Josef Newgarden led the field on the last day the teams will get to prepare for qualifying weekend for the Indy 500.
Newgarden set an average four-lap speed of 234.063 mph. This is only 0.154 from last year’s pole position by Alex Palou of 234.217 mph.
The rest of the top 3 both were taken up by Penske cars as Scott McLaughlin and Will Power finished the session in P2 and P3 respectively.
The Spaniard’s time from last year is expected to be eclipsed when the Penske cars take to pit road come qualifying on Saturday afternoon.
The rest of the top 10 were all filled by Chevy cars, Felix Rosenqvist and Kyle Kirkwood the only two Hondas to finish in the top ten.
The first caution of the day was brought out by Dale Coyne’s Nolan Siegel.
The rookie was involved in a high speed accident in turn 2 which led to his 51 car going airborne, resulting in heavy damage and missing out on much needed practice time.
Siegel was cleared and released from the medical centre where he was “disappointed” in the lack of feel in his DCR car as he wasn’t sure what went wrong.
It’s not the only incident that halted a driver’s progress throughout the session as Palou fell victim to engine issues which forced CGR to change it on the number 10. There was clear signs of smoke as he slowed following an attempted qualifying simulation.
Pietro Fittipaldi was another who had problems as an overboost issue sidelined him, only getting back on track with 25 minutes to go.
Something the drivers weren’t expecting when they woke up today was to see a snake appear whilst driving over 240 mph.
The serpent managed to slither its way onto the apex of turn 1 early in the session, interrupting the runs of both Alexander Rossi and Christian Rasmussen who struck the snake with his front wing.
The fastest single lap speed of the day was by Colton Herta at 234.974mph.
His teammate, Marcus Ericsson was unable to find the same speed from his Andretti Global machine, as he was forced to switch to his back-up car following his major incident in practice yesterday.
The 2022 Indy 500 champion found himself all the way down in 23rd with a 4 lap speed of 231.298 mph.
The issue many drivers will be looking to avoid tomorrow will be making sure they doesn’t fall off throughout their 4 lap run, as they look to find the perfect balance of speed and consistency.
