Conor Daly was the fastest driver on 'Fast Friday' as the engine suppliers were allowed to turn up the boost as the drivers prepare for the qualifying weekend ahead of the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500.
Daly, who only has a single entry in the 2019 NTT IndyCar season at the Indy 500, rocketed to the top of the speed charts with only a few minutes left of the session, achieving a best average lap speed of 231.704mph in the #25 USAF entry.
Andretti Autosport team-mate for the event, Marco Andretti, ended the day second in the #98 dayglow red liveried U.S. Concrete entry – a matching livery to his grandfather Mario's 1969 Indy 500 winning car – ended the day with a best effort of 230.851mph.
Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan's Takuma Sato continues to push towards the top of the leaderboard in the #30 Mi-Jack car, finishing third overall on the final day of practice before qualifying. The 2017 Indy 500 winner recorded a 230.755mph.
Ed Carpenter Racing's Spencer Pigot was fourth at the end of the session, capping off a solid week for the ECR squad, his fastest run was a 230.471mph, however, his best no-tow speed was only 221.733mph indicating that he spent most of the day running in traffic across the session.
In fifth place, it was Ryan-Hunter Reay in the #28 DHL-Honda who made it three Andretti Autosport cars inside the top five with a 230.466mph, narrowly missing out on beating Pigot.
For the second consecutive day, it was the Chevrolet-powered Ed Jones who topped the fastest no tow speeds as preparations began for the weekend's qualifying session, the British-Emirati was the only one to crack the 230mph barrier with a 230.106mph.
Team-mate and team owner Ed Carpenter was second with a 229.879mph best no-tow speed, but it was 2016 Indy 500 race winner Alexander Rossi who showed there is little to choose between engine suppliers Chevrolet and Honda as the Californian was only .001mph slower than Carpenter without a tow in his #27 NAPA-Honda
Juncos Racing's Kyle Kaiser had a crash in Turn 3 in the first hour of the session, his wreck appeared to happen in an almost identical manner to Patricio O'Ward's crash from Thursday, Kaiser did get airborne and nearly rolled over.
The American driver did get cleared by the infield medical staff, but Juncos face a difficult time to get the #32 entry ready for qualifying due to the team's sponsorship struggles.
The first day of qualifying will get underway on Saturday at 11am local time
Discussion about this post