Josef Newgarden was fastest in final practice for the 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500.
The two-hour session on Carb Day saw the two-time Indy 500 winner pound the pavement for 55 laps, with a best of 228.342mph in the #2 Team Penske Chevrolet.
“It was OK,” Newgarden said. “It was all right. But today’s Friday, and we’ve got to be good on Sunday. I’m just ready to get to Sunday. Sunday is what’s going to matter with the Shell car. Team Chevy has done a great job for us this month. I’m excited to go racing.”
ECR’s Christian Rasmussen was second, trailing Newgarden by 0.1505s (227.474mph). He was in the middle of a Team Penske sandwich as David Malukas ended third (226.565mph) at 0.3092s off Newgarden’s mark.
Conor Daly, driving the #23 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet, concluded fourth-fastest (226.341mph) in the session at 0.3485s behind.
Two-time Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato was the first Honda-powered driver in fifth (226.244mph), with his #75 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entry 0.3656s behind.
Reigning and four-time IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou, who also comes in as the defending Indy 500 winner and will start Sunday on the pole, was sixth. His session was disrupted slightly when, after initially logging 37 laps, the mechanics of his #10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda “saw something they didn’t like” and took his car back to the garage to look it over with roughly 1h20m left in the session. He returned later and logged additional laps before the session ended.
Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood was carving through traffic before concluding his session early and ended up seventh overall on the scoring pylon. Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin was eighth.
Marcus Armstrong put the #66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda in ninth, ahead of rookie Dennis Hauger's #19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda in 10th.
After being cleared to race following his two medical procedures as a result of a practice crash on Monday, Alexander Rossi, who starts second in the Indy 500, jumped into his #20 ECR Chevrolet with a special brace on his right ankle. He logged 48 laps, with a best of 222.291mph that was 31st overall.
Six-time IndyCar Series champion and 2008 Indy 500 winner Scott Dixon ran a session-high 96 laps, with the final run being a fuel-save effort. He was 14th quickest. Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist, 22nd quickest, logged the fewest laps on the day with 45.
