• Scott Dixon, Honda lead the second day of practice for next weekend’s race
• Takuma Sato, Marco Andretti complete top three sweep for Honda
• Honda drivers led by Jack Harvey also dominate “no tow” speeds

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (August 13, 2020) – Taking advantage of a healthy “tow” from several cars on track ahead of him, Scott Dixon took his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to the top of the time sheets Thursday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the final hour of practice for next weekend’s Indianapolis 500.  Dixon became the first driver this week to top 226 mph as speeds increased around the famed 2.5-mile Brickyard oval with his one-lap speed of 226.102 mph.

After leading the way for most of the day, Takuma Sato ended second quickest at 225.693 mph, with Marco Andretti rounding out the top three for Honda and Andretti Autosport with a lap of 225.249 mph.  Alex Palou led the rookie contingent and ended the day fifth overall with a speed of 224.971 in his Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh Honda.  Colton Herta made it five Honda drivers in the top six with a best lap of 224.648 mph.

Jack Harvey ran 13^th-overall with a speed of 223.828 mph in his Meyer Shank Racing Honda, but led the field in “no tow” speed, for laps without cars in front to assist straight-line speed.  His lap of 222.124 mph led another Honda sweep of fastest “no tow” speeds, with Colton Herta second at 221.895 mph and his Andretti Autosport teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay third at 221.777 mph.  Fastest in opening day practice on Wednesday, James Hinchcliffe posted the fifth-fastest no tow lap of 221.241 mph.

Honda Racing social media content and videos from practice and qualifying from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be available on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and on Twitter at (https://twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD).  Produced by the CoForce Digital Media, YouTube video packages can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.  

Next

Practice activities at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway continue tomorrow with “Fast Friday”, the final full day of practice prior to qualifying on Saturday and Sunday, to set the field of 33 starters for the August 23 Indianapolis 500.

Quotes

Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) Fastest in practice today: “We had a pretty decent day.  We kind of got lost at the start, but we think we found the issue with that.  Once we came back on track around mid-day, the PNC Honda was really fast, and a lot easier to drive.  It also seems to be pretty good in traffic.  Tomorrow the [turbocharger] boost gets turned up [for the final day of practice and qualifying] and it’s going to be a big jump.  I expect to see some pretty big speeds tomorrow, especially in tows.  Everyone will be trying to get a clean [no traffic or tow] lap [to simulate qualifying conditions], but that’s going to be tough to find.”

Takuma Sato (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda) 2^nd fastest: “I think I’m pretty happy going into ‘Fast Friday’ tomorrow. We have a strong Honda engine, so if you can have a good [chassis] balance, then you can trim [downforce] and gain a lot of lap speed. But it will be highly unlikely you can trim [the downforce] all the way down. I expect now we’ll go at least the same speed, or faster, than last year into Turn One. It’s going to be challenging.”

Indianapolis 500 Day Two Practice

Circuit:               Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2.5-mile oval), Indianapolis, IN

2019 Winner:    Simon Pagenaud (Team Penske) 175.794 mph average

Weather:           Mostly sunny, warm, 84 degrees F

Indianapolis 500 Practice Top-10 Results:

Ps.	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Best Speed	Notes
1.	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	226.102
2.	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan	Honda	225.693
3.	Marco Andretti	Andretti Herta Autosport	Honda	225.249
4.	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	225.106
5.	Alex Palou-R	DCR with Team Goh	Honda	224.971
6.	Colton Herta	Andretti Harding Autosport	Honda	224.648
7.	Charlie Kimball	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	Chevrolet	224.613
8.	Fernando Alonso	Arrow McLaren SP	Chevrolet	224.363
9.	James Davison	DCR with Ware/Byrd/Belardi	Honda	224.315
10.	Oliver Askew-R	Arrow McLaren SP	Chevrolet	224.159

Other Honda Results

11.	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	Honda	223.154
13.	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing	Honda	223.828
15.	Zach Veach	Andretti Autosport	Honda	223.657
17.	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Autosport	Honda	223.630
19.	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan	Honda	223.297
21.	Santino Ferrucci	DCR with Vasser-Sullivan	Honda	223.070
22.	Spencer Pigot	RLL with Citrone/Buhl Autosport	Honda	223.043
24.	Felix Rosenqvist	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	222.645
25.	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	222.630
26.	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	Honda	222.581