The two-time series champion and reigning Indy 500 winner simply summarized the rebound after by quipping: “The car looks better than when I wrecked it.”
Callum Ilott, who qualified eighth, continued to flex the muscle of his Chevrolet-powered Juncos Hollinger Racing entry, ending up second on the timesheets at 0.0809s behind Newgarden at the 1.964-mile, 12-turn natural terrain road course.
Chip Ganassi Racing wrapped up the rest of the top five, led by championship leader Alex Palou in third, followed by Marcus Ericsson and Scott Dixon.
Proving the strength isn’t a fluke, rookie Agustin Canapino put the other Juncos Hollinger Racing entry in sixth. Rinus VeeKay continued his solid weekend with his No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet in seventh.
Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta, fresh off qualifying third, was eighth. Team Penske’s Will Power and Dale Coyne Racing with HMD’s David Malukas were ninth and 10th, respectively.
Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist led the opening 10 minutes of the session but faded down the running order to 11th at the checkered flag.
The Meyer Shank Racing pairing of Helio Castroneves and rookie Tom Blomqvist were 12th and 13th, respectively. Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi was 14th and Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Marcus Armstrong was 15th.
With roughly 10 minutes remaining in the session, Ericsson was handed a drive-thru penalty by IndyCar officials for “failure to follow the direction of IndyCar” after blowing through Turn 1 and going into the runoff area of the chicane before directly rejoining the track, rather than its convoluted rejoin path through a series of bollards.
The same penalty was given to Romain Grosjean a few moments later, with his No. 28 Andretti Autosport Honda catching air briefly after missing Turn 1 and cutting the chicane.
Sunday’s 110-lap race will begin at 3pm ET.
