IndyCar News: Palou tops Power for Indy 500 Wed. Practice

NTT IndyCar Points leader Alex Palou driving the No.10 Chip Ganassi Honda turned the fastest lap of 227.546mph during Practice for the 109th running of the Indy 500.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Practice started 68 minutes late due to heavy rain this morning over the 2.5-mile oval.

Fastest in Practice 1, Will Power, driving one of the superior Penske Chevys, was 2nd, 0.3441s behind Palou at 225.584mph.

Power’s Penske teammate, Josef Newgarden, also driving a superior Penske Chevy, was third fastest, 0.3509s behind Palou. Newgarden has won the last two Indy 500s and it’s going to take a miracle to beat Team Penske on race day.

Newgarden is trying to become the first driver to win “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” three consecutive years.

Palou Ganassi teammate, Scott Dixon was 4th quick, 0.4319s behind Palou.

Conor Daly rounded out the top-5, 0.4598s behind Palou.

All the above speeds were set with the help of a tow. Fastest without a tow was Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood at 222.760mph in his #27 Honda.

Kyle Kirkwood – Photo courtesy of Penske Entertainment

Three-time series champion Palou, who has won the last two titles in a row, has opened the 2025 season with four victories in five races. About the only summit he has yet to reach in the series is winning an oval race, with the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, May 25 his next big target.

“We did a little bit of (running in) traffic,” Palou said. “It’s always tough when people are in different run plans. A couple of good traffic runs. The car is feeling good. You always want it to feel a little bit better, but so far, so good.

“This is the biggest race, and that’s what we work so much toward. So, we’re going to try and chase that win.”

2025 Indy 500 Wednesday Practice Results

Pos	No	Name	Time	Behind	Gap	FL	Laps	Speed	Engine	Team
1	10	Alex Palou	39.5524	0.000s	0.000s	68	99	227.546	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	12	Will Power	39.8965	0.3441	0.3441	14	85	225.584	Chevy	Team Penske
3	2	Josef Newgarden	39.9033	0.3509	0.0068	26	46	225.545	Chevy	Team Penske
4	9	Scott Dixon	39.9836	0.4312	0.0803	47	86	225.092	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
5	76	Conor Daly	40.0122	0.4598	0.0286	42	81	224.931	Chevy	Juncos Hollinger Racing
6	4	David Malukas	40.0680	0.5156	0.0558	6	21	224.618	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
7	66	Marcus Armstrong	40.1054	0.5530	0.0374	24	74	224.409	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
8	06	Helio Castroneves	40.1096	0.5572	0.0042	101	113	224.385	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb‑Agajanian
9	24	Jack Harvey	40.1139	0.5615	0.0043	42	62	224.361	Chevy	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
10	21	Christian Rasmussen	40.1464	0.5940	0.0325	55	77	224.180	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
11	45	Louis Foster	40.1492	0.5968	0.0028	68	79	224.164	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
12	26	Colton Herta	40.1608	0.6084	0.0116	13	96	224.099	Honda	Andretti Global w/Curb‑Agajanian
13	17	Kyle Larson	40.1813	0.6289	0.0205	93	103	223.985	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
14	23	Ryan Hunter‑Reay	40.2222	0.6698	0.0409	32	50	223.757	Chevy	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
15	75	Takuma Sato	40.2535	0.7011	0.0313	30	83	223.583	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
16	3	Scott McLaughlin	40.2603	0.7079	0.0068	3	92	223.545	Chevy	Team Penske
17	15	Graham Rahal	40.2615	0.7091	0.0012	51	81	223.539	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
18	27	Kyle Kirkwood	40.2636	0.7112	0.0021	46	86	223.527	Honda	Andretti Global
19	30	Devlin DeFrancesco	40.3345	0.7821	0.0709	50	57	223.134	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
20	5	Pato O’Ward	40.3405	0.7881	0.0060	76	88	223.101	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
21	28	Marcus Ericsson	40.3522	0.7998	0.0117	20	73	223.036	Honda	Andretti Global
22	20	Alexander Rossi	40.3532	0.8008	0.0010	29	63	223.031	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
23	60	Felix Rosenqvist	40.3649	0.8125	0.0117	97	110	222.966	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
24	98	Marco Andretti	40.3744	0.8220	0.0095	29	35	222.914	Honda	Andretti Herta w/Marco & Curb‑Agananian
25	6	Nolan Siegel	40.3838	0.8314	0.0094	20	91	222.862	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
26	51	Jacob Abel	40.4399	0.8875	0.0561	46	60	222.552	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing
27	8	Kyffin Simpson	40.4538	0.9014	0.0139	6	62	222.476	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
28	83	Robert Shwartzman	40.4794	0.9270	0.0256	84	86	222.335	Chevy	Prema Racing
29	18	Rinus Veekay	40.4815	0.9291	0.0021	83	85	222.324	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing
30	7	Christian Lundgaard	40.4933	0.9409	0.0118	60	82	222.259	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
31	90	Callum Ilott	40.6104	1.0580	0.1171	24	50	221.618	Chevy	Prema Racing
32	77	Sting Ray Robb	40.6470	1.0946	0.0366	24	41	221.419	Chevy	Juncos Hollinger Racing
33	14	Santino Ferrucci	40.8042	1.2518	0.1572	26	26	220.566	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
34	33	Ed Carpenter	40.8207	1.2683	0.0165	23	32	220.476	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing

Wednesday No-Tow Speeds

Rank	Car	Driver Name	Engine	Non-Tow Time	Non-Tow Speed	Behind	Gap	Best Lap
1	27	Kirkwood, Kyle	Honda	40.4023s	222.760	–.—-	–.—-	14
2	21	Rasmussen, Christian	Chevy	40.5194s	222.116	0.1171s	0.1171s	69
3	20	Rossi, Alexander	Chevy	40.6730s	221.277	0.2707s	0.1536s	60
4	26	Herta, Colton	Honda	40.7249s	220.995	0.3226s	0.0519s	2
5	98	Andretti, Marco	Honda	40.8741s	220.188	0.4718s	0.1492s	16
6	83	Shwartzman, Robert (R)	Chevy	40.8883s	220.112	0.4860s	0.0142s	38
7	90	Ilott, Callum	Chevy	40.9509s	219.775	0.5486s	0.0626s	8
8	30	DeFrancesco, Devlin	Honda	40.9533s	219.763	0.5510s	0.0024s	4
9	8	Simpson, Kyffin	Honda	40.9541s	219.758	0.5518s	0.0008s	30
10	2	Newgarden, Josef	Chevy	40.9914s	219.558	0.5891s	0.0373s	9
11	33	Carpenter, Ed	Chevy	40.9915s	219.558	0.5892s	0.0001s	25
12	9	Dixon, Scott	Honda	41.0191s	219.410	0.6168s	0.0276s	14
13	51	Abel, Jacob (R)	Honda	41.0785s	219.093	0.6762s	0.0594s	39
14	76	Daly, Conor	Chevy	41.1150s	218.898	0.7127s	0.0365s	33
15	12	Power, Will	Chevy	41.1331s	218.802	0.7308s	0.0181s	31
16	17	Larson, Kyle	Chevy	41.1970s	218.463	0.7947s	0.0639s	69
17	10	Palou, Alex	Honda	41.2604s	218.127	0.8581s	0.0634s	64
18	7	Lundgaard, Christian	Chevy	41.2797s	218.025	0.8774s	0.0193s	80
19	6	Siegel, Nolan (R)	Chevy	41.2823s	218.011	0.8800s	0.0026s	77
20	4	Malukas, David	Chevy	41.2921s	217.959	0.8898s	0.0098s	15
21	3	McLaughlin, Scott	Chevy	41.2965s	217.936	0.8942s	0.0044s	24
22	60	Rosenqvist, Felix	Honda	41.3519s	217.644	0.9496s	0.0554s	11
23	45	Foster, Louis (R)	Honda	41.3816s	217.488	0.9793s	0.0297s	15
24	5	O’Ward, Pato	Chevy	41.4312s	217.228	1.0289s	0.0496s	9
25	18	Veekay, Rinus	Honda	41.5780s	216.461	1.1757s	0.1468s	75
26	23	Hunter-Reay, Ryan	Chevy	41.6397s	216.140	1.2374s	0.0617s	13
27	75	Sato, Takuma	Honda	41.6549s	216.061	1.2526s	0.0152s	35
28	24	Harvey, Jack	Chevy	41.7316s	215.664	1.3293s	0.0767s	34
29	77	Robb, Sting Ray	Chevy	41.7539s	215.549	1.3516s	0.0223s	20
30	15	Rahal, Graham	Honda	41.8171s	215.223	1.4148s	0.0632s	36
31	06	Castroneves, Helio	Honda	42.6195s	211.171	2.2172s	0.8024s	90
		(R) Rookie