By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service
SPEEDWAY, Ind. – Under sunny skies and temperatures in the high-60s – the warmest it’s been this week – the 33-car Indianapolis 500 field made its final practice laps Friday in preparation for Sunday’s 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500.
Friday’s annual “Carb Day” two-hour practice session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway culminated a busy, news-making week at the track where two of the fastest cars were penalized for illegal modifications, a rookie making his first career oval start won pole position and NASCAR champion Kyle Larson is set to make his second attempt at Memorial Day’s famed “Double” – competing in both the Indianapolis 500 Sunday morning (noon ET on FOX) and then NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 that evening (6 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The two Team Penske cars penalized during Fast 12 pole qualifying made a huge statement Friday with two-time defending Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden turning the fastest lap in practice and his teammate Will Power – who will join Newgarden on the last row of the starting grid as a result of the penalties – sixth quickest.
They would also go on to face one another later in the day’s best-of-three championship round of the traditional Pit Stop Challenge with Newgarden winning his third crown in the event which pits 16 cars in eight rounds of head-to-head timed competition.
As for practice, Indy 500 pole-winner, Israeli driver Robert Shwartzman, 25, was 29th on the speed charts. And NASCAR Cup Series championship leader Kyle Larson was 26th on single lap speed, but among the top-six in both 10-lap and 20-lap runs.
The 2021 NASCAR champ Larson, who hosted his NASCAR Cup Series Hendrick Motorsports team trackside Friday, remained confident in his No. 17 McLaren Arrow Chevrolet, all-business as he climbed out for a practice debrief.
“I think it’s a little different than NASCAR with the drafting and not knowing what people’s objectives really were, but it doesn’t hurt [to be fast in multi-lap runs],” Larson said of his work Friday afternoon. “I feel good about my balance, so yeah, I feel like we’re pretty decent. There are a couple guys that are really good also, but I feel like things feel good.”
Larson acknowledged coming through the field from the seventh row to start the race Sunday definitely presents a different experience than he had last year starting fifth overall on the second row.
“I would prefer to start further forward, but I think you’ve just got to be smartly aggressive and patient all at the same time back when you start beyond the first few rows,” Larson said. “I think our car handles good in the pack so just got to be smart about it. You can’t be too aggressive because if you try to push too much and get tightness and have to lift then you’re going to give up a spot potentially. Just got to watch out when you make you moves.”
It was an unusually dramatic day for several of his competitors. Alexander Rossi, who won the 100th Indianapolis 500 in 2016, had problems with his Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet early, running only five laps before the team took it to the garage for repairs. The Rahal Letterman Lanigan team had to change engines in Graham Rahal’s No. 15 Honda after only 21 laps of practice.
Perennial crowd-favorite, Indianapolis-native Conor Daly also had a challenging day in his Junco Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, the team retiring to the garage early for a full once-over. Daly, who starts 11th, called the afternoon “nerve-wracking.” He still got in 59 laps of practice and posted the 10th best speed Friday.
Another former Indy winner, Ryan Hunter-Reay had the most dramatic exit from the practice when his No. 23 Dryer-Reinbold Chevy had to pull off track with the rear of his car on fire. He was concerned the issue may be with the new hybrid system the cars are running at Indy since his teammate also experienced a problem.
After practice, Carb Day activities finished up with the always-exciting “Pit Stop Challenge” and Saturday features the traditional Public Drivers Meeting and parade through downtown Indianapolis – the month finally culminating with Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 green flag at noon ET.
