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David Malsher-Lopez

Indy 500: Sato, Grosjean, Johnson into Top 12, P13-33 set

After Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay took full advantage of the favorable temperatures at the start of the day to set the third fastest qualifying run in Indy history, cars ran again to attempt to break into the top 12 spots to go for pole tomorrow.

Track temperature had dropped to 101degF by the end of the initial runs (minus Colton Herta and Stefan Wilson, both of whom were having engine changes).

Callum Ilott of Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevrolet was the first to do a retake run and improved by 0.7mph but only gained three places, and lost two of those straight afterward when Dale Coyne Racing put rookie David Malukas and veteran Takuma Sato in line. The latter had to run again having had his first morning run invalidated when he interfered with Marco Andretti’s warm-up lap, having failed to follow IndyCar’s instruction to go to the deceleration lane on his slow-down lap.

Rookie Malukas improved, and got the Coyne with HMD car into 12th, but he was bumped out by his two-time Indy 500-winning teammate. Sato bounced off Turn 2’s SAFER barrier on his third lap but kept his foot in for the remainder of his run and claimed 12th.

Ironically, Marco Andretti was next up again, having suffered an electrical issue on his initial run, but he could claim only 24th. Meyer Shank Racing-Honda’s defending race winner Helio Castroneves produced an average of 229.630mph. Herta’s first run resulted in 25th, with a 230.235mph average.

Alexander Rossi elected to go to Lane 1, the priority lane, for his second run, which means a driver has to pull his first time, and could not improve, instead dropping himself from 15th to 21st.

Sage Karam was on his warm-up lap when the rain moved in, and the caution flag came out. There were also advisories of lightning within an eight-mile radius. However, there were still 3hrs30mins to go, so the action would resume once the track was dried and the lightning departed.

When the session restarted after 1hr20min, Karam improved his average speed by 0.5mph in the dense air, but gained only two places.

Remarkably, Team Penske-Chevrolet had elected to pull the times of Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin, despite them sitting 14th and 15th on the grid, and go into the Priority lane. The hope was that the lower track temperatures could spring them into the Top 12 for Sunday’s shootout.

But McLaughlin’s second run dropped him from 15th to 26th, as he was 1.4mph slower than in his initial run. Teammate Newgarden got lucky because he was only his warm-up lap when lightning returned to within an eight-mile radius of the Speedway and the caution was thrown. Then came the rain and with an hour to go before the 5.50pm session, IndyCar had to admit the day was over.

Because he had not taken the green flag, Newgarden will be allowed to reclaim his 14th slot on the grid.

Positions 13-33 – now set

P Name QSpeed QLap1Speed QLap2Speed QLap3Speed QLap4Speed Engine Team
13 David Malukas 231.607 232.482 232.206 230.552 231.200 Honda Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
14 Josef Newgarden 231.580 233.209 232.333 231.184 229.623 Chevy Team Penske
15 Santino Ferrucci 231.508 232.239 231.729 231.329 230.741 Chevy Dreyer & Reinbold
16 Simon Pagenaud 231.275 232.189 231.726 230.688 230.505 Honda Meyer Shank Racing
17 JR Hildebrand 231.112 231.601 231.118 230.926 230.807 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
18 Conor Daly 230.999 232.448 231.459 230.822 229.288 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
19 Callum Ilott 230.961 231.869 231.452 230.824 229.709 Chevy Juncos Hollinger Racing
20 Alexander Rossi 230.812 231.379 231.076 230.514 230.282 Honda Andretti Autosport
21 Graham Rahal 230.766 231.083 230.643 230.678 230.662 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
22 Sage Karam 230.464 231.103 230.411 230.017 230.329 Chevy Dreyer & Reinbold
23 Marco Andretti 230.345 230.996 230.283 230.117 229.986 Honda Andretti Herta Autosport w/ Marco & Curb
24 Devlin DeFrancesco 230.326 231.511 231.228 230.737 227.865 Honda Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
25 Colton Herta 230.235 230.613 230.280 229.844 230.204 Honda Andretti Autosport
26 Scott McLaughlin 230.154 230.394 230.123 230.104 229.998 Chevy Team Penske
27 Helio Castroneves 229.630 230.306 229.803 229.570 228.845 Honda Meyer Shank Racing
28 Kyle Kirkwood 229.406 230.124 229.728 229.303 228.476 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
29 Dalton Kellett 228.916 229.673 229.403 228.538 228.058 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
30 Juan Pablo Montoya 228.622 229.478 229.381 227.897 227.741 Chevy Arrow McLaren SP
31 Christian Lundgaard 227.053 227.597 228.507 226.594 225.537 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
32 Jack Harvey 226.851 230.401 225.447 228.032 223.640 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
33 Stefan Wilson no speed no speed no speed no speed no speed Chevy DragonSpeed with Cusick Motorsports

DRIVERS IN TOP 12 for Sunday Qualifying

P

Name QSpeed QLap1Speed QLap2Speed QLap3Speed QLap4Speed Engine Team
1 Rinus VeeKay 233.655 234.702 233.921 233.353 232.655 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
2 Pato O'Ward 233.037 233.401 233.176 232.804 232.767 Chevy Arrow McLaren SP
3 Felix Rosenqvist 232.775 233.512 233.131 231.931 232.532 Chevy Arrow McLaren SP
4 Alex Palou 232.774 233.588 233.175 232.607 231.734 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
5 Tony Kanaan 232.625 233.180 232.680 232.362 232.280 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
6 Jimmie Johnson 232.398 233.135 232.428 232.134 231.897 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
7 Ed Carpenter 232.397 232.954 232.792 232.549 231.299 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
8 Marcus Ericsson 232.275 232.728 232.406 231.973 231.993 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
9 Romain Grosjean 232.201 232.596 232.374 231.955 231.882 Honda Andretti Autosport
10 Scott Dixon 232.151 232.750 232.286 231.980 231.590 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
11 Will Power 231.842 232.485 232.236 231.665 230.986 Chevy Team Penske
12 Takuma Sato 231.708 232.482 231.890 231.244 231.221 Honda Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR

 

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