The first official practice sessions of the 109th Indianapolis 500 were scheduled to take place on Tuesday at noon, but the weather had other plans.
Light sprinkles fell from the sky all morning and into the early afternoon, which created slick conditions and led to a delay.
The series circulated service trucks in an attempt to dry the track surface, but more moisture kept accumulating for multiple hours.
While they waited, drivers signed autographs for fans that braved the conditions and did their best to enjoy themselves. Pato O’Ward even shared on the broadcast his lengthy phone call to sort out delivery of his special Indy 500 helmet.
The skies finally cleared and cars were able to begin their first practice runs at 2:34 PM, over 2.5 hours later than scheduled.
After two hours and 41 minutes of running, it was Will Power that set the fastest lap of the day. The veteran completed a lap at 227.026 MPH, lapping the 2.5-mile course in 39.6430 seconds.
His Team Penske team-mate Josef Newgarden was second fastest, though he was only 0.05 MPH off the pace.
Alex Palou, Scott Dixon, and Scott McLaughlin made up the rest of the top five, showing that the series’ usual suspects were off to a quick start for the first practice day.
The driver that was fastest on the no-tow charts was Kyle Kirkwood, who was quickest in clean air behind the wheel of his Andretti Global Honda.
Newgarden was second quickest in clean air, followed by rookie Jacob Abel in the #51 Dale Coyne Racing entry.
Drivers generally reported that their cars felt similar to the open test last month, although Marco Andretti reported that he was unexpectedly off the pace as he logged the 10th best time of the afternoon.
Utilizing the time available
Even during the shortened session, there were a large number of laps turned by the 34 drivers in attendance.
Kyffin Simpson completed the most laps of any driver at 84 circuits, with all drivers completing 1549 laps in total.
Not all drivers were fortunate enough to complete a large number of laps during the truncated day, however, including both PREMA drivers.
The team had not yet finished preparations of their speedway cars when the track opened, and spent a few more hours making sure everything was set up properly.
Callum Ilott eventually did get on track with less than two hours remaining, and completed 16 laps before the rains moved back in.
Rookie Robert Shwartzman, who has been plagued by disrupted seat time all season, completed only six laps total and will have work to do the rest of the week.
Takuma Sato was also a long ways down the laps completed chart with 29, but that was by design. He is driving a brand new car after his primary was totaled in a crash during open testing last month.
The RLL crew wanted to make sure they had everything built correctly and took a slow approach to turning laps on the first day.
Drivers will attempt to return to the track tomorrow, but the forecast calls for a chance of more light rain that could potentially cause more delays.
The series has also adjusted Wednesday’s schedule to allow Tony Kanaan to complete his refresher course in the morning ahead of the all car session at noon eastern time.
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