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Edition

USA
Practice report

Indy 500: Dixon leads Ganassi-Honda 1-2 in opening practice

Scott Dixon headed Marcus Ericsson in first practice for the 106th running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.

Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

The 2008 winner and four-time pole-sitter clocked a 227.119mph on his 11th of 25 laps of the iconic 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He outpaced his Swedish teammate Ericsson by a mere 0.0269sec which equates to 0.154mph.

Currently an Indy 500-only team, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing-Chevrolet did its customary fine job at the Speedway, with Sage Karam and Santino Ferrucci ending the session with third and sixth fastest.

Conor Daly, hot off his fifth place finish in the GMR Grand Prix of Indy on the road course, was fourth fastest for Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet, while Marco Andretti was fastest of the Andretti Autosport-Honda drivers.

The 2021 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year Scott McLaughlin was top Team Penske-Chevrolet driver in seventh, ahead of last year’s runner-up Alex Palou (Ganassi), and Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet.

JR Hildebrand, Kyle Kirkwood and Dalton Kellet were encouragingly fast for AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy in 10th, 11th and 13th respectively, which ensured Kirkwood was fastest of the rookies, with a 224.484mph lap.

Jimmie Johnson, who won the Brickyard 400 at IMS four times in his illustrious NASCAR Cup career, was 21st in his first official practice for Indy.

Two-time 500 winner Takuma Sato had an aero issue with his Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda and ran only four laps.

The no-tow times can be as misleading as the overall times, since several cars simply won’t get a slot on track that leaves them with an eight-second gap ahead – the margin from which the no-tow times are judged. However, for the record, the 2013 Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan was fastest in the #1 American Legion-backed Ganassi car, turning a 221.662mph lap. Next up were Ferrucci, Josef Newgarden of Penske, David Malukas (Dale Coyne Racing with HMD) and Ericsson.

A total of 32 cars took part in the two-hour session. At 1.00pm, the 33rd entry, the DragonSpeed with Cusick Motorsports-Chevrolet of Stefan Wilson, will have two hours of track time available (1.00pm to 3.00pm) so that Wilson can complete his Refresher test.

Assuming he passes, he will be permitted to join the other 32 cars on track for the second session of the day, which is set to run from 3.00pm to 6.00pm.

Read Also:

P

No

Name

FTime

Diff

FL

Laps

FSpeed

Engine

Team

1

9

Scott Dixon

39.6268

39.6268

11

25

227.119

Honda

Chip Ganassi Racing

2

8

Marcus Ericsson

39.6537

0.0269

26

31

226.965

Honda

Chip Ganassi Racing

3

24

Sage Karam

39.7530

0.1262

30

52

226.398

Chevy

Dreyer & Reinbold

4

20

Conor Daly

39.8839

0.2571

21

44

225.655

Chevy

Ed Carpenter Racing

5

98

Marco Andretti

39.9284

0.3016

13

24

225.403

Honda

Andretti Herta Autosport w/ Marco & Curb

6

23

Santino Ferrucci

39.9357

0.3089

22

50

225.362

Chevy

Dreyer & Reinbold

7

3

Scott McLaughlin

39.9415

0.3147

16

41

225.330

Chevy

Team Penske

8

10

Alex Palou

39.9506

0.3238

21

26

225.278

Honda

Chip Ganassi Racing

9

5

Pato O'Ward

40.0142

0.3874

28

34

224.920

Chevy

Arrow McLaren SP

10

11

JR Hildebrand

40.0813

0.4545

11

23

224.544

Chevy

AJ Foyt Enterprises

11

14

Kyle Kirkwood

40.0920

0.4652

52

54

224.484

Chevy

AJ Foyt Enterprises

12

2

Josef Newgarden

40.1036

0.4768

30

35

224.419

Chevy

Team Penske

13

4

Dalton Kellett

40.1039

0.4771

35

52

224.417

Chevy

AJ Foyt Enterprises

14

7

Felix Rosenqvist

40.1103

0.4835

37

39

224.381

Chevy

Arrow McLaren SP

15

12

Will Power

40.2125

0.5857

13

32

223.811

Chevy

Team Penske

16

1

Tony Kanaan

40.2203

0.5935

18

22

223.768

Honda

Chip Ganassi Racing

17

21

Rinus VeeKay

40.2234

0.5966

28

38

223.750

Chevy

Ed Carpenter Racing

18

6

Juan Pablo Montoya

40.2451

0.6183

9

19

223.630

Chevy

Arrow McLaren SP

19

77

Callum Ilott

40.2885

0.6617

11

32

223.389

Chevy

Juncos Hollinger Racing

20

30

Christian Lundgaard

40.3118

0.6850

38

44

223.260

Honda

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

21

48

Jimmie Johnson

40.3574

0.7306

12

29

223.007

Honda

Chip Ganassi Racing

22

29

Devlin DeFrancesco

40.3969

0.7701

9

16

222.789

Honda

Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport

23

45

Jack Harvey

40.4376

0.8108

36

41

222.565

Honda

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

24

27

Alexander Rossi

40.4396

0.8128

17

25

222.554

Honda

Andretti Autosport

25

33

Ed Carpenter

40.5200

0.8932

12

28

222.113

Chevy

Ed Carpenter Racing

26

26

Colton Herta

40.5834

0.9566

11

22

221.766

Honda

Andretti Autosport

27

28

Romain Grosjean

40.5964

0.9696

9

15

221.695

Honda

Andretti Autosport

28

18

David Malukas

40.6024

0.9756

6

21

221.662

Honda

Dale Coyne Racing with HMD

29

60

Simon Pagenaud

40.7248

1.0980

6

15

220.996

Honda

Meyer Shank Racing

30

06

Helio Castroneves

40.8259

1.1991

8

33

220.448

Honda

Meyer Shank Racing

31

15

Graham Rahal

41.0691

1.4423

7

21

219.143

Honda

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

32

51

Takuma Sato

42.4245

2.7977

4

4

212.142

Honda

Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR

 

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