Indy 500: Sato top again, Grosjean survives multiple scares

Sato, who led practice on Day 1 (Day 2 was rained out), put the Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda on top of the speed charts with a lap of 227.519mph, just 39.5572sec around the iconic 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Endorsing the promise shown by the Coyne cars in traffic was his rookie teammate David Malukas in the Coyne with HMD car, who was third fastest on a 226.869mph lap. The pair were split by Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s Scott Dixon on 227.335mph.

But much of the talk afterward was of the number of near-misses that Andretti Autosport-Honda’s Romain Grosjean had with the SAFER barrier. He had four lurid slides toward the wall at Turn 2 and one at Turn 4, every time while closely following four or more cars, and every time without intimidating himself – but causing his team to call him in. He ended the day 23^rd fastest.

Behind the top three were three more drivers in the 226mph zone. JR Hildebrand slotted his AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet into fourth with just five minutes to go, ahead of NASCAR legend Jimmie Johnson who impressed again in the second fastest Ganassi-Honda, and turned the most laps (153). Pato O’Ward was the second-fastest Chevrolet in the Arrow McLaren SP. He was separated from his teammate Felix Rosenqvist by another Ganassi driver, Marcus Ericsson.

The 2019 Indy winner Simon Pagenaud took ninth for Meyer Shank Racing-Honda, while Ed Carpenter made ensured two of his team’s cars were in the Top 10.

While teams such as Ganassi and Andretti focused on race runs, Team Penske-Chevrolet went for qualifying simulations, understandable given their disaster in qualifying for this race last year. So although 2018 Indy winner Will Power was only 21s fastest overall, he turned the fastest no-tow speed of 224.325mph.

Encouragingly for Chevrolet, his closest rivals for this honor were the ECR-Chevys of Rinus VeeKay and Carpenter. Their teammate Conor Daly was eighth, while Power’s teammates Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden were also in the top eight for no-tows. The Honda interlopers in the no-tow Top 10 were Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi, Devlin DeFrancesco and Colton Herta.

Results

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	FL	Laps	FSpeed	Engine	Team
1	51	Takuma Sato	39.5572	39.5572	109	117	227.519	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
2	9	Scott Dixon	39.5891	0.0319	6	116	227.335	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
3	18	David Malukas	39.6705	0.1133	56	126	226.869	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
4	11	JR Hildebrand	39.6745	0.1173	97	107	226.846	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
5	48	Jimmie Johnson	39.7510	0.1938	116	153	226.409	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
6	5	Pato O'Ward	39.8146	0.2574	4	98	226.048	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
7	8	Marcus Ericsson	39.8342	0.2770	17	128	225.937	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
8	7	Felix Rosenqvist	39.8604	0.3032	6	102	225.788	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
9	60	Simon Pagenaud	39.8926	0.3354	92	104	225.606	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
10	33	Ed Carpenter	39.9125	0.3553	5	78	225.493	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
11	4	Dalton Kellett	39.9189	0.3617	134	137	225.457	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
12	21	Rinus VeeKay	39.9542	0.3970	8	92	225.258	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
13	30	Christian Lundgaard	39.9559	0.3987	88	93	225.248	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
14	45	Jack Harvey	39.9863	0.4291	50	87	225.077	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
15	98	Marco Andretti	40.0061	0.4489	3	92	224.966	Honda	Andretti Herta Autosport w/ Marco & Curb
16	26	Colton Herta	40.0128	0.4556	99	128	224.928	Honda	Andretti Autosport
17	3	Scott McLaughlin	40.0396	0.4824	5	51	224.777	Chevy	Team Penske
18	20	Conor Daly	40.0400	0.4828	49	84	224.775	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
19	14	Kyle Kirkwood	40.0428	0.4856	9	102	224.760	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
20	10	Alex Palou	40.0810	0.5238	104	122	224.545	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
21	12	Will Power	40.1204	0.5632	20	52	224.325	Chevy	Team Penske
22	06	Helio Castroneves	40.1250	0.5678	45	94	224.299	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
23	28	Romain Grosjean	40.1352	0.5780	92	117	224.242	Honda	Andretti Autosport
24	77	Callum Ilott	40.1742	0.6170	46	72	224.024	Chevy	Juncos Hollinger Racing
25	6	Juan Pablo Montoya	40.1754	0.6182	20	67	224.018	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
26	23	Santino Ferrucci	40.1932	0.6360	30	57	223.918	Chevy	Dreyer & Reinbold
27	15	Graham Rahal	40.2140	0.6568	62	75	223.803	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
28	27	Alexander Rossi	40.2403	0.6831	3	50	223.656	Honda	Andretti Autosport
29	1	Tony Kanaan	40.2503	0.6931	15	105	223.601	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
30	24	Sage Karam	40.2584	0.7012	27	31	223.556	Chevy	Dreyer & Reinbold
31	2	Josef Newgarden	40.2754	0.7182	16	57	223.461	Chevy	Team Penske
32	29	Devlin DeFrancesco	40.3239	0.7667	9	110	223.193	Honda	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
33	25	Stefan Wilson	40.5254	0.9682	11	110	222.083	Chevy	DragonSpeed/Cusick Motorsports