Indy 500 test day ends early after third pit-exit incident

Alexander Rossi had a harmless spin exiting pit road for an installation lap in the morning session that involved the 22 veterans plus two rookies – Romain Grosjean and Jimmie Johnson – that had already concluded their orientation program to IndyCar’s satisfaction.

The eight-car ‘rookies and refreshers’ session went without a hitch in the early afternoon. However, as four-time Indy winner Helio Castroneves sped up on the pit-out warm-up lane on the inside of the short chute between Turns 1 and 2 and, his Meyer Shank Racing-Honda snapped into a spin. The momentum carried him across the grass that separates that warm-up lane from the racing surface at Turn 2, across the track and into the outside wall, heavily damaging the right side of his car.

Trackside Online has confirmed with Meyer Shank that the wrecked machine was last year’s winning car and it will not be back on track tomorrow, nor will Castroneves run a spare car.

Barely 20mins after the Brazilian veteran’s incident, 2018 Indy winner Will Power’s Team Penske Chevrolet suddenly spun as the car left pitlane. He partially crossed the strip of grass that divides pit-out from the track at Turn 1, and the rear of the car jutted out onto the racing line. Colton Herta, running full speed on track moved up half a lane to avoid striking the Penske, and this was enough to turn the Andretti Autosport-Honda into a long drift which became a spin.

Following long inspection of the recently sealed pit exit lane, IndyCar officials elected to shut down the day’s on-track activities.

That left four-time Indy polesitter and single-time winner Scott Dixon at the head of the speed charts, the #9 Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda turning a 227.187mph lap to finish up ahead of Conor Daly’s Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet.

Although the foreshortened track time meant lap speeds were largely inconclusive, Juncos Hollinger Racing could be highly satisfied that its rookie Callum Ilott was third fastest in the 226mph speed bracket. The former Formula 2 ace had also topped the rookie and refreshers course.

Santino Ferrucci, just like in this morning’s session, was highly impressive in his first ever run for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet, clocking fourth fastest, ahead of Ganassi’s Marcus Ericsson who had to swerve to avoid the shunts for both Castroneves and Herta.

His NASCAR legend teammate Jimmie Johnson was very fast in this morning’s practice, so his P25 time this afternoon was entirely unrepresentative of his potential.

P	No	Name	FTime	FL	Laps	FSpeed	Engine	Team
1	9	Scott Dixon	39.6150	9	11	227.187	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	20	Conor Daly	39.6502	24	26	226.985	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
3	77	Callum Ilott	39.7688	10	11	226.308	Chevy	Juncos Hollinger Racing
4	23	Santino Ferrucci	39.7910	16	21	226.182	Chevy	Dreyer & Reinbold
5	8	Marcus Ericsson	39.9394	9	16	225.341	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
6	27	Alexander Rossi	39.9624	25	27	225.212	Honda	Andretti Autosport
7	06	Helio Castroneves	39.9723	5	10	225.156	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
8	11	JR Hildebrand	39.9813	8	9	225.105	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
9	26	Colton Herta	40.0531	33	35	224.702	Honda	Andretti Autosport
10	51	Takuma Sato	40.0664	11	12	224.627	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
11	10	Alex Palou	40.0947	14	17	224.469	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
12	29	Devlin DeFrancesco	40.1411	4	5	224.209	Honda	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
13	21	Rinus VeeKay	40.1418	4	11	224.205	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
14	60	Simon Pagenaud	40.2563	22	24	223.567	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
15	28	Romain Grosjean	40.3130	30	34	223.253	Honda	Andretti Autosport
16	5	Pato O'Ward	40.3213	4	23	223.207	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
17	3	Scott McLaughlin	40.4964	8	15	222.242	Chevy	Team Penske
18	7	Felix Rosenqvist	40.5600	5	12	221.893	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
19	12	Will Power	40.5782	8	12	221.794	Chevy	Team Penske
20	33	Ed Carpenter	40.6656	11	16	221.317	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
21	45	Jack Harvey	40.7314	15	21	220.960	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
22	1	Tony Kanaan	40.8475	7	8	220.332	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
23	15	Graham Rahal	40.9498	4	26	219.781	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
24	2	Josef Newgarden	41.1004	4	10	218.976	Chevy	Team Penske
25	48	Jimmie Johnson	41.1363	9	21	218.785	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
26	6	Juan Pablo Montoya	No Time	--	1	---	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
27	14	Kyle Kirkwood	No Time	--	---	---	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
28	30	Christian Lundgaard	No Time	--	---	---	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
29	18	David Malukas	No Time	--	---	---	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
30	98	Marco Andretti	No Time	--	---	---	Honda	Andretti Herta Autosport w/ Marco & Curb
31	4	Dalton Kellett	No Time	--	---	---	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises