Indy 500: Dixon leads Ganassi-Honda 1-2 in opening practice

The 2008 winner and four-time pole-sitter clocked a 227.119mph on his 11^th of 25 laps of the iconic 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He outpaced his Swedish teammate Ericsson by a mere 0.0269sec which equates to 0.154mph.

Currently an Indy 500-only team, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing-Chevrolet did its customary fine job at the Speedway, with Sage Karam and Santino Ferrucci ending the session with third and sixth fastest.

Conor Daly, hot off his fifth place finish in the GMR Grand Prix of Indy on the road course, was fourth fastest for Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet, while Marco Andretti was fastest of the Andretti Autosport-Honda drivers.

The 2021 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year Scott McLaughlin was top Team Penske-Chevrolet driver in seventh, ahead of last year’s runner-up Alex Palou (Ganassi), and Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet.

JR Hildebrand, Kyle Kirkwood and Dalton Kellet were encouragingly fast for AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy in 10^th, 11^th and 13^th respectively, which ensured Kirkwood was fastest of the rookies, with a 224.484mph lap.

Jimmie Johnson, who won the Brickyard 400 at IMS four times in his illustrious NASCAR Cup career, was 21^st in his first official practice for Indy.

Two-time 500 winner Takuma Sato had an aero issue with his Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda and ran only four laps.

The no-tow times can be as misleading as the overall times, since several cars simply won’t get a slot on track that leaves them with an eight-second gap ahead – the margin from which the no-tow times are judged. However, for the record, the 2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan was fastest in the #1 American Legion-backed Ganassi car, turning a 221.662mph lap. Next up were Ferrucci, Josef Newgarden of Penske, David Malukas (Dale Coyne Racing with HMD) and Ericsson.

A total of 32 cars took part in the two-hour session. At 1.00pm, the 33^rd entry, the DragonSpeed with Cusick Motorsports-Chevrolet of Stefan Wilson, will have two hours of track time available (1.00pm to 3.00pm) so that Wilson can complete his Refresher test.

Assuming he passes, he will be permitted to join the other 32 cars on track for the second session of the day, which is set to run from 3.00pm to 6.00pm.

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	FL	Laps	FSpeed	Engine	Team
1	9	Scott Dixon	39.6268	39.6268	11	25	227.119	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	8	Marcus Ericsson	39.6537	0.0269	26	31	226.965	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
3	24	Sage Karam	39.7530	0.1262	30	52	226.398	Chevy	Dreyer & Reinbold
4	20	Conor Daly	39.8839	0.2571	21	44	225.655	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
5	98	Marco Andretti	39.9284	0.3016	13	24	225.403	Honda	Andretti Herta Autosport w/ Marco & Curb
6	23	Santino Ferrucci	39.9357	0.3089	22	50	225.362	Chevy	Dreyer & Reinbold
7	3	Scott McLaughlin	39.9415	0.3147	16	41	225.330	Chevy	Team Penske
8	10	Alex Palou	39.9506	0.3238	21	26	225.278	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
9	5	Pato O'Ward	40.0142	0.3874	28	34	224.920	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
10	11	JR Hildebrand	40.0813	0.4545	11	23	224.544	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
11	14	Kyle Kirkwood	40.0920	0.4652	52	54	224.484	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
12	2	Josef Newgarden	40.1036	0.4768	30	35	224.419	Chevy	Team Penske
13	4	Dalton Kellett	40.1039	0.4771	35	52	224.417	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
14	7	Felix Rosenqvist	40.1103	0.4835	37	39	224.381	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
15	12	Will Power	40.2125	0.5857	13	32	223.811	Chevy	Team Penske
16	1	Tony Kanaan	40.2203	0.5935	18	22	223.768	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
17	21	Rinus VeeKay	40.2234	0.5966	28	38	223.750	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
18	6	Juan Pablo Montoya	40.2451	0.6183	9	19	223.630	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
19	77	Callum Ilott	40.2885	0.6617	11	32	223.389	Chevy	Juncos Hollinger Racing
20	30	Christian Lundgaard	40.3118	0.6850	38	44	223.260	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
21	48	Jimmie Johnson	40.3574	0.7306	12	29	223.007	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
22	29	Devlin DeFrancesco	40.3969	0.7701	9	16	222.789	Honda	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
23	45	Jack Harvey	40.4376	0.8108	36	41	222.565	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
24	27	Alexander Rossi	40.4396	0.8128	17	25	222.554	Honda	Andretti Autosport
25	33	Ed Carpenter	40.5200	0.8932	12	28	222.113	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
26	26	Colton Herta	40.5834	0.9566	11	22	221.766	Honda	Andretti Autosport
27	28	Romain Grosjean	40.5964	0.9696	9	15	221.695	Honda	Andretti Autosport
28	18	David Malukas	40.6024	0.9756	6	21	221.662	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
29	60	Simon Pagenaud	40.7248	1.0980	6	15	220.996	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
30	06	Helio Castroneves	40.8259	1.1991	8	33	220.448	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
31	15	Graham Rahal	41.0691	1.4423	7	21	219.143	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
32	51	Takuma Sato	42.4245	2.7977	4	4	212.142	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR