By Austin Lawton, Staff Writer
The second day of Indianapolis 500 practice saw fast speeds and more rain as Alex Palou was fastest on the day.
The Indianapolis area saw heavy rain overnight and into the early morning hours, resulting in a delayed start to practice, at 1:05 p.m. The refresher program for 2013 “500” champion Tony Kanaan was slated for 10 a.m., but due to the rain, will be ran tomorrow at 10 a.m.
Palou, a three-time IndyCar champion, piloted the No.10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to a speed of 227.546 mph, the fastest speed of the week so far. Palou’s speed was two miles-per-hour quicker than second place, Will Power. Power, who was fastest yesterday, put 225.584 mph on the board on Wednesday.
“I think we’ve got a reasonable package right now,” Power said. “Seems very difficult to pass when you are in the back of the pack, but car stayed really consistent through the rounds.”
Following Power was Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden at 225.545 mph, Scott Dixon at 225.092 and Conor Daly, in the ampm No. 76 Chevrolet for Juncos Hollinger Racing, at 224.931 mph.
There were two other rain delays that halted the on-track action, but, despite the delays, 2,450 laps were ran. Palou completed 99 laps, almost half of the “500” distance.
A new team made their first appearance on the speed charts this week in Dreyer and Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports. DRR, an Indianapolis-based team, only run the “500”, a tradition that has slowly died out over the years but kept alive by DRR and partner Don Cusick, owner of Cusick Motorsports.
Jack Harvey, veteran IndyCar driver turned FOX Sports pit reporter, posted 224.361 mph to put the No.24 INVEST Chevrolet in ninth when the checkered flag flew.
In terms of no-tow, Kyle Kirkwood in the No 27 Siemens Honda for Andretti Global was the fastest for the second day in a row at 222.760, over three miles-per-hour faster than yesterday. Following Kirkwood was the Ed Carpenter Racing duo of sophomore Christian Rasmussen at 222.116 mph and 2016 “500” winner, Alexander Rossi at 221.277 mph.
Rasmussen was 10th overall on the day at 224.180 mph, making him the second different ECR car to place in the top 10.
While there are big names at the top of the charts, there are also big names on the bottom end. Ed Carpenter and Santino Ferrucci were 34th and 33rd, respectively. Ferrucci, piloting the No.14 for A.J. Foyt Racing, spent most of the day in the garage as the team made drastic setup changes, only allowing for Ferrucci to turn 26 laps. The driver of the HomesForTroops.org Chevrolet, was not happy with the current state of the car, so the crew switched over to last year’s setup, more to Ferrucci’s liking.
Callum Ilott is the only driver over two days of practice to sit below 30th on both days. The Englishman driving for Prema Racing was 34th on Tuesday and 31st on Wednesday. The team is using brand new race cars, never ran on-track before. They are figuring out the kinks of racing at Indianapolis and leaning on the veteran in Ilott. At the Open Test in April, Prema used road course cars and start the month on the backfoot, a place a brand new IndyCar team does not want to be.
Rain looks to be gone for awhile as Thursday in Speedway, IN will see a high of 88 degrees with a low of 67 degrees. Teams will look to prepare for qualifications this weekend and the addition of the added horsepower boost that comes with it. Practice for all 34 entrants is set to begin at Noon and lasting until 6 p.m.