Indy 500 test: Newgarden tops Day 1 speed charts at 227mph

The two-time champion, still seeking an Indy 500 win, lapped the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway at 227.686mph, 0.9mph ahead of 2008 Indy winner Scott Dixon.

That’s the way it remained until very late in the session, on the 114^th of 119 laps, Conor Daly sprung into the 227s, laying down a 227.466mph lap in his Ed Carpenter Racing entry.

Behind Dixon was Kyle Kirkwood, IndyCar’s most recent new winner, who claimed fourth fastest speed for Andretti Autosport with 30mins to go, ahead of Takuma Sato, two-time Indy 500 victor. This May he will be taking part in his second event for Chip Ganassi Racing.

With the second day of testing, tomorrow, forecast to be blighted by showers, the track was very busy as teams plowed through their nine-set Firestone allocation.

The pressure to get as much of tomorrow’s work done today meant the drivers felt compelled to hit the track even though conditions were far from ideal – strong headwinds along the front straight, tail winds on the back straight, and gusts of up to 30mph.

One of the busiest drivers was Stefan Wilson preparing for his fifth Indianpolis 500, who turned well over 100 laps of the 2.5-mile oval in the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing with Cusick Motorsports entry, and he finished the day sixth, ahead of Colton Herta (Andretti) and Alex Palou (Ganassi).

Another late improvement came from last year’s Indy 500 runner-up, Pato O’Ward, who slotted his Arrow McLaren car into ninth ahead of Scott McLaughlin (Penske). Marco Andretti (Andretti), David Malukas of Dale Coyne Racing and 2018 winner Will Power (Penske) were next up, with returning 2014 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay 14^th in the second Dreyer & Reinbold machine. The 2013 winner, Tony Kanaan, preparing for his last ever IndyCar race, was 15^th for Arrow McLaren.

Callum Ilott turned only 10 laps, his best of which was only 212mph. He quit pitlane early, having found his Juncos Hollinger Racing entry undriveable.

Fastest on the no-tow charts was Devlin DeFrancesco of Andretti Autosport – 221.119mph – ahead of Newgarden and Ed Carpenter.

Busiest driver of the day was defending Indy winner Marcus Ericsson who lapped the course 120 times in his #8 Chip Ganassi Racing car.

Tomorrow’s action is supposed to begin at 10.00am ET and run through until 4.00pm.

P	Name	FTime	Diff	FL	Laps	FSpeed	Engine	Team
1	Josef Newgarden	39.5281	39.5281	52	93	227.686	Chevy	Team Penske
2	Conor Daly	39.5664	0.0383	114	119	227.466	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
3	Scott Dixon	39.6846	0.1565	14	58	226.788	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
4	Kyle Kirkwood	39.6954	0.1673	38	43	226.727	Honda	Andretti Autosport
5	Takuma Sato	39.7764	0.2483	20	48	226.265	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
6	Stefan Wilson	39.8300	0.3019	26	106	225.960	Chevy	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
7	Colton Herta	39.8347	0.3066	22	29	225.934	Honda	Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
8	Alex Palou	39.8471	0.3190	94	96	225.863	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
9	Pato O'Ward	39.9020	0.3739	73	79	225.553	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
10	Scott McLaughlin	39.9126	0.3845	22	109	225.493	Chevy	Team Penske
11	Marco Andretti	39.9505	0.4224	14	23	225.279	Honda	Andretti
12	David Malukas	39.9713	0.4432	88	91	225.162	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
13	Will Power	39.9720	0.4439	17	85	225.158	Chevy	Team Penske
14	Ryan Hunter-Reay	40.0065	0.4784	41	59	224.963	Chevy	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
15	Tony Kanaan	40.0371	0.5090	29	40	224.792	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
16	Ed Carpenter	40.0547	0.5266	61	91	224.693	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
17	Simon Pagenaud	40.0790	0.5509	21	47	224.557	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
18	Marcus Ericsson	40.0824	0.5543	90	120	224.537	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
19	Helio Castroneves	40.2423	0.7142	74	75	223.645	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
20	Felix Rosenqvist	40.2657	0.7376	52	87	223.515	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
21	Romain Grosjean	40.2692	0.7411	51	54	223.496	Honda	Andretti Autosport
22	Alexander Rossi	40.3052	0.7771	67	73	223.296	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
23	Graham Rahal	40.3156	0.7875	38	81	223.239	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
24	Rinus VeeKay	40.3162	0.7881	87	112	223.235	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
25	Santino Ferrucci	40.3548	0.8267	41	72	223.022	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
26	Christian Lundgaard	40.4132	0.8851	11	111	222.700	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
27	Agustin Canapino	40.5109	0.9828	14	38	222.162	Chevy	Juncos Holling Racing
28	Jack Harvey	40.5163	0.9882	80	98	222.133	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
29	Sting Ray Robb	40.5799	1.0518	71	73	221.785	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
30	Devlin DeFrancesco	40.6661	1.1380	16	36	221.315	Honda	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
31	Katherine Legge	40.8881	1.3600	3	33	220.113	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
32	Benjamin Pedersen	40.8889	1.3608	5	62	220.109	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
33	Callum Ilott	42.3990	2.8709	3	10	212.269	Chevy	Juncos Hollinger Racing