Following a full day of qualifying, Monday was race practice for the 33 drivers and teams competing in the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500.
They had two hours of practice from 1-3pm EST, but they only managed to get about half of that in before severe weather arrived.
A caution for lightning in the area was displayed with around 55 minutes left in the practice, and all cars were forced into the pits. IndyCar officials ended the session soon after, and ordered teams to clear the pit lane as the rain finally arrived.
In the 65 minutes of running they did get, a pair of 2x Indy 500 winners led the speed charts.
Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden was fastest with a 226.198mph lap, followed by RLL Racing’s Takuma Sato at 225.723, and the Dale Coyne Racing rookie of Dennis Hauger at 224.554mph.
Ryan Hunter-Reay, Scott Dixon, Jack Harvey, Pato O’Ward, Caio Collet, and Christian Rasmussen filled out the rest of the top ten speeds.
All 33 cars made it out onto the track, but pole-sitter Alex Palou was delayed as all of the media obligations and photo shoots didn’t leave the team much time to get the No. 10 car back into race trim.
No driver ran more laps than Sting Ray Robb, who completed 46 laps around the 2.5-mile speedway.
The next time cars will be on track will be for Carb Day this Friday, and that will be the final practice session before the green flag flies for the 2026 Indy 500.
Multi-car crash
Unfortunately, the short practice also featured the first incident of the month for the Indy 500 competitors.
Alexander Rossi, who qualified second for this year’s Indy 500, spun at the exit of Turn 2 and impacted the wall. The went up on its side before sitting back down, and that’s when Pato O’Ward spun and slammed into the side of him. Both cars sustained significant damage.
Romain Grosjean also spun and hit the outside wall while trying to avoid the incident, turning it into a three-car crash. Several others narrowly avoided being collected as well.
O’Ward and Grosjean were quickly checked and released from the infield care center, while we still await word on Rossi’s condition. He appeared to be limping after climbing from the car.
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