INDIANAPOLIS — Will Power set the fastest time of the opening day of practice ahead of the 109th Indianapolis 500 on Tuesday (May 13).
The 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner set a fastest lap of 227.026 mph in the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet in the abbreviated session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Teammate Josef Newgarden was second fastest in the No. 2 Chevrolet at 226.971 mph.
On the non-tow sheet for drivers that did not receive a draft on their fast laps, Kyle Kirkwood had the fastest non-tow lap at 219.497 mph. Newgarden was second on the non-tow list at 219.149 mph.
The hopes for an on-time start to practice were dashed away by Mother Nature, as consistent drizzle kept the track too wet for practice. The scheduled start time of noon came and went, and it wasn’t until 2:34 p.m. ET that the green flag flew to begin practice.
All 34 entries into the 33-car starting field turned a total of 1,549 laps with no wall contact in almost two hours and 42 minutes of track time. The only yellow flags were for a track inspection.
The only major difficulty for the day were for PREMA. The Italian team making its NTT IndyCar Series season debut did not have its cars ready to go when the track went green for practice. Its drivers turned the least number of laps today, with Robert Shwartzman turning six laps in the No. 83 Chevrolet and Callum Ilott running 16 laps around the 2.5-mile oval.
Wednesday, May 14’s practice session will begin with a veteran refresher for Tony Kanaan at 10 a.m. ET in case Kyle Larson cannot compete in the 500 on May 25. Practice will officially begin at noon or possibly earlier if the veteran refresher is completed sooner.
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.