IndyCar: Sato and Dixon leads Ganassi 1-2 in Carb Day practice

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Takuma Sato turned the fastest lap of over 227mph on Carb Day in the final practice session before the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500.

His teammate Scott Dixon was close behind in 2nd and another teammate, Alex Palou, in 4th behind Will Power’s Penske Chevy.

The crowd today is massive. The line to get into the garage stretched back to the food concessions just south of the Pagoda. People are in the grandstands waiting for the pit stop competition to begin at 2:30 pm.

Alex Palou

Alex Palou would love to sweep the month of May after winning the GMR Grand Prix two weeks ago. Winning the Indy 500 might not be so easy with all the good drivers in the NTT INDYCAR Series.

The Spaniard was asked his thoughts about running in traffic and passing at the finish of Carb Day practice.

“I think it’s pretty hard when you are fourth, fifth, and behind that. And it’s too easy when your first, second. So we’ll see what we get. It’s the same for everybody. Hopefully, when we start, it’s going to change a little bit, but I think it’s too easy now to pass from second to first, which we didn’t have the past two years.”

“But yeah, it’s all right. Same for everybody.”

Josef Newgarden

Josef Newgarden Photo courtesy of Penske EntertainmentJosef Newgarden, driver of the No 2 Shell Powering Progress Team Penske Chevrolet, will start Sunday’s race in the 17th spot. The American was making passes in practice this morning.

Newgarden was asked about the drivers being aggressive in the session.

“I think there were parts of it, but you always get that on an aggressive end to a session
when it’s like a Happy Hour or today. Everyone was really racing today and there was probably some moments where it was unnecessary.”

“But I think the intensity was up. Everyone was kind of race running today, trying to really practice what it was going to be like, which is good, but there’s probably a couple
moments you just don’t want to insert yourself into.”

Carb Day Practice Times

Pos	No	Name	Time	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	Speed	Engine	Team
1	11	Takuma Sato	39.4988	0.000s	0.000s	21	86	227.855	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	9	Scott Dixon	39.5978	0.0990	0.0990	11	83	227.285	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
3	12	Will Power	39.6558	0.1570	0.0580	14	82	226.953	Chevy	Team Penske
4	10	Alex Palou	39.6571	0.1583	0.0013	16	83	226.945	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
5	27	Kyle Kirkwood	39.6700	0.1712	0.0129	45	57	226.872	Honda	Andretti Autosport
6	78	Agustin Canapino	39.7295	0.2307	0.0595	9	74	226.532	Chevy	Juncos Holling Racing
7	26	Colton Herta	39.7703	0.2715	0.0408	46	76	226.300	Honda	Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
8	28	Romain Grosjean	39.7727	0.2739	0.0024	3	43	226.286	Honda	Andretti Autosport
9	2	Josef Newgarden	39.8642	0.3654	0.0915	22	89	225.766	Chevy	Team Penske
10	3	Scott McLaughlin	39.8998	0.4010	0.0356	71	81	225.565	Chevy	Team Penske
11	66	Tony Kanaan	39.9219	0.4231	0.0221	17	59	225.440	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
12	20	Conor Daly	39.9329	0.4341	0.0110	11	77	225.378	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
13	30	Jack Harvey	39.9555	0.4567	0.0226	11	58	225.251	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
14	7	Alexander Rossi	39.9586	0.4598	0.0031	61	71	225.233	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
15	5	Pato O’Ward	39.9797	0.4809	0.0211	12	84	225.114	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
16	18	David Malukas	39.9967	0.4979	0.0170	38	89	225.019	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
17	55	Benjamin Pedersen	40.0169	0.5181	0.0202	44	82	224.905	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
18	8	Marcus Ericsson	40.0443	0.5455	0.0274	4	87	224.751	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
19	98	Marco Andretti	40.0531	0.5543	0.0088	13	56	224.702	Honda	Andretti
20	06	Helio Castroneves	40.0608	0.5620	0.0077	59	87	224.659	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
21	33	Ed Carpenter	40.0664	0.5676	0.0056	52	73	224.627	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
22	23	Ryan Hunter-Reay	40.0857	0.5869	0.0193	19	34	224.519	Chevy	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
23	51	Sting Ray Robb	40.1503	0.6515	0.0646	8	64	224.158	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
24	60	Simon Pagenaud	40.1618	0.6630	0.0115	38	81	224.094	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
25	45	Christian Lundgaard	40.1793	0.6805	0.0175	32	61	223.996	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
26	29	Devlin DeFrancesco	40.2077	0.7089	0.0284	60	78	223.838	Honda	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
27	50	RC Enerson	40.2119	0.7131	0.0042	10	63	223.814	Chevy	Abel Motorsports
28	6	Felix Rosenqvist	40.2175	0.7187	0.0056	12	57	223.783	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
29	44	Katherine Legge	40.2573	0.7585	0.0398	9	35	223.562	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
30	24	Graham Rahal	40.2701	0.7713	0.0128	49	77	223.491	Chevy	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
31	14	Santino Ferrucci	40.2786	0.7798	0.0085	52	73	223.444	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
32	77	Callum Ilott	40.4922	0.9934	0.2136	8	66	222.265	Chevy	Juncos Hollinger Racing
33	21	Rinus VeeKay	40.5102	1.0114	0.0180	58	89	222.166	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing