Hot Carb Day Temperatures give Indy 500 drivers preview of race day

Tony Kanaan – fast man on Carb Day

The temperatures on the final practice session on Carb Day for the Indy 500 were hotter than all month and the drivers struggled to find a good balance on their cars for the race.

AJ Foyt Chevy driver Tony Kanaan turned the fastest lap with a tow a 225.517 mph but four other Chevys topped the no-tow times led by Josef Newgarden (Penske) at 221.918 mph, Helio Castroneves (Penske) at 220.796 mph, Spencer Pigot (ECR) at 220.314 mph and Simon Pagenaud (Penske) 220.177 mph.

Based on today's results, Chevys are going to be hard to beat on race day.

"A good day for us," Kanaan said. "Obviously, conditions look like pretty similar to what we're going to see on Sunday, hopefully. It was a pretty easy day for us.

"I wasn't really happy with my car on Monday and I was extremely vocal about it, and I think my engineers heard me, so we made it better today."

Kanaan will make his 18th Indy 500 start on Sunday, this time from the inside of Row 6. He focused on tweaking his car to run strong in traffic on Friday since he knows he'll be in the thick of it during the race.

"I was really working on my car, the level of downforce and grip that I wanted to have starting 16th," Kanaan explained. "So, really, we worked in traffic a lot and trying to find the grip and scan to some of the items that we had on the list to be able to – once we put ourselves in the front during the race – to know what to do."

Rookie Santino Ferrucci was second fastest in the practice, turning a lap of 225.486 mph in the No. 19 Cly-Del Manufacturing Honda for Dale Coyne Racing. Takuma Sato, the 2017 Indy 500 champion, was third in the No. 30 Mi-Jack/Panasonic Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

"We were having fun," Ferrucci said. "The No. 19 Cly-Del Manufacturing Honda is in really good shape. We could pass about everybody and we're quick, so there isn't much else to say really. We're looking forward to the race."

Pole sitter Simon Pagenaud ranked 22nd on the speed chart Friday at 222.856 mph in the No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet. Teammate Will Power, the reigning race winner, was 10th at 224.240 mph in the No. 12 Verizon 5G Team Penske Chevrolet.

Points leader Josef Newgarden was 13th fastest in the No. 2 Shell V-Power Nitro Plus Team Penske Chevrolet. He holds a six-point lead heading into the race over reigning NTT IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon, who wasn't pleased with how his No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda handled on Friday.

"I don't know what happened there with the PNC Bank car, honestly," said Dixon, who was 19th on the speed chart and starts the race 18th. "I hope we find something wrong with the car because it wasn't great. It's really bizarre, and nothing like we had all month, so we are unsure.

"There is a fundamental issue on the car and we'll work to find out what happened there."

A total of 1,755 laps were completed on the 2.5-mile oval in the practice scheduled for 90 minutes shortened 18 minutes to allow the track to dry following morning rain.

Carb Day Practice

Pos	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FSpeed	Engine	Team
1	14	Tony Kanaan	39.908	–.—-	–.—-	225.517	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
2	19	Santino Ferrucci	39.914	0.0054	0.0054	225.486	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing
3	30	Takuma Sato	39.917	0.0087	0.0033	225.468	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
4	42	Jordan King	39.940	0.0319	0.0232	225.337	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
5	33	James Davison	39.944	0.0360	0.0041	225.314	Honda	Dale Coyne with Byrd and Belardi
6	18	Sebastien Bourdais	39.949	0.0405	0.0045	225.288	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan
7	27	Alexander Rossi	40.055	0.1465	0.1060	224.692	Honda	Andretti Autosport
8	23	Charlie Kimball	40.062	0.1540	0.0075	224.650	Chevy	Carlin
9	88	Colton Herta	40.084	0.1760	0.0220	224.527	Honda	Harding Steinbrenner Racing
10	12	Will Power	40.136	0.2273	0.0513	224.240	Chevy	Team Penske
11	5	James Hinchcliffe	40.151	0.2431	0.0158	224.152	Honda	Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
12	3	Helio Castroneves	40.162	0.2534	0.0103	224.094	Chevy	Team Penske
13	2	Josef Newgarden	40.194	0.2862	0.0328	223.911	Chevy	Team Penske
14	21	Spencer Pigot	40.196	0.2873	0.0011	223.905	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
15	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	40.239	0.3306	0.0433	223.664	Honda	Andretti Autosport
16	25	Conor Daly	40.240	0.3315	0.0009	223.659	Honda	Andretti Autosport
17	15	Graham Rahal	40.261	0.3528	0.0213	223.541	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
18	20	Ed Carpenter	40.272	0.3635	0.0107	223.481	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
19	9	Scott Dixon	40.289	0.3804	0.0169	223.388	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing Teams
20	10	Felix Rosenqvist	40.321	0.4124	0.0320	223.210	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing Teams
21	60	Jack Harvey	40.363	0.4545	0.0421	222.978	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing with Arrow SPM
22	22	Simon Pagenaud	40.385	0.4765	0.0220	222.856	Chevy	Team Penske
23	98	Marco Andretti	40.391	0.4823	0.0058	222.824	Honda	Andretti Herta Autosport with Curb-Agaj
24	48	JR Hildebrand	40.402	0.4935	0.0112	222.762	Chevy	Dreyer and Reinbold Racing
25	7	Marcus Ericsson	40.402	0.4941	0.0006	222.759	Honda	Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
26	39	Pippa Mann	40.428	0.5192	0.0251	222.621	Chevy	Clauson-Marshall Racing
27	77	Oriol Servia	40.429	0.5207	0.0015	222.612	Honda	Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
28	26	Zach Veach	40.435	0.5263	0.0056	222.582	Honda	Andretti Autosport
29	24	Sage Karam	40.459	0.5502	0.0239	222.450	Chevy	Dreyer and Reinbold Racing
30	4	Matheus Leist	40.504	0.5954	0.0452	222.202	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
31	63	Ed Jones	40.520	0.6118	0.0164	222.112	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
32	32	Kyle Kaiser	40.596	0.6873	0.0755	221.699	Chevy	Juncos Racing
33	81	Ben Hanley	40.961	1.0531	0.3658	219.719	Chevy	DragonSpeed