All month long, our racing guru David Scoggan is blogging LIVE from the track! Check back here regularly for a dose of Dave’s wit and whimsy.
All 33 qualified Indy 500 drivers turned a total of 2,469 laps in an incident-free two-hour practice period which will be their final track appearance before Friday’s Carb Day session. Polesitter Simon Pagenaud posted the fastest lap of the day as the checkered flag fell with a 228.441 lap. “The car was very consistent,” said Pagenaud. “The tricky part is, it’s so cold (60 degrees) that every car ran good today.”
Penske teammate Josef Newgarden placed second with a late 228.273 and James Hinchcliffe’s last-row Honda showed promise with a strong 227.994. Scott Dixon (227.951) and Alexander Rossi (227.660) rounded out the top five and Charlie Kimball gave hope to his floundering Carlin team with his sixth-place 227.645 lap.
The only wall contact was a slight brush of the turn three outer barrier by Marcus Ericsson, but after a trip to the pits he returned to action and posted a 227.0 lap. Indy Lights will finish out the action today, practicing from 2:30 to 4:00, then the track will be inactive until Thursday when the Indy Lights will practice and qualify.
