Collet's Fastest Lap at Indianapolis Motor Speedway but with tow

One day after veterans ruled the speed charts, rookie Caio Collet (pictured) posted the fastest lap of the Indianapolis 500 Open Test on Wednesday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Like virtually every quick time over the two-day session, however, his lap came with the benefit of a strong tow—the aerodynamic slipstream created by running in a pack of cars — making it a classic “false flag” with little bearing on true single-car performance.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

The 2025 INDY NXT by Firestone series runner-up turned a lap of 226.381 mph in the No. 4 A.J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet early in the session, which opened 75 minutes late because of damp track conditions from overnight and morning rain. Collet’s speed edged out Tuesday’s best of 225.394 mph by veteran Conor Daly in the No. 23 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet. On the first day, drivers with 10 or more Indy 500 starts had swept the top five spots—all with tows.

“No, no, never expected that,” the Brazilian driver said. “Obviously, the team has a good background here and has done really well the last couple of years, especially last year. As a rookie, I was just trying to learn things and see how everything went. But the team did a really good job getting me up to speed quickly, and I got really comfortable.

“Obviously, there are still a lot of things I have to learn, especially in traffic. I have to understand how to manage traffic and how to get by people. But by myself, I felt really good, and the team gave me a really good car both days.”

Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden was second-fastest at 226.223 mph in the No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet, also set early in the session. Newgarden went on to lead the afternoon session at 225.617 mph. Reigning Indianapolis 500 winner and NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou climbed to third at 225.272 mph in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Two-time “500” runner-up Pato O’Ward placed fourth at 225.109 mph in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, while two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato rounded out the top five at 224.957 mph in the No. 75 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda.

All of the headline speeds on the historic 2.5-mile oval were boosted by a tow. That made the day’s most meaningful performance the one turned without help: veteran Jack Harvey’s solo lap of 221.112 mph in the No. 24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet — quicker than his best no-tow lap of 220.318 mph from Tuesday.

Harvey’s strong solo running ended abruptly, however. Midway through the afternoon a large plume of white smoke erupted from the rear of his car in traffic between Turns 3 and 4. He coasted back to the pits with an engine failure.

“I had a little bit of a hesitation on the exit of (Turn) 3 and just looked down and saw the smoke immediately,” Harvey said. “I’ve had engines that have had issues here in the past, and when it happens it’s normally very obvious. What happened then wasn’t.

“Not how we wanted to end the day, but I still think overall it’s been a pretty productive test.”

Katherine Legge completed her veteran refresher test in the No. 11 HMD Motorsports with AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet. With all four rookies and four additional veterans having satisfied their required testing on Tuesday, all 33 drivers are now eligible when practice for the 110th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge opens on Tuesday, May 12.

Over the two days the 33 cars completed 4,697 incident-free laps — 11,742.5 miles. Aside from Harvey’s mechanical issue, the only notable moment came when a fox darted onto the racing surface from the infield, triggering a brief caution until the animal safely left the facility.

Next on the NTT INDYCAR SERIES calendar is the Sonsio Grand Prix on the IMS road course May 8-9, which opens the Month of May. The 110th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge is set for Sunday, May 24.

SEE: Test Overall Speeds | Test Overall No-Tow Speeds | Wednesday AM | Wednesday PM