The third Indy 500 practice day was completed on Thursday, with all 34 drivers gaining even more valuable track time leading up to the biggest event of the year.
Team Penske continued its strong showing, with nearly every driver interviewed noting that the powerhouse team appeared to be one of the best on track.
After nearly six hours of open testing, Josef Newgarden set the fastest overall time of the day and completed a lap at 226.632 MPH.
The two-time and defending Indy 500 winner has been locked in at IMS so far this year, and was satisfied with only 35 laps turned on the day.
Warm temperatures made the track surface a slick throughout the afternoon, which pushed speeds a bit slower than the previous two days.
The winds were much stronger than days before, which pushed drivers into Turn 3 with a tail wind all afternoon. Wednesday’s fastest trap speed was 235.107 MPH, while Newgarden clocked 238.118 during one entry off the back stretch.
Scott Dixon was second fastest on the time sheets, and Juncos Hollinger Racing driver Conor Daly was third fastest.
Wednesday’s fast driver Alex Palou was sixth on the charts for Thursday, indicating that he has a fast car in multiple different scenarios.
A couple drivers were not happy, however. Graham Rahal was one, and his radio communications confirmed that he was upset at how uncomfortable he was after his tires were subjected to just a few laps of wear.
Santino Ferrucci also struggled to get his #14 AJ Foyt entry into a good window despite making wholesale changes overnight.
Close call for Rasmussen
There was one incident during the day, and with it Christian Rasmussen became the luckiest driver in the field.
Rasmussen’s #21 drifted wide in Turn 2 and the Dane spun loose while trying to keep the car off the wall. His rear wing and right rear tire just scraped the outside wall as the car came around in a cloud of smoke, but no more damage was done.
Kyle Larson was on track just behind the spinning car, but kept his composure enough to avoid the incident and keep control of his own car.
Rasmussen rolled to a stop on the back stretch with seemingly only the tiniest bit of cosmetic damage, but his Ed Carpenter Racing crew will triple-check that fact throughout the night before sending him back out at speed.
Alex Palou also had a scare when heavy grease streaks were seen at the rear of the car early in the day. A quick trip to the garage confirmed it was just a leaky rubber boot and there were no concerns about larger issues.
On account of a consistently busy track, teams almost exclusively chose to focus on their race setups and handling in traffic.
Starting on Friday, the cars will have their turbo boost pressures increased to simulate qualifying conditions. That is the day that focus will shift to achieving the absolute fastest speeds of the season.
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