Indy 500: Newgarden leads Top 12 practice, Power hit with plenum event

Newgarden, the defending Indy 500 champion, latched on to a tow and seized the fastest lap of 234.052mph and a four-lap average of 233.708mph. His No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet only received the aided tow on his second lap of the simulated qualifying run.

“It was a good run,” Newgarden said. “It's different today with the heat, the track temps up, but I would say you saw a lot of people running in heat at the end of yesterday.

“The track temp was pretty similar to this at 4 or 5:00pm yesterday. I think people are capable of it. We just got to try and solve the run together. But this team has done a tremendous job all month. Shell car is fast and we're gonna try and do two more runs and hopefully be in for the fight.”

Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist logged the second-best four-lap run of 232.851mph.

Scott McLaughlin made it two Team Penske machines in the top three with a four-lap average pace at 232.655mph.

The Arrow McLaren duo of Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi ended up fourth and fifth, respectively, with a 232.637mph and 232.495mph four-lap outings.

Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti Global) was sixth, ahead of Kyle Larson (Arrow McLaren) in seventh.

After six plenum events hit numerous teams carrying Chevrolet engines yesterday, a suspected seventh took place during this session to the No. 12 Team Penske entry of Will Power. While out on a second run, a hiccup happened on his opening lap – which he finished to run 227.276mph – and called “plenum” over the radio.

Power did manage to log a four-lap run previously, with his mark of 231.688mph putting him eighth.

“Yeah, the engine stops,” Power said, of the feeling in the cockpit when the issue happens. “It just dies for however long. you know.

“It kills your speed massively. I don't know where the speed is right now. Sort of feeling a weird vibration as well down the straight. We'll look into it. Be tough to make top six as we sit.”

Two-time Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato put his No. 75 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda in ninth. Ryan Hunter-Reay, the 2014 Indy 500 winner, put the No. 23 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet in 10^th. 

Santino Ferrucci’s No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet aborted multiple attempts on a four-lap run.

Meanwhile, Rinus VeeKay, who rebounded from an early qualifying crash to make the Top 12 in the final seconds of Saturday’s qualifying, opted to stay in the garage with his No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet.

Practice for the Last Row Shootout

The four drivers battling for the final three spots to make the field of 33 were led by Katherine Legge in their respective one hour of practice following the top 12. Piloting the No. 51 Dale Coyne Racing Honda, Legge showed progressive pace from Saturday's qualifying and hit a best lap of 231.304mph and a four-lap average of 231.011mph.

Marcus Ericsson, the 2022 Indy 500 winner, was second among the four-lap average runs at 230.531mph. The Swede managed to hit a 230.877mph best lap in the No. 28 Andretti Global Honda, which is the team's backup car following his crash in Thursday's practice.

The struggles continued for Graham Rahal, who did manage to have the third-best pace of the group at 229.410mph in single-lap speed and four-lap average at 229.073. However, Rahal was hit with an issue during a run with roughly 20 minutes to go, which he aborted and called over the radio with a suspected right-rear issue, following with a call that "something's broken".

Upon getting out of the car, he tugged the tire in question on his No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda. "I'm not gonna throw anybody under the bus," Rahal said. "We just made a mistake. We made a mistake and we were very lucky that I caught it because if I continued to push we probably would not have a race car."

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info

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Main Information
Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	Mph
1	J. Newgarden Team Penske	2	7	38.4530		234.052
2	F. Rosenqvist Meyer Shank Racing	60	15	+0.0933 38.5463	0.0933	233.485
3	P. O'Ward Arrow McLaren	5	7	+0.0972 38.5502	0.0039	233.462
4	A. Rossi Arrow McLaren	7	8	+0.1480 38.6010	0.0508	233.155
5	K. Kirkwood Andretti Global	27	12	+0.1909 38.6439	0.0429	232.896
6	K. Larson Arrow McLaren/Rick Hendrick	17	17	+0.1994 38.6524	0.0085	232.845
7	S. McLaughlin Team Penske	3	15	+0.2040 38.6570	0.0046	232.817
8	T. Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	75	8	+0.2209 38.6739	0.0169	232.715
9	R. Hunter-Reay Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports	23	12	+0.3049 38.7579	0.0840	232.211
10	S. Ferrucci A.J. Foyt Enterprises	14	16	+0.3288 38.7818	0.0239	232.068
11	W. Power Team Penske	12	14	+0.3418 38.7948	0.0130	231.990
12	K. Legge Dale Coyne Racing	51	7	+0.4569 38.9099	0.1151	231.304
13	M. Ericsson Andretti Global	28	15	+0.5288 38.9818	0.0719	230.877
14	G. Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	15	+0.6709 39.1239	0.1421	230.038
15	N. Siegel Dale Coyne Racing	18	16	+0.7906 39.2436	0.1197	229.337
View full results

Rookie Nolan Siegel was fourth but found improvements with consistent pace on his No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda. He hit a best single lap of 229.337mph, with a four-lap average of 228.955mph. In addition to having Charlie Kimball on the timing stand, Siegel has also received last-minute coaching by Arrow McLaren Sporting Director Tony Kanaan. The opportunity came about as Siegel drivers for United Autosports, the sports car team owned by McLaren CEO Zak Brown.