosport-Honda into a long drift which became a spin.

Following long inspection of the recently sealed pit exit lane, IndyCar officials elected to shut down the day’s on-track activities.

That left four-time Indy polesitter and single-time winner Scott Dixon at the head of the speed charts, the #9 Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda turning a 227.187mph lap to finish up ahead of Conor Daly’s Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet.

Although the foreshortened track time meant lap speeds were largely inconclusive, Juncos Hollinger Racing could be highly satisfied that its rookie Callum Ilott was third fastest in the 226mph speed bracket. The former Formula 2 ace had also topped the rookie and refreshers course.

Santino Ferrucci, just like in this morning’s session, was highly impressive in his first ever run for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet, clocking fourth fastest, ahead of Ganassi’s Marcus Ericsson who had to swerve to avoid the shunts for both Castroneves and Herta.

His NASCAR legend teammate Jimmie Johnson was very fast in this morning’s practice, so his P25 time this afternoon was entirely unrepresentative of his potential.

P

No

Name

FTime

FL

Laps

FSpeed

Engine

Team

1

9

Scott Dixon

39.6150

9

11

227.187

Honda

Chip Ganassi Racing

2

20

Conor Daly

39.6502

24

26

226.985

Chevy

Ed Carpenter Racing

3

77

Callum Ilott

39.7688

10

11

226.308

Chevy

Juncos Hollinger Racing

4

23

Santino Ferrucci

39.7910

16

21

226.182

Chevy

Dreyer & Reinbold

5

8

Marcus Ericsson

39.9394

9

16

225.341

Honda

Chip Ganassi Racing

6

27

Alexander Rossi

39.9624

25

27

225.212

Honda

Andretti Autosport

7

06

Helio Castroneves

39.9723

5

10

225.156

Honda

Meyer Shank Racing

8

11

JR Hildebrand

39.9813

8

9

225.105

Chevy

AJ Foyt Enterprises

9

26

Colton Herta

40.0531

33

35

224.702

Honda

Andretti Autosport

10

51

Takuma Sato

40.0664

11

12

224.627

Honda

Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR

11

10

Alex Palou

40.0947

14

17

224.469

Honda

Chip Ganassi Racing

12

29

Devlin DeFrancesco

40.1411

4

5

224.209

Honda

Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport

13

21

Rinus VeeKay

40.1418

4

11

224.205

Chevy

Ed Carpenter Racing

14

60

Simon Pagenaud

40.2563

22

24

223.567

Honda

Meyer Shank Racing

15

28

Romain Grosjean

40.3130

30

34

223.253

Honda

Andretti Autosport

16

5

Pato O'Ward

40.3213

4

23

223.207

Chevy

Arrow McLaren SP

17

3

Scott McLaughlin

40.4964

8

15

222.242

Chevy

Team Penske

18

7

Felix Rosenqvist

40.5600

5

12

221.893

Chevy

Arrow McLaren SP

19

12

Will Power

40.5782

8

12

221.794

Chevy

Team Penske

20

33

Ed Carpenter

40.6656

11

16

221.317

Chevy

Ed Carpenter Racing

21

45

Jack Harvey

40.7314

15

21

220.960

Honda

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

22

1

Tony Kanaan

40.8475

7

8

220.332

Honda

Chip Ganassi Racing

23

15

Graham Rahal

40.9498

4

26

219.781

Honda

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

24

2

Josef Newgarden

41.1004

4

10

218.976

Chevy

Team Penske

25

48

Jimmie Johnson

41.1363

9

21

218.785

Honda

Chip Ganassi Racing

26

6

Juan Pablo Montoya

No Time

--

1

---

Chevy

Arrow McLaren SP

27

14

Kyle Kirkwood

No Time

--

---

---

Chevy

AJ Foyt Enterprises

28

30

Christian Lundgaard

No Time

--

---

---

Honda

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

29

18

David Malukas

No Time

--

---

---

Honda

Dale Coyne Racing with HMD

30

98

Marco Andretti

No Time

--

---

---

Honda

Andretti Herta Autosport w/ Marco & Curb

31

4

Dalton Kellett

No Time

--

---

---

Chevy

AJ Foyt Enterprises

 

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Edition

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