Just two days away from the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500, all 33 drivers took to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for their final practice session of the Month of May.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Takuma Sato led Friday’s practice with a best one-lap average speed of 227.855 mph. Sato will start from the 8th position Sunday, looking for his third Indy 500 win after victories in 2017 and 2020.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon and Alex Palou finished 2nd and 4th in Friday’s practice, respectively. After they dominated most of the 2022 Indianapolis 500 that eventually saw their teammate Marcus Ericsson win, Dixon and Palou look just as good as they were last year.
A few drivers had issues throughout the practice, although there were no crashes. After last year’s frightening wreck during Carb Day, Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta locked up his right-front tire while entering the pit road, causing his tire to blow.
Defending Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson had an issue with a sidepod on his No. 8 Chevrolet that eventually got fixed by his team.
Dreyer Reinbold Racing’s Ryan Hunter-Reay’s No. 23 Chevrolet had a gearbox fluid leak that eventually got the driver black-flagged. Although Hunter-Reay lost an hour of practice time, the issue was resolved before race day.
After being involved in a wreck during Monday’s practice, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Katherine Legge had a wheel nut come off her left-rear tire, causing a caution.
Andretti Autosport’s Devlin DeFrancesco had a close call when his right-front tire blew in Turn 2 as he was leading a pack of cars. DeFrancesco kept his No. 29 Honda out of the wall, narrowly avoiding an incident.
With the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” set for Sunday afternoon, Friday’s Carb Day had plenty of scares but also gave drivers one last practice session for the season’s most important race.
