IndyCar News: End of Test Day 1 Indy 500 Test Report from IMS

The weather was excellent this afternoon, with bright sunshine and temperatures in the mid-60s, to finish Day 1 of testing for the 2026 Indy 500. Nearly all 33 drivers took to the track, with only Jacob Abel and Katherine Legge sitting out the session.

Conor Daly, driving the No. 23 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet, set the fastest time of the afternoon with a speed of 225.394 mph with a tow.

“Good to get back in the swing of things here. The team did a great job of preparing all winter for this day. It’s only Day 1 for us, but it was obviously a good day. Thankful to be working with Chevrolet again and also everyone at ARCO and Kingspan. It’s only Day 1, onto Day 2.

“Honestly, we changed pretty much everything but the color of the car for that last run, so we were not dialed in or optimized at all,” Daly said. “But this car is fast, so it’s easier to do those kinds of speeds when the car allows you to do it. It was a fun race car, but we were not in maximum race trim yet. Hopefully we’ll dial that in tomorrow and get a little more zesty with everyone out there.”

“There are several cars that aren’t running their race cars yet,” Daly said. “It’s just testing; we can’t overreact to test results. But honestly, every time we went out there, we did seem to be pretty quick, which is good. Our mission this month (May) is one day at a time.”

Four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves, who is chasing a historic fifth victory, moved into second place with a lap of 225.200 mph with a tow.

Takuma Sato, winner of the 2017 and 2020 Indy 500s, was third fastest at 224.800 mph with a tow.

Scott Dixon, the 2008 Indy 500 champion who started that race from the pole, placed fourth with a speed of 224.564 mph with a tow.

Alexander Rossi, the 2016 winner, rounded out the top five at 224.367 mph with a tow.

Autoracing1 also spoke with a smiling Caio Collet, driver of the No. 4 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet. The 24-year-old Brazilian was pleased with his progress on his first day running at the Speedway. He acknowledged that he still has moments where he needs to slow down to avoid damage, showing good maturity. While the team focused on qualifying setup earlier in the day, Collet specifically wanted to run in traffic late in the afternoon, as navigating traffic will be his biggest challenge in next month’s 500-mile race.

The only yellow flag of the day came with 25 minutes remaining in the session when Christian Rasmussen, driving the No. 21 ECR Chevrolet, stopped on the backstretch shortly after pulling out of the pits.

Indy 500 Open Test Session 2 Results with a Tow

Rank	Car	Driver Name	Engine	Time	Speed	Diff	Gap	Best Lap	Total Laps
1	23	Daly, Conor	Chevy	0m39.9300s	225.394	–.—-	–.—-	18	24
2	06	Castroneves, Helio	Honda	0m39.9645s	225.200	0.0345	0.0345	27	28
3	75	Sato, Takuma	Honda	0m40.0355s	224.800	0.1055	0.0710	52	71
4	9	Dixon, Scott	Honda	0m40.0776s	224.564	0.1476	0.0421	25	36
5	20	Rossi, Alexander	Chevy	0m40.1128s	224.367	0.1828	0.0352	43	46
6	18	Grosjean, Romain	Honda	0m40.1235s	224.307	0.1935	0.0107	66	76
7	12	Malukas, David	Chevy	0m40.1980s	223.892	0.2680	0.0745	42	60
8	3	McLaughlin, Scott	Chevy	0m40.2348s	223.687	0.3048	0.0368	37	44
9	26	Power, Will	Honda	0m40.3314s	223.151	0.4014	0.0966	33	59
10	14	Ferrucci, Santino	Chevy	0m40.4563s	222.462	0.5263	0.1249	25	45
11	66	Armstrong, Marcus	Honda	0m40.4616s	222.433	0.5316	0.0053	18	41
12	6	Siegel, Nolan	Chevy	0m40.4814s	222.324	0.5514	0.0198	47	69
13	19	Hauger, Dennis (R)	Honda	0m40.4899s	222.278	0.5599	0.0085	28	41
14	4	Collet, Caio (R)	Chevy	0m40.5219s	222.102	0.5919	0.0320	26	68
15	10	Palou, Alex	Honda	0m40.5244s	222.088	0.5944	0.0025	33	43
16	5	O’Ward, Pato	Chevy	0m40.5358s	222.026	0.6058	0.0114	25	43
17	31	Hunter-Reay, Ryan	Chevy	0m40.6045s	221.650	0.6745	0.0687	5	44
18	76	VeeKay, Rinus	Chevy	0m40.6331s	221.494	0.7031	0.0286	50	50
19	24	Harvey, Jack	Chevy	0m40.6607s	221.344	0.7307	0.0276	2	29
20	33	Carpenter, Ed	Chevy	0m40.6795s	221.242	0.7495	0.0188	18	76
21	7	Lundgaard, Christian	Chevy	0m40.6808s	221.235	0.7508	0.0013	31	54
22	45	Foster, Louis	Honda	0m40.7204s	221.019	0.7904	0.0396	40	45
23	8	Simpson, Kyffin	Honda	0m40.7599s	220.805	0.8299	0.0395	25	41
24	47	Schumacher, Mick (R)	Honda	0m40.7643s	220.781	0.8343	0.0044	26	30
25	77	Robb, Sting Ray	Chevy	0m40.7659s	220.773	0.8359	0.0016	12	17
26	28	Ericsson, Marcus	Honda	0m40.8232s	220.463	0.8932	0.0573	47	61
27	27	Kirkwood, Kyle	Honda	0m40.8584s	220.273	0.9284	0.0352	8	17
28	60	Rosenqvist, Felix	Honda	0m40.8878s	220.115	0.9578	0.0294	27	28
29	15	Rahal, Graham	Honda	0m41.0338s	219.331	1.1038	0.1460	43	47
30	21	Rasmussen, Christian	Chevy	0m41.1229s	218.856	1.1929	0.0891	9	17
31	2	Newgarden, Josef	Chevy	0m41.6814s	215.924	1.7514	0.5585	7	8
32	51	Abel, Jacob (R)	Chevy	01:04.4043s	139.742	24.4743	22.7229	1	1
33	11	Legge, Katherine	Chevy	No Time	No Speed	0.0000	0.0000	0	0

(R) Rookie

Indy 500 Open Test Non-Tow Results

Rank	Car	Driver Name	Engine	Session	Time	Speed	Total Laps
1	24	Harvey, Jack	Chevy	Test Session 2	0m40.8500s	220.318	20
2	27	Kirkwood, Kyle	Honda	Test Session 2	0m40.8584s	220.273	30
3	06	Castroneves, Helio	Honda	Practice ROP and Refreshers	0m40.9348s	219.862	44
4	60	Rosenqvist, Felix	Honda	Test Session 2	0m41.0190s	219.411	38
5	8	Simpson, Kyffin	Honda	Test Session 2	0m41.0363s	219.318	28
6	23	Daly, Conor	Chevy	Test Session 2	0m41.0453s	219.270	18
7	20	Rossi, Alexander	Chevy	Test Session 1	0m41.0634s	219.173	16
8	7	Lundgaard, Christian	Chevy	Test Session 2	0m41.0942s	219.009	32
9	10	Palou, Alex	Honda	Test Session 2	0m41.1048s	218.953	24
10	9	Dixon, Scott	Honda	Test Session 1	0m41.1090s	218.930	18
11	66	Armstrong, Marcus	Honda	Test Session 2	0m41.1204s	218.869	8
12	21	Rasmussen, Christian	Chevy	Test Session 2	0m41.1229s	218.856	24
13	5	O’Ward, Pato	Chevy	Test Session 2	0m41.1242s	218.849	6
14	76	VeeKay, Rinus	Chevy	Test Session 2	0m41.1875s	218.513	30
15	4	Collet, Caio (R)	Chevy	Practice ROP and Refreshers	0m41.1995s	218.449	76
16	14	Ferrucci, Santino	Chevy	Test Session 2	0m41.3671s	217.564	3
17	33	Carpenter, Ed	Chevy	Practice ROP and Refreshers	0m41.4358s	217.203	32
18	3	McLaughlin, Scott	Chevy	Test Session 2	0m41.4678s	217.036	8
19	2	Newgarden, Josef	Chevy	Test Session 1	0m41.5526s	216.593	6
20	75	Sato, Takuma	Honda	Test Session 2	0m41.5676s	216.515	18
21	6	Siegel, Nolan	Chevy	Test Session 1	0m41.5933s	216.381	22
22	31	Hunter-Reay, Ryan	Chevy	Test Session 2	0m41.5938s	216.378	36
23	28	Ericsson, Marcus	Honda	Test Session 2	0m41.5998s	216.347	24
24	47	Schumacher, Mick (R)	Honda	Test Session 2	0m41.6342s	216.168	48
25	12	Malukas, David	Chevy	Test Session 1	0m41.6534s	216.069	10
26	18	Grosjean, Romain	Honda	Test Session 2	0m41.6584s	216.043	22
27	51	Abel, Jacob (R)	Chevy	Practice ROP and Refreshers	0m41.6675s	215.996	18
28	26	Power, Will	Honda	Test Session 2	0m41.6954s	215.851	6
29	45	Foster, Louis	Honda	Test Session 1	0m41.7228s	215.709	22
30	15	Rahal, Graham	Honda	Test Session 2	0m42.0847s	213.854	16
31	19	Hauger, Dennis (R)	Honda	Practice ROP and Refreshers	0m42.1291s	213.629	23
32	77	Robb, Sting Ray	Chevy	Test Session 1	0m43.8420s	205.283	3
		(R) Rookie

Lucille Dust reporting live from IMS