Newgarden leads three former winners in Indy 500 test

Graham Rahal of Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda and Will Power (Penske-Chevy) were the first to break into the 225mph bracket around the iconic 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway and duck under the 40sec barrier, but two-time IndyCar champion Newgarden’s top lap pushed the best speed up to 226.819mph.

He was later joined in that stratosphere by two-time Indy winner Juan Pablo Montoya, in the Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy, but the Colombian legend was displaced by another two-timer, defending winner Takuma Sato of RLL-Honda.

Fourth went to Scott Dixon, the 2008 winner for Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda and six-time IndyCar champ.

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Rahal’s best effort kept him fourth, and he also had the satisfaction of holding onto the best lap set without the aid of a tow, a 221.949 effort. Second on that chart went to Penske’s rookie Scott McLaughlin, who also turned the most laps of the day, 195 – almost a complete race distance.

Conor Daly eclipsed his earlier best to vault into sixth place for Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy, while Meyer Shank Racing-Honda saw both its drivers – Jack Harvey and three-time Indy winner Helio Castroneves – get into the top 10 overall, leading their semi-teammates from Andretti Autosport.

That said Andretti’s former winners Alex Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay both made it into the top five no-tow speeds.

Former Indy 500 rookies of the year Santino Ferrucci (RLL-Honda) and Simona De Silvestro (Paretta Autosport-Chevrolet) were 20^th and 21^st in the overall speeds, and 29^th and 24^th respectively in the no-tow charts.

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	FSpeed	Engine	Team
1	2	Josef Newgarden	39.6792	0.000	0.000	60	121	226.819	Chevy	Team Penske
2	30	Takuma Sato	39.7534	0.0742	0.0742	47	60	226.396	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
3	86	Juan Pablo Montoya	39.8013	0.1221	0.0479	43	68	226.123	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
4	9	Scott Dixon	39.8395	0.1603	0.0382	65	126	225.906	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
5	15	Graham Rahal	39.8859	0.2067	0.0464	40	157	225.644	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
6	47	Conor Daly	39.8868	0.2076	0.0009	119	137	225.639	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
7	12	Will Power	39.9112	0.2320	0.0244	51	162	225.501	Chevy	Team Penske
8	60	Jack Harvey	39.9527	0.2735	0.0415	139	140	225.266	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
9	5	Pato O'Ward	39.9790	0.2998	0.0263	108	156	225.118	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
10	06	Helio Castroneves	39.9868	0.3076	0.0078	105	128	225.074	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
11	22	Simon Pagenaud	39.9999	0.3207	0.0131	104	184	225.001	Chevy	Team Penske
12	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	40.0091	0.3299	0.0092	119	134	224.949	Honda	Andretti Autosport
13	26	Colton Herta	40.1422	0.4630	0.1331	42	164	224.203	Honda	Andretti Autosport
14	20	Ed Carpenter	40.1524	0.4732	0.0102	144	146	224.146	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
15	10	Alex Palou	40.1545	0.4753	0.0021	20	112	224.134	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
16	7	Felix Rosenqvist	40.1835	0.5043	0.0290	112	126	223.973	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
17	18	Ed Jones	40.1956	0.5164	0.0121	15	104	223.905	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing
18	3	Scott McLaughlin	40.2131	0.5339	0.0175	151	195	223.808	Chevy	Team Penske
19	27	Alexander Rossi	40.2440	0.5648	0.0309	117	136	223.636	Honda	Andretti Autosport
20	45	Santino Ferrucci	40.2650	0.5858	0.0210	85	137	223.519	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
21	16	Simona De Silvestro	40.2760	0.5968	0.0110	50	92	223.458	Chevy	Paretta Autosport
22	29	James Hinchcliffe	40.2760	0.5968	0.0000	87	127	223.458	Honda	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
23	48	Tony Kanaan	40.3404	0.6612	0.0644	38	99	223.101	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
24	24	Sage Karam	40.3415	0.6623	0.0011	71	81	223.095	Chevy	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
25	98	Marco Andretti	40.3923	0.7131	0.0508	113	138	222.815	Honda	Andretti Herta-Haupert w/Marco & Curb-Agajanian
26	14	Sebastien Bourdais	40.4263	0.7471	0.0340	119	125	222.627	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
27	59	Max Chilton	40.4935	0.8143	0.0672	3	114	222.258	Chevy	Carlin
28	8	Marcus Ericsson	40.5159	0.8367	0.0224	147	188	222.135	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
29	51	Pietro Fittipaldi	40.5509	0.8717	0.0350	135	144	221.943	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/Rick Ware Racing
30	4	Dalton Kellett	40.8727	1.1935	0.3218	63	97	220.196	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
31	52	Cody Ware	41.2017	1.5225	0.3290	25	58	218.438	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/Rick Ware Racing