By Kirby Arnold, Special Contributor
INDIANAPOLIS – The focus leaned more to qualifying setups Thursday during the third day of practice for the Indianapolis 500, and a familiar name stood atop the speed chart at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Two-time race winner Takuma Sato turned a lap of 223.828 mph in his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda, fastest of the week without the help of an aerodynamic tow around the 2½-mile oval.
After two days of practice dominated by pack running as teams spent more time on race-day setups, single-car “no-tow” runs were more prevalent Thursday.
Scott McLaughlin jumped to second for the week on the no-tow list at 223.738, followed by Team Penske teammate David Malukas at 223.391. Defending race champion Alex Palou was fourth at 223.230, with Rinus VeeKay of Juncos Hollinger Racing fifth (223.086) and two-time winner Josef Newgarden sixth (222.924) for Team Penske.
Conor Daly, fastest overall this week with a lap at 228.080 on Wednesday, worked more on qualifying runs Thursday and was ninth on the no-tow list at 222.578.
Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren drove the day’s fastest lap overall at 227.308 while running in traffic.
“It was a smooth day,” O’Ward said. “We got a race run in, we got some qualifying simulations in. The car is in a good balance window.”
That window may look very different on Friday when cars practice with extra turbocharger boost, adding 90-100 horsepower that they will use in qualifying on Saturday and Sunday. It will increase speeds by about 10 mph.
“I think it’s pretty cool feeling when you (run with) the full boost,” O’Ward said. “When you see the data, you see the thing just skyrocket.”
Four-time winner Helio Castroneves of Meyer Shank Racing was second on the overall list at 226.977 and teammate Marcus Armstrong third at 226.841. Armstrong was 22nd and Castroneves 25th on the overall speed list.
“It’s certainly tricky to know exactly where everyone is,” Armstrong said. “There have been a couple of cars that look quite strong for sure, but we don’t really know. And quite frankly we haven’t really felt our qualifying car since the open test last month, so we’re just coming to grips with it again. Tomorrow will be more telling of where everyone is once the engines are turned up.”
The 33 drivers turned 1,469 incident-free laps Thursday on a cool afternoon with temperatures in the 60s, bringing the lap total for the week to 6,007 without a mishap.
The weather on Friday is expected to be cloudy and slightly warmer with a small chance of rain. The qualifying weekend forecast isn’t quite as promising, with temperatures in the mid-70s with a slight chance of rain on Saturday, then mid-80s Sunday but rain expected early with clearing late in the day.
With 33 entries and no bumping this year, the altered qualifying format will see all cars making runs on Saturday with starting positions 16-33 locked in. The fastest 15 on Saturday will return Sunday in a shootout format that will determine the top 12, who then will qualify again for the pole.
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