IndyCar News: Palou ends up on top at Day 1 Pre-Season testing

Defending IndyCar champion Alex Palou turned the overall fastest time in Pre-Season IndyCar testing on the Sebring Short Course on Monday.

Alex Palou, #10 Chip Ganassi IndyCar Sebring, FL – during the 2024 Test at Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Florida. (Photo by Joe Skibinski | IMS Photo)

After Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood topped the morning session, Palou came back in his #10 DHL Honda to lead the timesheets with a lap of 52.0885s.

Christian Lundgaard made it a Honda 1-2 with the 2nd best time of 52.1075s in his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda.

Josef Newgarden was the fastest Chevy at 52.1297s in his #2 PPG Penske Chevy.

Josef Newgarden in his #2 Penske IndyCar. Photo courtesy of Penske Entertainment

Colton Herta was 4th quick in his #26 Andretti Gainbridge Honda, 0.10s behind.

Alexander Rossi rounded out the top-5 in his #7 Arrow McLaren Chevy, 0.16s behind.

“Nowadays, we don’t get as many tests as we would like,” Palou said. “We would always want to have a lot of test days, but honestly, it’s super important when we are only one week and a half out of St. Pete.

“We want to go through a lot of the engineering list that we’ve been thinking about all offseason. We won’t have enough time. But it’s a way to get the rest of the drivers, just all the crew, all the team together and try and get some ideas in person.”

Testing will continue Tuesday at the historic Florida circuit, with all teams continuing to run without the hybrid system that will be introduced later this season. The 2024 season also opens in Florida on Sunday, March 10 with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding.

Just 0.5008 of a second separated the top 11 drivers on the day. 0.9833s separated all 15 drivers on track today.

“This is a big warmup, the first time our car has been on track since Laguna (last September),” Kirkwood said. “Just working through all the gremlins and getting everyone up to speed. That’s what this test is about, getting the rust off and getting ready for St. Pete so we don’t have any of these gremlins and can roll out in practice at St. Pete and just go fast.”

“Good first day here,” said Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward.

“I had a little bit of a different crew today as I was in David’s car, getting all the systems up and running, but we had a good, smooth day. Tomorrow, I’ll be back with my No. 5 crew, and it will be all about just trying to explore different areas so that we can arrive in St. Pete as strong as we can. So far, it’s been a good program.”

Day 1 IndyCar Pre-Season Test Times

Pos	No	Name	Team	Engine	Time	Behind	Gap	FL	Laps	Speed
1	10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	52.0885	0.000s	0.000s	17	47	115.419
2	45	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	52.1075	0.0190	0.0190	15	33	115.377
3	2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	Chevy	52.1297	0.0412	0.0222	46	54	115.328
4	26	Colton Herta	Andretti Global	Honda	52.1909	0.1024	0.0612	16	43	115.192
5	7	Alexander Rossi	Arrow McLaren	Chevy	52.2522	0.1637	0.0613	59	72	115.057
6	6	Pato O’Ward	Arrow McLaren	Chevy	52.2540	0.1655	0.0018	40	41	115.053
7	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	52.2666	0.1781	0.0126	47	54	115.026
8	27	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Global	Honda	52.3373	0.2488	0.0707	16	60	114.870
9	3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	Chevy	52.5433	0.4548	0.1568	9	19	114.420
10	21	Rinus VeeKay	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevy	52.5554	0.4669	0.0121	23	57	114.394
11	30	Pietro Fittipaldi	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda	52.5890	0.5005	0.0336	42	43	114.320
12	66	Tom Blomqvist	Meyer Shank Racing	Honda	52.7416	0.6531	0.1526	33	53	113.990
13	78	Agustin Canapino	Juncos Hollinger Racing	Chevy	52.7639	5 LAPS	0.0223	37	42	113.942
14	41	Sting Ray Robb	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	Chevy	52.8352	0.7467	0.0713	46	60	113.788
15	18	Jack Harvey	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	53.0767	0.9882	0.2415	15	63	113.270