Although the session was altered to start earlier at 10am ET (originally 12pm), the weather that also impacted Tuesday’s opening day hung around at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway overnight and delayed any running until 3:05pm ET.
There was a frantic bout of action among the 34 cars once the session finally went green. Roughly 40 minutes into the running, McLaughlin’s No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet caught a good tow and went up to the top of the leaderboard with a quick lap of 229.493mph.
Moments later, 2018 Indy 500 winner Will Power make a surge with a 228.767mph flyer to end up second and just 0.1246s behind his team-mate.
Andretti Global’s Colton Herta’s run of 227.858mph was good enough to take third, with reigning Indy 500 champion Josef Newgarden in fourth (227.675mph) to establish all three Team Penske machines in the top four.
Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi nailed a 227.484mph run to take fifth.
Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti Global), Pato O’Ward (Arrow McLaren), Alex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing), Ryan Hunter-Reay (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing) and Helio Castroneves (Meyer Shank Racing) rounded out the rest of the top 10.
Kyle Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion, finally received a proper amount of on-track running to begin his maiden Indy 500 attempt. He pounded the pavement for 54 laps in the No. 17 Arrow McLaren-Hendrick Chevrolet, ending up 15th overall with a best of 39.9565mph (0.7397s behind McLaughlin’s time).
“It's just a little bit frustrating,” Larson said. “There's plenty of track time too, so trying to remember that.
“Overall, happy with the few hours that we got and go back and talk to the team-mates now and get to listen in on what they were working through, what they felt and see if it matches up with what I'm feeling as well.”
Meyer Shank Racing rookie Tom Blomqvist completed the most laps at 105 – the only driver that broke the century mark – and concluded 28th overall.
The No. 75 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda of Takuma Sato was the fastest driver among the no-tow speeds, sporting a best of 221.219 mph.
Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay was second on the no-tow list at 220.071 mph, followed by Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Agustin Canapino in third at 219.848 mph.
The rain returned at 6pm to ultimately put an end on the day despite the efforts to dry the track.
