Ganassi and ECR head up busy second day of Indy 500 practice

After the second full day of practice for this year’s Indianapolis 500, it was Scott Dixon who found his way to the top of the timesheets in his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

The six-time champion, who has won the Indy 500 once back in 2008 and sat on pole three times, put in a fast lap of 39.6774 seconds and an average speed of 226.829 MPH.

Conor Daly joined his team owner and on-track team-mate Ed Carpenter to slot into the second and third positions respectively after six hours of running.

The duo indicated they were focusing solely on race pace today, and certainly look to be among the drivers to watch now that two days are in the books.

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Last week’s breakout winner Rinus VeeKay was not as fast as his ECR team-mates, but put in well over 100 laps around the 2.5-mile oval and ended his day in 11th position.

Marcus Ericsson ended the day in fourth as the only other driver to break through the 226 MPH barrier.

The veterans Tony Kanaan and Sebastien Bourdais were close behind, however, showing that the favorites for race day are far from decided.

The honor for completing the most laps today goes to Graham Rahal, who put in 127 laps and had a fast lap of 224.813 MPH.

There was no clear advantage to either the Chevy or the Honda-powered cars, but the more experienced teams are definitely able to get the best use out of their power plants so far.

RC Enerson was able to complete his Rookie Orientation Program in the hour before the open practice got underway, paving the way for him and his newly-formed Top Gun Racing team to hit the track with everyone else.

His completion of the orientation means that all 35 entries are now eligible to take part in qualifying this upcoming weekend, where two drivers will be eliminated and go home before the race even begins.

There were no incidents and the day’s running was only interrupted briefly for a small rain shower, but that passed quickly and the green flags waved again just 20 minutes later.

At times most of the field was on track practicing tactics on a busy track, with cars bobbing and weaving down the straights and making passes into each corner.

With a long practice session and unrepresentative weather conditions, however, there were also periods throughout the afternoon when only one or two cars were on track.

The weather is expected to warm up starting tomorrow, and there will be less downtime as drivers fine-tune their setups as much as possible in the days leading up to qualifying.

Tomorrow’s schedule calls for another six hours of open practice encompassing most of the afternoon.

Today’s practice times are below: