Takuma Sato

Speeds climb on Thursday at Indy

With 2 hours to go in Thursday practice at Indy, the speeds have now climbed to over 225mph.

Takuma Sato is fastest in his #30 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda (above) at 225.693mph while Conor Daly is the only other driver over 225mph in his Ed Carpenter Chevy.

Charlie Kimball, Fernando Alonso and James Davison round out the top-5.

We do not see a lot of passing for position on the track. Not yet certain if the aeroscreen has made it harder to pass, but it appears similar to last year when you had to take several laps to get the momentum up to pass a car – except for Simon Pagenaud who was able to pass Alexander Rossi at will last year to win the 500, and we saw him smoke Rossi today and then gap him.

So far this year Rossi is nowhere – down in 24th place with the back markers. Is he working on race day setup or is he just too slow? His teammates are all faster.

Speeds with 2 Hours to Go

Pos No Name Time Diff Gap Speed Engine Team
1 30 Takuma Sato 39.877 –.—- –.—- 225.693 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
2 47 Conor Daly 39.981 0.1040 0.1040 225.106 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
3 4 Charlie Kimball 40.069 0.1918 0.0878 224.613 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
4 66 Fernando Alonso 40.114 0.2363 0.0445 224.363 Chevy Arrow McLaren SP
5 51 James Davison 40.122 0.2450 0.0087 224.315 Honda Dale Coyne w/Rick Ware /Byrd/Belardi
6 7 Oliver Askew 40.150 0.2729 0.0279 224.159 Chevy Arrow McLaren SP
7 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay 40.151 0.2737 0.0008 224.154 Honda Andretti Autosport
8 21 Rinus VeeKay 40.209 0.3320 0.0583 223.829 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
9 60 Jack Harvey 40.209 0.3322 0.0002 223.828 Honda Meyer Shank Racing
10 98 Marco Andretti 40.222 0.3450 0.0128 223.757 Honda Andretti Herta with Marco & Curb-Agajanian
11 88 Colton Herta 40.223 0.3461 0.0011 223.751 Honda Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport
12 14 Tony Kanaan 40.237 0.3596 0.0135 223.676 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
13 26 Zach Veach 40.240 0.3629 0.0033 223.657 Honda Andretti Autosport
14 3 Helio Castroneves 40.244 0.3673 0.0044 223.633 Chevy Team Penske
15 29 James Hinchcliffe 40.245 0.3679 0.0006 223.630 Honda Andretti Autosport
16 1 Josef Newgarden 40.247 0.3702 0.0023 223.617 Chevy Team Penske
17 15 Graham Rahal 40.305 0.4278 0.0576 223.297 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
18 5 Pato O’Ward 40.319 0.4416 0.0138 223.221 Chevy Arrow McLaren SP
19 9 Scott Dixon 40.323 0.4455 0.0039 223.199 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
20 18 Santino Ferrucci 40.346 0.4688 0.0233 223.070 Honda Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan
21 45 Spencer Pigot 40.351 0.4738 0.0050 223.043 Honda RLL with Citrone/Buhl Autosport
22 12 Will Power 40.363 0.4855 0.0117 222.978 Chevy Team Penske
23 10 Felix Rosenqvist 40.423 0.5459 0.0604 222.645 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
24 27 Alexander Rossi 40.435 0.5575 0.0116 222.581 Honda Andretti Autosport
25 22 Simon Pagenaud 40.501 0.6239 0.0664 222.216 Chevy Team Penske
26 55 Alex Palou 40.617 0.7400 0.1161 221.581 Honda Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh
27 41 Dalton Kellett 40.638 0.7610 0.0210 221.467 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
28 20 Ed Carpenter 40.671 0.7939 0.0329 221.287 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
29 8 Marcus Ericsson 40.679 0.8018 0.0079 221.244 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
30 24 Sage Karam 40.735 0.8575 0.0557 220.942 Chevy Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
31 59 Max Chilton 40.848 0.9711 0.1136 220.327 Chevy Carlin
32 67 JR Hildebrand 40.907 1.0300 0.0589 220.010 Chevy Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
33 81 Ben Hanley No Time Chevy DragonSpeed USA
Conor Daly 2nd quick