Indy 500: Ganassi, Penske lead final practice on Carb Day
Pole-winner Scott Dixon topped the near-two hours of action that IndyCar was able to squeeze in before the rain returned to Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the final day of practice before Sunday’s Indy 500.
Dixon got a multi-car tow to send the #9 Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda to the top of the speeds on only his sixth of 47 laps, lapping the 2.5-mile track at 228.323mph.
With every car now running its race engine, it was important for all teams to do a full systems check, and Dixon was content to then pack up 45mins before the end of the scheduled two-hour session. As things transpired, 10mins were knocked off for inclement weather.
That was over 1.2mph ahead of Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Simon Pagenaud who was a further 0.3mph ahead of teammate Josef Newgarden.
Conor Daly found his Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet was handling badly at the start of the session but jumped forward toward the end of the session.
Marco Andretti had an electrical issue at the start of the session and so he hit the track late, but his 64th of 65 laps delivered fifth best speed, ahead of the other two Penskes.
Tony Kanaan in a second Ganassi entry was eighth ahead of defending winner Takuma Sato of Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda, while like fellow back-row starter Power, Sage Karam had an impressive session in the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing entry.
Colton Herta appeared to have one of the most impressive cars, able to slingshot past both Chevrolet- and Honda-powered cars out of Turn 4 to reach the yard of bricks start/finish ahead, but spent a lot of time running at the front of the pack without a tow, hence being only 28th on the speed charts.
Indianapolis 500 Carb Day practice standings
| P | No | Name | FL | Laps | FSpeed | Engine | Team |
| 1 | 9 | Scott Dixon | 6 | 47 | 228.323 | Honda | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 2 | 22 | Simon Pagenaud | 57 | 89 | 227.157 | Chevy | Team Penske |
| 3 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | 88 | 93 | 226.856 | Chevy | Team Penske |
| 4 | 47 | Conor Daly | 53 | 70 | 226.399 | Chevy | Ed Carpenter Racing |
| 5 | 98 | Marco Andretti | 64 | 65 | 226.396 | Honda | Andretti Herta-Haupert w/Marco & Curb-Agajanian |
| 6 | 12 | Will Power | 8 | 82 | 226.223 | Chevy | Team Penske |
| 7 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | 21 | 66 | 226.192 | Chevy | Team Penske |
| 8 | 48 | Tony Kanaan | 7 | 48 | 225.929 | Honda | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 9 | 30 | Takuma Sato | 65 | 94 | 225.701 | Honda | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 10 | 24 | Sage Karam | 36 | 61 | 225.542 | Chevy | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing |
| 11 | 5 | Pato O'Ward | 57 | 93 | 225.511 | Chevy | Arrow McLaren SP |
| 12 | 59 | Max Chilton | 84 | 89 | 225.348 | Chevy | Carlin |
| 13 | 27 | Alexander Rossi | 47 | 51 | 225.324 | Honda | Andretti Autosport |
| 14 | 14 | Sebastien Bourdais | 27 | 33 | 225.163 | Chevy | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
| 15 | 06 | Helio Castroneves | 17 | 62 | 225.161 | Honda | Meyer Shank Racing |
| 16 | 86 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 33 | 54 | 225.149 | Chevy | Arrow McLaren SP |
| 17 | 1 | JR Hildebrand | 30 | 70 | 224.945 | Chevy | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
| 18 | 18 | Ed Jones | 12 | 71 | 224.910 | Honda | Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan |
| 19 | 15 | Graham Rahal | 8 | 100 | 224.872 | Honda | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 20 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 33 | 71 | 224.719 | Honda | Andretti Autosport |
| 21 | 29 | James Hinchcliffe | 19 | 92 | 224.546 | Honda | Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport |
| 22 | 10 | Alex Palou | 58 | 71 | 224.500 | Honda | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 23 | 8 | Marcus Ericsson | 61 | 84 | 224.468 | Honda | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 24 | 7 | Felix Rosenqvist | 20 | 61 | 224.428 | Chevy | Arrow McLaren SP |
| 25 | 4 | Dalton Kellett | 19 | 54 | 224.051 | Chevy | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
| 26 | 25 | Stefan Wilson | 71 | 74 | 224.047 | Honda | Andretti Autosport |
| 27 | 45 | Santino Ferrucci | 11 | 77 | 223.884 | Honda | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 28 | 26 | Colton Herta | 26 | 78 | 223.670 | Honda | Andretti Autosport |
| 29 | 60 | Jack Harvey | 8 | 76 | 223.664 | Honda | Meyer Shank Racing |
| 30 | 20 | Ed Carpenter | 24 | 61 | 223.654 | Chevy | Ed Carpenter Racing |
| 31 | 21 | Rinus VeeKay | 10 | 56 | 223.068 | Chevy | Ed Carpenter Racing |
| 32 | 16 | Simona De Silvestro | 25 | 72 | 223.023 | Chevy | Paretta Autosport |
| 33 | 51 | Pietro Fittipaldi | 64 | 88 | 222.173 | Honda | Dale Coyne Racing w/Rick Ware Racing |
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