By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter
INDIANAPOLIS – Will Power turned up the wick during Happy Hour to set the fastest lap of the week in preparation for qualifying for this weekend’s 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Presented by PennGrade Motor Oil.
The Aussie caught a tow with around an hour remaining Friday evening to log a blistering lap of 232.672 mph.
Josef Newgarden set the second quickest lap of the session late in the evening and was the only other driver to break 232 mph with a 232.364 mph average lap. James Hinchcliffe was the fastest Honda of the day with a tow, turning a lap of 231.972 mph late in the session to rise to third on the scoring pylon, the fastest Honda for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.
The Canadian led a chain of 10 Hondas with Andretti Autosport’s Carlos Munoz, Marco Andretti, Townsend Bell and Ryan Hunter-Reay closely behind.
Bell was the quickest man without a tow with an average lap speed of 231.342 mph.
Dale Coyne Racing’s Gabby Chaves ended a solid week of practice with the eighth quickest time of the day and was followed by Mikhail Aleshin and rookie Alexander Rossi.
Most cars from both manufactures ran multiple low downforce aero kit combinations in preparation for qualifying. Many of the fast times were achieved with the lower downforce settings.
After losing his primary car on Wednesday, Spencer Pigot returned to the track today, but did not run the “qualifying spec” bodywork.
Teams will have two practice sessions tomorrow morning before Saturday’s qualifying session kicks off at 11:00 AM starting at 8:00 AM.
Image: Chris Owens/INDYCAR
