INDIANAPOLIS – We saw the third crash of the month, two of which coming in Turn 2, as rookie Pato O’Ward lost control of his No. 31 Chevrolet while running behind Helio Castroneves and crashed head on into the SAFER barrier at the exit of the second corner. The Carlin Racing driver saw his car briefly get airborne, nearly rolling over, before coming to rest on all four wheels on the backstretch.
Luckily, O’Ward was able to walk away with just some bumps are bruises but he will have to use Max Chilton’s road course car as his primary for Fast Friday.
For the on track action, rain and lightning ended the day about 90 minutes early as Ed Jones topped the speed charts on Day 3 of Indianapolis 500 practice on Thursday. Jones, circled the track with a speed of 227.843 mph in his No. 63 Chevrolet as he’s now been in the top 10 of the overall speed charts on all three days.
The Ed Carpenter Racing driver was also quickest on the no tow report, a day after being third on Wednesday’s report, as he certainly has to become one of the favorites to land on the pole on Sunday afternoon.
2017 Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato was P2 in his No. 30 Honda. Sato, turned in a lap of 226.699 mph. He was quick on the no tow too chiming in P7 on that report.
Zach Veach (226.070 mph), Sebastien Bourdais (225.996 mph) and Colton Herta (225.458 mph) rounded out the top five.
Here are the main takeaways from Thursday’s action.
A Diverse Day Of Practice Plans
You would think that most of the running on Thursday would have been in race trim. Instead, due to three cars being bumped this weekend, qualifying still has everyone’s attention.
So, while some cars elected to run still on race trim, a majority of the teams went on Q-trim early to give themselves a little preview of what to expect when the boost levels get turned up on Friday.
Most would think it would be counterproductive to put the cars on qualifying setups due to the horsepower gains that will be on these cars this weekend. With no race running for these guys past tonight until Sunday afternoon, why not get the cars fully dialed in?
Well, the Penske’s, Andretti’s and several other teams elected to start the day off on qualifying setups. They wanted a head start on Friday. At the end of the day, the same cars you saw on qual sims in the early hours of practice, ran in a group on race setups.
We saw 7-10 cars running in a tow before the track activity was canceled early.
While this was one group, some of the others ran race trim early and never had time to go on q trim later.
It’s been a weird week of practice because of that.
Honda’s Fast, But Chevy Still Happy
Four of the top five speeds overall belong to Honda drivers. They also have five of the top nine in fact. But, the no tow report tells a different story.
The top five speeds on the no tow were all Chevy drivers. The top two belong to Ed Carpenter Racing. Furthermore, seven of the top nine laps without a tow were from the bowties, which would lead us to think that we could see a 7-2 advantage in the Fast Nine for Chevy drivers this weekend.
Ed Carpenter Racing Stealing The Show
If anyone is not only the favorites for the pole this weekend, but the race win next weekend, it has to be ECR. They have been fast in not only group running but also the no tow report all week as well.
On Thursday, ECR had 1-8-13 on the overall speed chart but 1-2-8 on the no tow list as well. With the organization putting all three of their cars in the Fast Nine last year, they look to be Fast Nine contenders this year too.
No Laps For McLaren On Thursday
The original goal for McLaren Racing was to have Fernando Alonso out on the race track by 2 p.m. ET. See, the team not only elected to repair the crashed No. 66 Chevrolet from yesterday, but they also wanted to setup the backup to run today. Unfortunately, they ran out of time.
The team was able to get the engine fired around 3 p.m. locally but with practice being cut short 90 minutes early, they never got on the track.
That’s not good for them as they’ve turned less than 100 laps this week. By comparison, heading into Thursday, seven cars have already exceeded the 200 lap mark run. Most of the cars have doubled the amount of on track time as McLaren.
Big Names Shut Out Up Front
Just look at the speed chart on Thursday and find the big names up front. Ed Carpenter Racing, Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan Racing, Andretti Autosport, Dale Coyne Racing, Harding Steinbrenner Racing, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, Juncos, Ed Carpenter Racing. That’s 1-8 on the speed chart.
Yes, there’s one Andretti car but that’s Zach Veach who oh by the way is having a fantastic week so far. He was seventh on the speed charts in the first two days of practice too.
It just goes to show you that race running is still very much wide open.
Day 3 Speeds
- 63 Jones 227.843
- 30 Sato 226.699
- 26 Veach 226.070
- 18 Bourdais 225.996
- 88 Herta R 225.458
- 24 Karam 225.401
- 32 Kaiser 225.396
- 21 Pigot 225.335
- 9 Dixon 225.300
- 22 Pagenaud 225.256
- 3 Castroneves 225.142
- 33 Davison 225.064
- 20 Carpenter 225.038
- 12 Power 224.858
- 59 Chilton 224.802
- 23 Kimball 224.797
- 98 Andretti 224.771
- 48 Hildebrand 224.481
- 25 Daly 224.480
- 7 Ericsson R 224.405
- 2 Newgarden 224.343
- 27 Rossi 224.220
- 31 O’Ward 224.170
- 15 Rahal 224.133
- 5 Hinchcliffe 223.984
- 60 Harvey 223.983
- 39 Mann 223.819
- 77 Servia 223.284
- 42 King R 223.173
- 28 Hunter-Reay 223.074
- 4 Leist 222.969
- 14 Kanaan 222.831
- 81 Hanley R 222.364
- 10 Rosenqvist R 221. 697
- 19 Ferrucci R 220.457
No Tow Report
- 63 Jones 224.957
- 21 Pigot 224.887
- 22 Pagenaud 224.868
- 12 Power 224.858
- 23 Kimball 224.797
- 98 Andretti 224.431
- 30 Sato 224.428
- 20 Carpenter 223.820
- 2 Newgarden 223.635
- 7 Ericsson R 223.568
- 27 Rossi 223.464
- 15 Rahal 223.141
- 5 Hinchcliffe 223.132
- 28 Hunter-Reay 223.074
- 25 Daly 223.038
- 26 Veach 222.998
- 81 Hanley R 222.364
- 60 Harvey 222.277
- 42 King R 222.276
- 32 Kaiser 222.190
- 48 Hildebrand 222.152
- 59 Chilton 221.978
- 9 Dixon 221.830
- 4 Leist 221.339
- 14 Kanaan 221.269
- 39 Mann 221.288
- 88 Herta R 221.263
- 24 Karam 221.253
- 3 Castroneves 221.195
- 77 Servia 220.557
- 19 Ferrucci R 220.457
- 18 Bourdais 220.294
- 31 OWard R 219.509
- 10 Rosenqvist R 217.377
- 33 Davison 215.225
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