INDIANAPOLIS — Another weather-shortened practice day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway ended with the current NTT IndyCar Series points leader on top of the speed charts.
Alex Palou turned the day’s fastest lap at 227.546 mph in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner Will Power was second fastest at 225.584 mph in the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet.
Two-time defending Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden‘s No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet was third fastest ahead of 2008 Indianapolis 500 winner Scott Dixon‘s No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda in fourth and Conor Daly’s No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet in fifth.
Kyle Kirkwood led the non-tow assisted speed chart with a fastest lap of 222.760 mph in the No. 27 Andretti Global Honda. Ed Carpenter Racing’s Christian Rasmussen (No. 21) and Alexander Rossi (No. 20) were second and third respectively in their Chevrolets while the Andretti Global duo of Colton Herta (No. 26) and Marco Andretti (No. 98) were fourth and fifth fastest in their Hondas.
Persistent morning rain showers further delayed Tony Kanaan‘s veteran refresher program until Thursday morning, the 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner needing to take part in case Kyle Larson will need to skip the “500” this year to run in NASCAR’s Coca Cola 600 due to weather.
Instead of the track going green at noon for the full field practice, the track saw action for the first time at 1:08 p.m. ET with the first yellow flag coming out at 2:00 p.m. for a planned track inspection.
There were two more yellows for a combined time of almost an hour and 10 minutes due to weather conditions but hot practice ended at 6:00 p.m. ET. The track remained open for another 15 minutes for pit stop practice and went cold at 6:15 p.m. ET.
There were no on-track incidents as the 34 drivers turned a total of 2,555 laps.
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.