
Of the 12 IndyCar races held on the 2.439-mile IMS road course since 2014, Power has won five and taken pole in six, but in March he and Josef Newgarden for Team Penske-Chevrolet and Scott Dixon for Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda got the chance to run the ‘inner loop’ layout when testing IndyCar’s 2024-spec 2.4-liter engines.
This layout (see diagram below) extends the track to 2.6 miles, as Turn 5, rather than being the first part of the quick left-right chicane onto the back straight, becomes instead a right-hander, leading to a horseshoe-shaped left-hander that leads back to what is termed the 6A right-hander onto the back straight.