It’s Monday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the Verizon IndyCar Series drivers had their last long practice prior to the 102nd Indy500. The scheduled 3 and a half-hour session got off to a late start due to drying the track at noon when a few drops appeared. The dryers took care of that.
The weather was overcast, warm and muggy, with very little wind. The ambient temperature at 2:45pm was 79 degrees F and the track was 111 F. The rain started soon after the session was ended.
All thirty-three drivers were on the track at one time or another. For a majority of the session, Sage Karam/No.24 was on top with a lap of 226.461 mph, the only driver to top 226 mph. His overall speed was only good enough for P11 in the No Tow stats. He ran 71 laps, with his best lap set early, on Lap 10.
Second through fifth were Tony Kanaan/No.14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet; Ryan Hunter-Reay/No.28 DHL Andretti Autosport Honda; Charlie Kimball/No.23 Fiasp Carlin Chevrolet; and Alexander Rossi/No.27 NAPA AUTO PARTS Andretti Autosport Honda.
Rookie Kyle Kaiser/No.32 NFP Juncos Racing Chevrolet had the final fastest No-Tow lap of 221.107 mph. He was thirteenth overall. He ran 72 laps.
The fastest Rookie overall was Zachary Claman De Melo/No.19 Paysafe Dale Coyne Racing Honda at 224.091 mph, ninth overall. His top speed was run on Lap 7. He ran 79 laps.
For almost as long as Karam led, Charlie Kimball/No.23 Fiasp Carlin Chevrolet ran third and was the fastest without a tow, lapping at 220.463 mph. However, near the end Kimball fell to third in NT time behind Indy 500 Pole Sitter, Ed Carpenter/No.20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet. Carpenter was P14 for the day, running 100 laps.
Marco Andretti/No.98 US Concrete /Curb Andretti Herta Autosport with Curb-Agajanian Honda is still the fastest driver in Indy 500 practice, at 231.802 mph set in Practice 5 of eight. The majority of the overall fastest times were set in Practice 5, with eight set in Practice 7. The top five remain Andretti, Rookie Robert Wickens/No.6 Lucas Oil Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda, Carpenter, Huntter-Reay, and Oriol Servia/No.64 Scuderia Corsa/Manitowoc Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda. Servia is the oldest driver in the field, at the age of 43. And Kanaan is close behind, five months and 18 days younger.
Karem made a brief stop for the media, on his way to a flight to Philadelphia for his Tuesday Media appearances promoting the race.
“I ended up P1, which is cool. But we just got a big draft lap. If you put I think any car in the position that my car was at, it would have done the same lap time.
It was kind of like in the beginning of the month when you’d see guys put up big numbers, just big tows. So it doesn’t really mean too much.
I wish I was sitting at the top yesterday. Unfortunately not. Got some work to do for the race. But the main goal today was basically just work on the racecar, work on pit stops, because I haven’t done pit stops in a long time, in an IndyCar since last May. We got some pit stop practice in. Did some traffic running. Tried to make the car a bit better. It’s still difficult to pass out there if you’re third car back or worse.
I think you’re going to win this race on pit road. I think a lot of the positions you’ll make is having good pit stops or not about good pit stops. You have to capitalize in the pits.”
Karam thinks today’s practice is the most important one all month. “Today was like you took everything that you’ve already learned earlier in the week, just kept going with it today. Usually like on Carb Day, you get to run a little bit, but you don’t want to risk much. I think the last three Carb Days I’ve done, I’ve only done a total of 15 laps all combined.
You won’t really do too much running unless you have serious issues and need to fix your car. Like if your car is just not acting the way you want it to, like completely off balance, you will do more running. For the most part it’s just systems check. So this is the last real race practice you get.”
Rookie Matheus Leist/No.4 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet went out late to the crew thrashing to diagnose and fix an electrical problem. He did get out for 19 laps, and was eighteenth for the day.
Rookie Robert Wickens/No.6 Lucas Oil Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda hit the walls between Turn Two and three, bumping his way down the wall and then across track with right side wheels askew. He is alright, having been checked and cleared to drive. The car is another story. It was behind closed doors in the garage. A crew member said it was pretty well damaged. Yes, it was fixable, and it was good there was several days to Carb Day on Friday. He ended up in P25 for the day, with three laps.
There has been no news about any driver/car changes for Sunday’s race.
Meanwhile, James Hinchcliffe made an appearance at his #HinchcliffeHundred blood drive Monday afternoon. His goal was to secure 105 blood donations during the drive from 12-6pm. Hinch partnered at this race with IU Health and the American Red Cross, with the donees getting a day pass into the garage. Hinchcliffe received 22 pints of blood when he had his horrific crash in 2015. Always the jokester, Hinch said he got two full oil changes. The typical body only holds 10-11 pints. The popular Canadian driver started an initiative earlier this year, and there will be further blood drives at Iowa Speedway and Sonoma Raceway.
Next up for the VICS drivers is the annual whirlwind trips around North America promoting the race, with the drivers often going to their home town areas or somewhere significant for a sponsor. The next on-track activity for them is Carb Day on Friday.
The Monday afternoon practice for the Indy Lights drivers was canceled due to weather.