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Motorsport

Indy 500 Day 1 practice results: Alex Palou leads the way at 225.937mph

Alex Palou Kyle Kirkwood Christian Rasmussen Indy 500 Christian Lundgaard Chip Ganassi Racing Team Penske Andretti Global Arrow McLaren Conor Daly

Four-time and reigning IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou began a strong defense of his Indianapolis 500 crown by pacing the opening day of practice on Tuesday.

The Spaniard, who was the first driver to go out and kickstart the six-hour session, was relatively quiet due to what he called a “balancing issue.” However, he returned in the final 10 minutes and he threw down a 225.937mph flyer to go fastest in the #10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong also made his presence felt and held the top spot for the majority of the day with a quick lap of 225.895mph, which held until being bumped late by Palou.

Conor Daly, driving the #23 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, was the fastest Chevrolet in third at 225.838mph. Two-time Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden, also a two-time IndyCar Series champion, was fourth on the speedcharts at 225.121mph in the #2 Team Penske Chevrolet.

Six-time series champion Scott Dixon, the 2008 Indy 500 winner, was fifth at 225.087mph in the #9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) was sixth, ahead of Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti Global) in seventh. Scott McLaughlin (Team Penske) was eighth, followed by Romain Grosjean (Dale Coyne Racing) ninth, and David Malukas (Team Penske) 10th.

In addition to being among the top 10 in tow speeds, Kirkwood was also the fastest on the no-tow list at 222.062mph. His teammate, 2018 Indy 500 winner Will Power, was second among no-tow speeds (221.455mph). Jack “Hollywood” Harvey was third for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.

ECR’s Alexander Rossi, who was 13th on the overall speedcharts at 223.585mph, pounded the pavement of Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a session-most 116 laps. He was the only driver to break the century mark. Daly and Christian Rasmussen, Rossi’s teammate, were tied for second-most laps logged at 89 each. Rookie Dennis Hauger (Dale Coyne Racing) ended up with the fewest laps run at 12. Ryan Hunter-Reay, the 2014 Indy 500 winner who is making his first appearance in a one-off with Arrow McLaren, had the second-fewest laps ran on the afternoon with 27. Palou was third-least with 28.

There were no incidents in the session.

Day 1: Indy 500 Practice Overall Results

la	#	driver	team	laps	time	gap	mph
1	10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	28	39.8342		225.937
2	66	Marcus Armstrong	Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	46	39.8416	0.0074	225.895
3	23	Conor Daly	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	89	39.8516	0.0174	225.838
4	2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	71	39.9785	0.1443	225.121
5	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	61	39.9845	0.1503	225.087
6	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	47	40.0411	0.2069	224.769
7	27	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Global	47	40.0922	0.2580	224.483
8	3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	28	40.1068	0.2726	224.401
9	18	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing	58	40.1963	0.3621	223.901
10	12	David Malukas	Team Penske	53	40.2064	0.3722	223.845
11	24	Jack Harvey	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	58	40.2247	0.3905	223.743
12	5	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren	78	40.2252	0.3910	223.740
13	20	Alexander Rossi	Ed Carpenter Racing	116	40.2531	0.4189	223.585
14	75	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	36	40.2818	0.4476	223.426
15	06	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	55	40.2988	0.4646	223.332
16	33	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	56	40.3051	0.4709	223.297
17	51	Jacob Abel	Abel Motorsports	63	40.3308	0.4966	223.155
18	14	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	53	40.3714	0.5372	222.930
19	76	Rinus VeeKay	Juncos Hollinger Racing	82	40.3920	0.5578	222.816
20	8	Kyffin Simpson	Chip Ganassi Racing	80	40.4003	0.5661	222.771
21	21	Christian Rasmussen	Ed Carpenter Racing	89	40.4272	0.5930	222.622
22	60	Felix Rosenqvist	Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian	84	40.4299	0.5957	222.608
23	28	Marcus Ericsson	Andretti Global	45	40.4851	0.6509	222.304
24	6	Nolan Siegel	Arrow McLaren	82	40.5096	0.6754	222.170
25	77	Ray Robb Sting	Juncos Hollinger Racing	70	40.5502	0.7160	221.947
26	19	Dennis Hauger	Dale Coyne Racing	12	40.6169	0.7827	221.583
27	26	Will Power	Andretti Global	44	40.6403	0.8061	221.455
28	7	Christian Lundgaard	Arrow McLaren	68	40.7027	0.8685	221.116
29	31	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Arrow McLaren	27	40.7171	0.8829	221.037
30	4	Caio Collet	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	59	40.7413	0.9071	220.906
31	45	Louis Foster	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	76	40.7573	0.9231	220.819
32	47	Mick Schumacher	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	84	40.8570	1.0228	220.280
33	11	Katherine Legge	HMD Motorsports with A.J. Foyt Racing	51	41.2269	1.3927	218.304