Schmidt Peterson Motorsports' Jay Howard set the fastest time of the week to finish atop the timesheets on the fourth day of practice for the Indianapolis 500.
Howard used the draft available to him and clocked a lap at 226.744mph to finish comfortably quickest, almost one mile per hour faster than Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay, who posted a 225.825.
Hunter-Reay was followed by team-mates Marco Andretti and Fernando Alonso, the McLaren-associated debutant maintaining strong form by placing fourth, racking up 96 laps of the oval, his best a 225.619.
In the ‘No Tow Rankings’, Alonso finished a creditable ninth – setting a 223.687, within one mph of team-mate Takuma Sato, who led the NTR, as Howard placed down in 24th position.
Penske’s Josef Newgarden finished in fifth place overall but suffered a sizeable accident, slamming into the wall exiting Turn 1, the crash prematurely ending his running.
Sage Karam finished sixth, in front of Charlie Kimball, Oriol Servià, Sato and Sébastien Bourdais.
Reigning Indianapolis 500 champion Alexander Rossi placed 13th, surrounded by the Penskes of Will Power, Juan Pablo Montoya and Hélio Castroneves, the three-time winner the most productive runner, completing 117 laps.
Current IndyCar champion Simon Pagenaud was a low-key 23rd, with last year’s pole sitter James Hinchcliffe further back in 26th spot.
Buddy Lazier, the 33rd entrant for this year’s event, finally appeared for the first time all week, completing a slow installation lap during the closing stages.
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