By David Morgan, Associate Editor
INDIANAPOLIS – Two-time and defending Indianapolis 500 champion Josef Newgarden may have his work cut out for him starting from the last row on Sunday, but he showed in Friday’s Carb Day final practice that he’s still a threat after pacing the two-hour session.
With a lap of 225.687 mph around the 2.5-mile superspeedway, Newgarden’s No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet jumped to the top of the board in the first half-hour of practice and he would not be moved from there for the remainder of the day.
“Good final run here,” said Newgarden. “Excited to check the car off again and work with the team. I’m really excited for Sunday. The main show. Everything we work for. I can’t wait to get back on track with Team Chevy and our entire group.”
Takuma Sato, who will start from the middle of Row 1 in his bid for a third Indy 500, posted the second fastest time of the session at 225.415 mph and was not shy about mixing it up to get his machine dialed in perfectly for Sunday. However, an apparent mechanical issue cropped up in the waning minutes when his No. 75 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda slowed abruptly on the backstretch and he was able to get it pulled in to the infield to safety.
The issue was the second mechanical problem of the day for RLL, with Graham Rahal finding an early exit himself after smoke was seen emanating from the engine bay of his car.
“We were slowly but surely building up the confidence in the session,” said Sato. “This is the last chance to work on the race set up. I would say we weren’t entirely happy with it yet but we were making good progress. We were pointing in the right direction, so I want to check all the data.
“We had a mechanical failure on the last run and lost performance on one side of the car. It’s too early for me to say what that was until the team investigates it, but I almost lost control in Turn 1 and we are just fortunate I didn’t hit anything. I nearly lost the car again. We will look into it.”
Third-place went to Scott Dixon as he looks to bring home his second win in the 500 and first since 2008.
The remainder of the top-10 went to Devlin DeFrancesco, Will Power, Felix Rosenqvist, Helio Castroneves, Pato O’Ward, David Malukas, and Conor Daly.
Pole-sitter Robert Shwartzman struggled with the handling of his No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet throughout the session and only managed to post the 29th fastest time.
The two-hour session was slowed for caution on three occasions. Once for Rahal’s issue early, the second time for Ryan Hunter-Reay when his No. 23 Chevrolet went up in flames. Hunter-Reay was able to climb from his machine unscathed.
The third and final caution came when Sato slowed in the waning minutes.
Others having issues during practice aside from Rahal, Hunter-Reay, and Sato included Alexander Rossi, who retired early with a water pump issue on his Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet.
“We’re done. It was a water pump,” Rossi said after his retirement from the session. “Someone is driving down from Detroit to replace it because it’s such a critical situation at this point.
“It’s a bit of a shame, but I think the car’s been good and we’re happy with where we are on Monday. That’s what Carb Day is for is to find issues like this, but now there will be some unknowns going into Sunday. That’s the way it is.”
With the final on-track activity in the books, all that remains now is to throw the green flag and race. Sunday’s Indy 500 will see someone write their names into the history books at 12:30 pm ET on FOX.
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