Sato, who led practice on the opening day before Wednesday’s running was called off due to rain, put the Dale Coyne Racing car on top of the speed charts with a lap of 227.519mph, just 39.5572s 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’s Scott Dixon on 227.335mph.
But much of the talk afterward was of the number of near-misses that Andretti Autosport’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 23rd in the timesheets.
Behind the top three were three more drivers in the 226mph zone. JR Hildebrand slotted his AJ Foyt Racing machinery into fourth with just five minutes to go, ahead of NASCAR legend Jimmie Johnson who impressed again in the second fastest Ganassi, and turned the most laps (153).
Pato O’Ward was the second-fastest Chevrolet-powered driver 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, 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 went for qualifying simulations, understandable given their disaster in qualifying for this race last year.
Although 2018 Indy winner Will Power was only 21st overall, he turned the fastest no-tow speed of 224.325mph.
Encouragingly for Chevrolet, his closest rivals for this honour were the ECR cars of Rinus VeeKay and Carpenter. Their team-mate 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 |
– |
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 |