Alex Palou leads the way in Day 2 of Indy 500 practice

Rain was once again a topic of discussion Wednesday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, limiting track time for the 34 drivers and teams. Tony Kanaan’s veteran refresher test was also postponed to Thursday. 

Full-field practice didn’t begin until after 1pm EST and drivers got almost three hours of practice time before some light raindrops and nearby lightning halted things again. The session resumed about 45 minutes later with a flurry of activity out on the track, but it did not last. The rain returned in the middle of ‘happy hour,’ once again pausing the action. Thankfully, this was brief and the second day of practice was able to reach its completion under green-flag conditions.

Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

There were no on-track incidents and the only yellow flags were for weather interruptions or track inspections. Championship leader Alex Palou topped the speed charts for Chip Ganassi Racing, reaching 227.546mph in a time that eclipsed Day 1’s top speed by Will Power (227.026mph). Power was once again strong on Wednesday, ranking second overall at 225.584mph with his Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden third at 225.545mph.

“We did a little bit of (running in) traffic,” Palou said. “It’s always tough when people are in different run plans. A couple of good traffic runs. The car is feeling good. You always want it to feel a little bit better, but so far, so good.

“This is the biggest race, and that’s what we work so much toward. So, we’re going to try and chase that win.”

Scott Dixon and Conor Daly rounded out the top five while David Malukas, Marcus Armstrong, Helio Castroneves, Jack Harvey, and Christian Rasmussen filled out the remainder of the top ten.

Jacob Abel – Dale Coyne Racing

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

Ferrucci frustrated

Santino Ferrucci, who was very vocal about his unhappiness with the car, ranked 33rd while three-time Indy 500 pole-sitter Ed Carpenter was 34th (last).

“Felt comfortable with what we did overnight in clean air,” Ferrucci told IndyCar on FOX. “Decided to go hop into the back of a train, just to get a balance read. And yeah, nope, I’m going back to last year’s car. I’m fed up with trying to make this work. There was light at the end of the tunnel but not anymore.”

Just like Tuesday, Kyle Kirkwood once again topped the speed charts for no-tow speeds at 222.760mph, followed by Rasmussen at  222.116mph and Alexander Rossi at 221.277mph.

As for most laps run, four drivers ran over half the length of a true Indy 500 with Castroneves leading that category at 114 laps completed on Wednesday.

Photos from Indianapolis 500 – Practice 3

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