Rahal tops Thursday practice at Indy

Graham Rahal
Graham Rahal

With a big tow Graham Rahal turned the fastest lap Thursday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a speed of 226.047 mph in his Rahal Honda. Without a tow Rahal was 33rd of 35 drivers.

Tony Kanaan was 2nd quick in the #14 AJ Foyt Chevy at 225.896 mph, also with a tow. Kanaan was 20th fastest without a tow.

Wednesday fast man Marco Andretti was third on Thursday at 225.584 mph in his Andretti Honda. without a tow Andretti was 9th quick on the day

Ed Carpenter and Sage Karam rounded out the top-5, all with tows.

The top-5 fastest without a tow, which is critical for qualifying, were Will Power at 223.971 mph followed by Sebastien Bourdais, Charlie Kimball, Simon Pagenaud and Alexander Rossi. These guys never tried for a fast lap with a tow, knowing it's a waste of time.

Rahal explained that he was attempting a qualifying simulation when he set the fast lap, with the assist of a car coming out of the pits ahead of him.

"Stefan Wilson came out in front of me," said Rahal, who drives for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team co-owned by his father, Bobby. "He was at the end of the back straight as I was going out of (Turn) 2. I thought, for once I'm just going to stay in it (on the accelerator). Not normally my M.O., but I thought I might as well put a good one up there, at least lower my dad's blood pressure for the night.

"Today was definitely a good day for us overall just to make a huge step forward in a lot of phases."

The only incident of the day was a brush of the Turn 4 wall by JR Hildebrand. His car sustained minor damage.

So far the Chevys are consistently 1 to 2 mph faster on the straights than the Hondas. With the new bodykits the cars are definitely slower than last year and you won't see a pole lap of 232 mph like we did last year. You also won't see as much passing in the race this year. It will be, for the most part, a follow-the-leader freight train.

Scott Dixon and Marco Andretti believe that this year’s Indianapolis 500 may not feature the huge slipstreaming battles that have been a feature at Indy for the past six years – but admit it’s still early to make a definitive judgment.
Although the new aerokit’s downforce/drag ratio is similar to that of the manufacturer kits as used the last three years, and the cars tow up even faster than in previous years, the cars then struggle to complete a pass.

Said Andretti: “It's tougher, yeah. [The race] will be more about track position. Scott and I were talking about this a little earlier today.

“[But] I prefer it to be track position. I prefer once you get to the front and you have a good car, you should be able to stay there instead of being a sitting duck.

“However, if you're third or back in line, it's going to be very tough [to pass]. It's going to take discipline to wait for the guy ahead to have a go and have a big wash-out, and then you get him.

“So yeah, it will be tougher to pass, but I prefer that.

Speeds are expected to increase on "Fast Friday," the final day of practice before qualifications. INDYCAR permits an increase in engine turbocharger boost of 100 millibars, equating to about 50 added horsepower. With the same boost level a year ago, Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon won the Verizon P1 Award for the pole position with a four-lap average speed of 232.793 mph.

Kanaan, who sat on the Indy 500 pole in 2005, said the focus now shifts completely to dialing in a qualifying setup in Friday's practice that will hopefully carry over to the nail-biting four-lap attempts on Saturday and Sunday.

"Tomorrow, it's just Fast Friday and you worry about four laps (in qualifying simulations)," Kanaan said. "That's all you've got to worry about. Then four laps (in qualifying) the next day, and hopefully (four laps in qualifying) on Sunday. From tomorrow on, it will just be making the car as fast as you can and the most consistent for qualifying."

Quotes

JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 1 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): "Interesting day with a lot going on. We did qualifying work. We did race work. Hopefully, we can get some time out tomorrow, but it looks like the weather forecast is not so good, so we tried to get most of our qualifying work done today. We'll see what the weekend holds, but we still need a little work in race conditions. That's what we were chasing at the end of the day. I think Team Chevy has done a great job. The car seemed quick. We just need to get a little more out of it in race trim."

MATHEUS LEIST (No. 4 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet): "I felt like today was pretty good. We established a pretty solid baseline on track today. I'm pretty happy with the car balance. I think that we have a great set up for the race and qualifying this weekend. I'm looking forward to the rest of the month. I believe that we have great potential at this track. Can't wait to see how Fast Friday goes tomorrow."

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 5 Arrow Electronics SPM Honda): "A bit of a mixed day for us. We actually started early with some mock qualifying trims just because we weren't sure what the weather was going to do tomorrow and wanted to at least get a head start on that. That was decent – I think we learned some stuff there. We went into race running with everybody else, or playtime – group fun as we like to call it – and just kept working on the cars. The track conditions were a little hotter today, which made it a little slicker, definitely tricky out there. The race is going to be a long, tough one; it's almost driving more like a short track with the way you have to lift in traffic and time your passes. It's almost like we're racing at Milwaukee again. It's fun out there, and the Arrow Electronics car is getting better and better every time we go on track. So, hopefully, we'll have a fast car over the weekend and a strong car over 200 laps next Sunday."

ROBERT WICKENS (No. 6 Lucas Oil SPM Honda): "Today was a lot of fun. We worked a little bit on qualifying because the weather looks hit or miss for tomorrow. The Lucas Oil car feels great, the team, everything… I think we're making good steps forward. It's confusing here because it's so hard to actually read where you are on the times because of how effective the tow is, who's getting the tow and who's not. I think we're going to have to do some homework, see kind of roughly where we are. We still have some improving to do in some areas, but I'm having fun."

JAY HOWARD (No. 7 One Cure SPM Honda): "Another solid day for the One Cure Honda. Certainly tricky conditions – I think that goes for everybody up and down pit lane. I'm pretty happy where we're at and we'll keep battling on tomorrow. Big thanks to the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports boys for the hard work; there's a lot of changes going on today and I really appreciate everything they're doing. Always thankful to Honda, One Cure and everyone who's on board making this happen."

SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda): "I think it was maybe more of just an average day for us today. We did quite a bit of running in the PNC Bank car, but the conditions were just really difficult. When the track temp is hot like it was today, it just makes things tricky. We ended the day with a lot of race running with a number of other cars, to help us get more information for next week."

ED JONES (No. 10 NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing Honda):
"Overall we just spent a lot of time working on the balance of the car. It's not really where we want it to be right now. We made a lot of changes, including a change back to a previous setup we ran here. Every day you learn something new here around Indianapolis, and we're improving the NTT DATA car each time."

WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): "We learned a lot today. We did a lot of qualifying work today because it might rain tomorrow, so I feel like we are in a good place for that. Still working on the race setup. It's been a busy day, busy week."

DANICA PATRICK (No. 13 GoDaddy Chevrolet): "Today definitely didn't go as well as we'd hoped for the GoDaddy team. The changes we made seemed to help a little bit in traffic, but it just felt worse alone and I had a lot more understeer. We'll regroup tonight and come back tomorrow focused on trying to find more speed before qualifying."

TONY KANAAN (No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet): "It's been a good week for us. We unloaded pretty quick since the test. Now it's more about trying to figure out what you're going to need in 10 days, and it's quite hard to know what the weather is going to do, so we're trying to run in any type of weather. We're recording everything on the books and have all that information for next week, so by Carb Day, you can try to predict what can happen on Sunday and what setup you need. Tomorrow, it's Fast Friday and you worry about four laps the first day (of qualifications) and four laps the next day. From tomorrow on, you'll be making the car as fast as you can for qualifying."

GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 15 United Rentals Honda): "Today was definitely a better day, for sure. From the get-go, I knew that yesterday we didn't put in any effort to actually put in a decent lap. I found myself all day yesterday in the middle of the pack. It's impossible to put up a number from that position. Then, clearly everybody starts questioning, worried, this and that, so there was a lot of reason and motivation to go and try to put together a decent one today. It was obviously our second lap. I went out, I was trying to do a qualifying simulation. I just went out, a bunch of guys came out. Stefan Wilson came out in front of me. He was at the end of the back straight as I was going out of Turn 2. I thought, 'For once I'm just going to do this, just stay in it.' Not normally my MO, but I thought I might as well put a good one up there, at least lower my dad's blood pressure for the night, Lanigan and everybody. It was a solid run. We tried another qualifying sim. Every qualifying sim I did today, everybody came out in front of me. I didn't get a qual sim today. Not a single one. Hopefully Mother Nature will be nice to us tomorrow. The good thing about that is we didn't use very many tires today. A lot of other guys did. We should be pretty tire rich tomorrow if we need to go after it. We'll see how it goes."

CONOR DALY (No. 17 United States Air Force Honda):
"I think today we finally figured out some good stuff on the set up for our No. 17 U.S. Air Force car towards the end of the day, running by ourselves. That's the only thing we're concerned about because we have to worry about qualifying. We moved up the no-tow timesheet, which was nice, and that's encouraging. But realistically, I never got to run in traffic and get a big tow lap like the others on the team. I'd love to try and do that, so hopefully tomorrow we can work on that."

ZACHARY CLAMAN DE MELO (No. 19 Paysafe Honda): "Overall it was a good day. Yesterday, we struggled quite a bit with the No. 19 Paysafe car and today we made huge improvements, which is really positive. We're working well as a team and I'm super happy with the result today. I know it doesn't mean much where we end up on the timesheet, everyone is looking for a tow and a big lap and we did get a decent tow lap, so that was good, but more importantly we have a good race car so far and we'll keep working on it."

ED CARPENTER (No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Fuzzy's Vodka Chevrolet): "It was a busy day, but we got a lot done. In some ways, we got better, in other ways, we didn't – it was a tough day. Track temperatures were probably the highest they've been all month and it was a little windier again, so that gave us more to work on. The car has good speed in it, it's just a matter of getting it right for whatever the conditions are at that point in time. It's funny, we were fourth on the board tonight and yesterday we were eighth, but I would say yesterday was a better day overall. It just goes to show it's hard to make much of the timing and scoring on days like this. The day was productive, nonetheless. We tested a lot of things and we need to really dig through everything we've done and get reorganized for tomorrow."

SPENCER PIGOT (No. 21 Preferred Freezer Service Chevrolet): "Track conditions were a lot more difficult today. We still got in some good work to get ready for tomorrow and also for qualifying. We still have to find some improvements for running in traffic. Overall, I feel like we're in a good place and we're moving forward every day. I'm just happy to be out at the Speedway and I'm really enjoying it. Every day, we are making gains."

CHARLIE KIMBALL (No. 23 Fiasp Chevrolet): "It was a good day for the team. We were laser-focused today on qualifying setup and making sure that we were prepared for Saturday and Sunday in case the weather throws off practice tomorrow. We focused a little on race setup yesterday, but we've made single car pace our priority for the majority of the week. Hopefully, the weather is OK tomorrow and we can see what we really have for qualifying in terms of pace for the No. 23 Fiasp Chevrolet."

STEFAN WILSON (No. 25 #Driven2SaveLives Honda): "Really productive today after yesterday. I didn't get much sleep last night, to be honest. I was really concerned with where we were, but today we rebounded. The Driven2SaveLives Intelisys team made some good changes, we hit on a couple things that really brought the car to life. We just made progress all day. It doesn't really show on the time charts, but I think we're really happy with the car in both qualifying and race trim and that puts us in a good stead for the rest of the weekend."

ZACH VEACH (No. 26 Relay Group 1001 Honda): "Overall, more progress made today for the No. 26. Obviously, the timesheets don't really reflect that – we went the entire day without catching a tow and I think pretty much every speed of the day was set in traffic. We're just focused on the race car and what we can prepare for qualifying. Behind the scenes, I think everything is pretty good – we've got a little bit to work on. We'll just keep trucking along. I'm excited to see what we can show on Saturday, because I think the Relay Group 1001 car is pretty good."

ALEXANDER ROSSI (No. 27 NAPA AUTO PARTS Honda): "We finished top five on the no-tow list today, which feels pretty good. I think our qualifying car is pretty strong, but we need to work on the race car because there's still more work to do in that regard."

RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 DHL Honda): "It was another day of running through some changes – we learned some things that we want, and we learned some things that we don't. I think tomorrow the balance will change quite a bit, asking that much more of the tire and going that much faster. I think we're in for another science experiment tomorrow, so we'll see. It's going to be interesting for everyone. We'll have a good team group meeting tonight with the six teams and put our best foot forward tomorrow."

CARLOS MUNOZ (No. 29 Ruoff Home Mortgage Honda): "Today went well. We found some things that worked well with the car and we made some good changes. I feel much better in traffic. This year, the car is a little bit different than what we're used to in traffic, but everyone seems to have the same problem. For tomorrow, Fast Friday, we'll need to concentrate on making the Ruoff Home Mortgage car fast. It is really important to qualify up front and I think the No. 29 car needs to find a little more speed, but we'll get there."

TAKUMA SATO (No. 30 Mi-Jack/Panasonic Honda): "We did a qualifying sim, four short ones actually. One was reasonably successful and the other three I had to abort due to the balance of the car. We were struggling to find speed on qualifying simulation. And then, in the later afternoon, we went back to the race trim and carried over the positives from yesterday, and I felt that was good, but today turned out to be a really difficult day. I struggled a lot with grip, speed and balance. We will have a look at the data. Tomorrow will be a completely different day. We bump up the boost, which I'm quite excited about, but before that, I think we need to really understand what happened today."

KYLE KAISER (No. 32 NFP / Juncos Racing Chevrolet): "So it was another productive day. We made some big strides for our qualifying car, which I am very excited about. We still have some work to do when it comes to running in traffic, but we got to try a lot of different things and we found out some that didn't work. We are going to try some more things, hopefully, next week. Tomorrow, hopefully, the weather holds off and we can work some more on our qualifying car to qualify for the biggest race in the world. So, I am very excited with the progress we made today and I am looking forward to expanding on that the next couple of days.''

JAMES DAVISON (No. 33 Jonathan Byrd's 502 East Chevrolet): "It was a much improved day for the No. 33 team. We got in the mix in traffic, and found a reasonable balance that made us racy; something that we didn't have yesterday. We trimmed the car for the first time at the end of the day and managed to run over 220 mph by ourselves. That was a great sign for us, we believe that we have a decent chunk left. We are going to study all the information tonight, and come out of the box either tomorrow, weather permitted, or Saturday."

MAX CHILTON (No. 59 Gallagher Chevrolet): "We were really just focused today on getting the No. 59 Gallagher Chevrolet in setup mode for qualifying. Obviously, for a new team, it's important for us to qualify and then we'll shift all our focus onto race running. We're getting quicker and quicker every day and I think our times today were pretty promising."

JACK HARVEY (No. 60 AutoNation/SiriusXM MSR w/SPM Honda): "We had a really solid day. Today we had to shift our plan based on what the weather is going to be tomorrow. Our qualifying simulations were pretty decent and we made good progress in the heat of the day. It was another day of progress, which is what it's all about here. The team was looking at all sorts of data points and there is lots to look through tonight. We will just keep trying to do our best and try to get our AutoNation / SiriusXM car to the front."

PIPPA MANN (No. 63 Dale Coyne Racing Honda): "I think today was another reasonable day of progress for the No. 63 Donate Life Dale Coyne Racing car. We felt like we made some good gains with the race car this morning and then we just spent the afternoon trying to find gaps in clean air to get an idea of where we think we want to run the car when we can turn the boost up tomorrow, if the weather cooperates with us. That said, so far, I've been happy overall with the car, and hopefully, we can keep that going through the weekend."

ORIOL SERVIA (No. 64 Scuderia Corsa/Manitowoc Honda): "We really didn't have the day we planned, in the sense that for the afternoon session we had a lot of things we wanted to try, but we didn't have a chance to. The morning session went really well. We did a couple of good, solid runs on our own to start getting the setup for qualifying, so that was good. But then, in the afternoon we had a couple of little mechanical issues that kept us from being on track. Luckily, our teammates were out there doing a lot of laps and doing some testing for us, so we should gather all the information with all the engineers and I'm sure we will put the best package together. The important thing is its only Thursday, tomorrow is Fast Friday. Tomorrow will be a really good indication of where we stand in terms of our own speed for qualifying. I think we should be in decent shape."

GABBY CHAVES (No. 88 Harding Group Chevrolet): "Really productive and great day for the Harding Racing guys today. We've been steadily making improvements on the car and have been progressing nicely, being in the top 10 the first three days of Indy 500 practice. Tomorrow is Fast Friday, so I'm really looking forward to see what the No. 88 Harding Racing Chevy can do on track with the boost. Hopefully, the rain holds off."

MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 98 U.S. Concrete / Curb Honda): "We're getting better in race trim, which I'm happy with. I'm not completely pleased with the outright car speed – I think we're running flat at almost three-quarters of a mile slower than (Alexander) Rossi. We're going to try to squeeze whatever we can out of this U.S. Concrete car to make the Fast Nine – that's where we're at speed-wise. We're just going to keep chipping away at the race car and keep getting happier."

Thursday Results

Pos No Name FTime Diff Gap Laps FSpeed Engine Team
1 15 Graham Rahal 39.815 –.—- –.—- 102 226.047 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
2 14 Tony Kanaan 39.841 0.0266 0.0266 62 225.896 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
3 98 Marco Andretti 39.896 0.0816 0.0550 86 225.584 Honda Andretti Herta Autosport
4 20 Ed Carpenter 39.983 0.1686 0.0870 97 225.093 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
5 24 Sage Karam 40.014 0.1994 0.0308 72 224.920 Chevy Dreyer & Reinbold
6 1 Josef Newgarden 40.051 0.2362 0.0368 75 224.713 Chevy Team Penske
7 19 Zachary Claman De Melo 40.060 0.2448 0.0086 60 224.665 Honda Dale Coyne Racing
8 3 Helio Castroneves 40.076 0.2609 0.0161 110 224.575 Chevy Team Penske
9 21 Spencer Pigot 40.134 0.3188 0.0579 86 224.251 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
10 88 Gabby Chaves 40.146 0.3315 0.0127 73 224.180 Chevy Harding Racing
11 22 Simon Pagenaud 40.150 0.3354 0.0039 87 224.158 Chevy Team Penske
12 9 Scott Dixon 40.183 0.3686 0.0332 98 223.973 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing Teams
13 12 Will Power 40.184 0.3689 0.0003 90 223.971 Chevy Team Penske
14 4 Matheus Leist 40.224 0.4094 0.0405 59 223.746 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
15 18 Sebastien Bourdais 40.234 0.4192 0.0098 82 223.691 Honda Dale Coyne Racing
16 64 Oriol Servia 40.243 0.4283 0.0091 62 223.641 Honda Scuderia Corsa with RLL
17 7 Jay Howard 40.249 0.4345 0.0062 73 223.606 Honda Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
18 60 Jack Harvey 40.258 0.4436 0.0091 94 223.556 Honda Meyer Shank Racing
19 10 Ed Jones 40.290 0.4755 0.0319 79 223.379 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing Teams
20 66 JR Hildebrand 40.295 0.4806 0.0051 57 223.351 Chevy Dreyer & Reinbold
21 23 Charlie Kimball 40.300 0.4854 0.0048 32 223.324 Chevy Carlin
22 27 Alexander Rossi 40.362 0.5477 0.0623 84 222.979 Honda Andretti Autosport
23 29 Carlos Munoz 40.363 0.5479 0.0002 78 222.978 Honda Andretti Autosport
24 6 Robert Wickens 40.379 0.5645 0.0166 63 222.886 Honda Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
25 32 Kyle Kaiser 40.402 0.5875 0.0230 91 222.760 Chevy Juncos Racing
26 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay 40.410 0.5954 0.0079 92 222.716 Honda Andretti Autosport
27 59 Max Chilton 40.419 0.6043 0.0089 45 222.667 Chevy Carlin
28 25 Stefan Wilson 40.468 0.6536 0.0493 96 222.396 Honda Andretti Autosport
29 33 James Davison 40.489 0.6742 0.0206 81 222.283 Chevy Foyt with Bryd/Hollinger/Belardi
30 13 Danica Patrick 40.501 0.6863 0.0121 68 222.216 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
31 5 James Hinchcliffe 40.512 0.6970 0.0107 83 222.157 Honda Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
32 63 Pippa Mann 40.520 0.7050 0.0080 69 222.114 Honda Dale Coyne Racing
33 30 Takuma Sato 40.581 0.7667 0.0617 89 221.776 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
34 17 Conor Daly 40.617 0.8020 0.0353 89 221.583 Honda Dale Coyne Racing w/Thom Burns
35 26 Zach Veach 40.661 0.8460 0.0440 106 221.343 Honda Andretti Autosport

Combined Times

Pos Car Driver Name Engine Session Time Speed Laps
1 98 Andretti, Marco HONDA Practice 3 00:39.6383 227.053 260
2 9 Dixon, Scott HONDA Practice 3 00:39.7651 226.329 264
3 30 Sato, Takuma HONDA Practice 3 00:39.8039 226.108 268
4 6 Wickens, Robert (R) HONDA Practice 3 00:39.8078 226.086 228
5 15 Rahal, Graham HONDA Practice 4 00:39.8148 226.047 255
6 14 Kanaan, Tony CHEVY Practice 4 00:39.8414 225.896 159
7 23 Kimball, Charlie CHEVY Practice 3 00:39.8430 225.887 165
8 22 Pagenaud, Simon CHEVY Practice 1 00:39.8605 225.787 272
9 88 Chaves, Gabby CHEVY Practice 3 00:39.9158 225.475 194
10 20 Carpenter, Ed CHEVY Practice 3 00:39.9709 225.164 255
11 64 Servia, Oriol HONDA Practice 3 00:40.0118 224.934 194
12 24 Karam, Sage CHEVY Practice 4 00:40.0142 224.920 215
13 1 Newgarden, Josef CHEVY Practice 3 00:40.0417 224.766 225
14 19 Claman De Melo, Zachary (R) HONDA Practice 4 00:40.0596 224.665 143
15 3 Castroneves, Helio CHEVY Practice 2 00:40.0597 224.665 275
16 13 Patrick, Danica CHEVY Practice 3 00:40.0766 224.570 192
17 29 Munoz, Carlos HONDA Practice 3 00:40.0780 224.562 275
18 21 Pigot, Spencer CHEVY Practice 3 00:40.0812 224.544 247
19 7 Howard, Jay HONDA Practice 3 00:40.0821 224.539 255
20 4 Leist, Matheus (R) CHEVY Practice 3 00:40.0879 224.507 118
21 59 Chilton, Max CHEVY Practice 3 00:40.0978 224.451 186
22 27 Rossi, Alexander HONDA Practice 3 00:40.1404 224.213 281
23 66 Hildebrand, JR CHEVY Practice 3 00:40.1556 224.128 182
24 12 Power, Will CHEVY Practice 3 00:40.1778 224.004 270
25 28 Hunter-Reay, Ryan HONDA Practice 3 00:40.1859 223.959 301
26 60 Harvey, Jack HONDA Practice 3 00:40.1923 223.923 318
27 18 Bourdais, Sebastien HONDA Practice 4 00:40.2340 223.691 243
28 63 Mann, Pippa HONDA Practice 3 00:40.2445 223.633 166
29 26 Veach, Zach HONDA Practice 3 00:40.2461 223.624 294
30 10 Jones, Ed HONDA Practice 3 00:40.2518 223.592 213
31 33 Davison, James CHEVY Practice 2 00:40.2963 223.346 176
32 32 Kaiser, Kyle (R) CHEVY Practice 3 00:40.3128 223.254 242
33 5 Hinchcliffe, James HONDA Practice 3 00:40.3262 223.180 276
34 17 Daly, Conor HONDA Practice 3 00:40.4200 222.662 185
35 25 Wilson, Stefan HONDA Practice 2 00:40.4451 222.524 236