Speeds climb on Thursday at Indy

With 2 hours to go in Thursday practice at Indy, the speeds have now climbed to over 225mph.

Takuma Sato is fastest in his #30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda (above) at 225.693mph while Conor Daly is the only other driver over 225mph in his Ed Carpenter Chevy.

Charlie Kimball, Fernando Alonso and James Davison round out the top-5.

We do not see a lot of passing for position on the track. Not yet certain if the aeroscreen has made it harder to pass, but it appears similar to last year when you had to take several laps to get the momentum up to pass a car – except for Simon Pagenaud who was able to pass Alexander Rossi at will last year to win the 500, and we saw him smoke Rossi today and then gap him.

So far this year Rossi is nowhere – down in 24th place with the back markers. Is he working on race day setup or is he just too slow? His teammates are all faster.

Speeds with 2 Hours to Go

Pos	No	Name	Time	Diff	Gap	Speed	Engine	Team
1	30	Takuma Sato	39.877	–.—-	–.—-	225.693	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
2	47	Conor Daly	39.981	0.1040	0.1040	225.106	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
3	4	Charlie Kimball	40.069	0.1918	0.0878	224.613	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
4	66	Fernando Alonso	40.114	0.2363	0.0445	224.363	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
5	51	James Davison	40.122	0.2450	0.0087	224.315	Honda	Dale Coyne w/Rick Ware /Byrd/Belardi
6	7	Oliver Askew	40.150	0.2729	0.0279	224.159	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
7	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	40.151	0.2737	0.0008	224.154	Honda	Andretti Autosport
8	21	Rinus VeeKay	40.209	0.3320	0.0583	223.829	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
9	60	Jack Harvey	40.209	0.3322	0.0002	223.828	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
10	98	Marco Andretti	40.222	0.3450	0.0128	223.757	Honda	Andretti Herta with Marco & Curb-Agajanian
11	88	Colton Herta	40.223	0.3461	0.0011	223.751	Honda	Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport
12	14	Tony Kanaan	40.237	0.3596	0.0135	223.676	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
13	26	Zach Veach	40.240	0.3629	0.0033	223.657	Honda	Andretti Autosport
14	3	Helio Castroneves	40.244	0.3673	0.0044	223.633	Chevy	Team Penske
15	29	James Hinchcliffe	40.245	0.3679	0.0006	223.630	Honda	Andretti Autosport
16	1	Josef Newgarden	40.247	0.3702	0.0023	223.617	Chevy	Team Penske
17	15	Graham Rahal	40.305	0.4278	0.0576	223.297	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
18	5	Pato O’Ward	40.319	0.4416	0.0138	223.221	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
19	9	Scott Dixon	40.323	0.4455	0.0039	223.199	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
20	18	Santino Ferrucci	40.346	0.4688	0.0233	223.070	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan
21	45	Spencer Pigot	40.351	0.4738	0.0050	223.043	Honda	RLL with Citrone/Buhl Autosport
22	12	Will Power	40.363	0.4855	0.0117	222.978	Chevy	Team Penske
23	10	Felix Rosenqvist	40.423	0.5459	0.0604	222.645	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
24	27	Alexander Rossi	40.435	0.5575	0.0116	222.581	Honda	Andretti Autosport
25	22	Simon Pagenaud	40.501	0.6239	0.0664	222.216	Chevy	Team Penske
26	55	Alex Palou	40.617	0.7400	0.1161	221.581	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh
27	41	Dalton Kellett	40.638	0.7610	0.0210	221.467	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
28	20	Ed Carpenter	40.671	0.7939	0.0329	221.287	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
29	8	Marcus Ericsson	40.679	0.8018	0.0079	221.244	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
30	24	Sage Karam	40.735	0.8575	0.0557	220.942	Chevy	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
31	59	Max Chilton	40.848	0.9711	0.1136	220.327	Chevy	Carlin
32	67	JR Hildebrand	40.907	1.0300	0.0589	220.010	Chevy	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
33	81	Ben Hanley	No Time	—	—	—	Chevy	DragonSpeed USA