IndyCar: Sato tops opening practice day for Indy 500

With the help of a tow that means absolutely nothing in terms of raw speed for qualifying, Takuma Sato ran a lap of 228.939 mph to top opening practice for the 2022 Indy 500 in his Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR #51 Honda.

What counts is the no-tow laps speeds.

“We had a big tow,” Sato said. “In Happy Hour, if you have new tires, I think you can do that. I’m pretty happy today.

“To be honest, this morning wasn’t as smooth as we wished. We had to go back to the garage and check up on lots of things because there was something we were not very happy with. But in the end, in the afternoon we quickly turned on good speed. I’m very happy with the 51 car. Dale Coyne Racing did a good job.”

Six-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Scott Dixon was second at 227.768 in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, leading four Chip Ganassi Racing drivers in the top six.

Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson opened preparations for his first start in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” by ending up third at 227.722 in the No. 48 Carvana Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

“We have a really good race car,” Johnson said. “It’s just trying to work through extremes for me. What is a low trim setting? What’s a high trim setting? What’s mechanically tight? What’s mechanically free? Just trying to work through some of those big-picture things.

“All in all, a really good day. I feel like where we ended in this session gives me a lot of confidence for working forward.”

Hondas ran 1-2-3-4 because all the Chevys are still sandbagging.

Marcus Ericsson was fourth at 227.094 in the No. 8 Huski Chocolate Chip Ganassi Racing, with Rinus VeeKay rounding out the top five at 226.995 in the No. 21 Bitcoin Racing Team with BitNile Chevrolet.

Reigning NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou completed the Chip Ganassi Racing domination of the top of the speed chart, ending up sixth at 226.973 in the No. 10 NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

In total fans got to see the cars go around, and around, and around for a total of 3,229 blistering laps.

Tomorrow looks like it could be a wash out.

Day 1 Results

Rank

Car

Driver Name

Engine

Session

Time

Speed

Total Laps

1

51

Sato, Takuma

Honda

Practice 2

00:39.3118

228.939

68

2

9

Dixon, Scott

Honda

Practice 2

00:39.5139

227.768

75

3

48

Johnson, Jimmie (R)

Honda

Practice 2

00:39.5219

227.722

108

4

8

Ericsson, Marcus

Honda

Practice 2

00:39.6311

227.094

104

5

21

VeeKay, Rinus

Chevy

Practice 2

00:39.6484

226.995

114

6

10

Palou, Alex

Honda

Practice 2

00:39.6523

226.973

94

7

18

Malukas, David (R)

Honda

Practice 2

00:39.7443

226.448

101

8

24

Karam, Sage

Chevy

Practice 1

00:39.7530

226.398

89

9

2

Newgarden, Josef

Chevy

Practice 2

00:39.7583

226.368

111

10

1

Kanaan, Tony

Honda

Practice 2

00:39.7716

226.292

69

11

98

Andretti, Marco

Honda

Practice 2

00:39.8080

226.085

109

12

29

DeFrancesco, Devlin (R)

Honda

Practice 2

00:39.8363

225.925

98

13

60

Pagenaud, Simon

Honda

Practice 2

00:39.8411

225.897

110

14

4

Kellett, Dalton

Chevy

Practice 2

00:39.8520

225.836

149

15

11

Hildebrand, JR

Chevy

Practice 2

00:39.8560

225.813

102

16

7

Rosenqvist, Felix

Chevy

Practice 2

00:39.8655

225.759

116

17

20

Daly, Conor

Chevy

Practice 1

00:39.8839

225.655

97

18

12

Power, Will

Chevy

Practice 2

00:39.9234

225.432

105

19

23

Ferrucci, Santino

Chevy

Practice 1

00:39.9357

225.362

70

20

3

McLaughlin, Scott

Chevy

Practice 1

00:39.9415

225.330

124

21

15

Rahal, Graham

Honda

Practice 2

00:39.9917

225.047

92

22

06

Castroneves, Helio

Honda

Practice 2

00:40.0128

224.928

131

23

77

Ilott, Callum (R)

Chevy

Practice 2

00:40.0133

224.925

88

24

5

O’Ward, Pato

Chevy

Practice 1

00:40.0142

224.920

110

25

45

Harvey, Jack

Honda

Practice 2

00:40.0157

224.912

132

26

14

Kirkwood, Kyle (R)

Chevy

Practice 2

00:40.0526

224.705

103

27

30

Lundgaard, Christian (R)

Honda

Practice 2

00:40.1232

224.309

118

28

26

Herta, Colton

Honda

Practice 2

00:40.1259

224.294

97

29

27

Rossi, Alexander

Honda

Practice 2

00:40.1399

224.216

95

30

33

Carpenter, Ed

Chevy

Practice 2

00:40.1583

224.113

86

31

6

Montoya, Juan Pablo

Chevy

Practice 2

00:40.1913

223.929

56

32

28

Grosjean, Romain (R)

Honda

Practice 2

00:40.3705

222.935

98

33

25

Wilson, Stefan

Chevy

Practice 2

00:40.4983

222.232

10

(R) Rookie

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