106th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Practice Report – Tuesday

Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Date: Sunday, May 29

Round: 6/17

Race laps: 200

Total race distance: 500 miles/804.67 km

Length: 2.5 miles/4.02 km

Number of turns: 4

Remaining session start times: 

  • Practice: Wednesday, 12:00 – 6:00 p.m. ET
  • Practice: Thursday, 12:00 – 6:00 p.m. ET
  • Practice: Friday, 12:00 – 6:00 p.m. ET
  • Practice: Saturday, 9:00 – 10:30 a.m ET
  • Qualifying: Saturday, 12:00 – 5:00 p.m. ET
  • Top 12 Practice: Sunday, 12:00 – 2:30 p.m ET
  • Top 12 and Top 6 Qualifying: Sunday, 4:00 – 6:00 p.m ET
  • Practice: Monday, May 23, 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. ET 
  • Final Practice: Friday, May 27, 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. ET
  • Indianapolis 500: Sunday, May 29, 11:00 a.m. ET

TUNE IN FOR QUALIFYING:

  • Sunday, 4:00 p.m. ET on NBC

TUNE IN FOR THE 106TH RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500:

  • Sunday, May 29, 11:00 a.m. ET on NBC
Felix Rosenqvist, No. Vuse 7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet
Practice 1: 9th, 224.920 mph
Practice 2: 16th, 225.759 mph
Laps Completed: 116 laps 

“We just finished our first practice day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In the morning, we just kind of cruised around and checked the car. In the afternoon, we started on a base line and then I think we got a bit lost, so we went back to the baseline. We then went in a new direction, which felt really good. Every time you learn something that doesn’t work its actually good data collection and then we went in a really good direction in the end, so we ended the day in a happy place.”
Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet
Practice 1: 14th, 224.381 mph
Practice 2: 24th, 224.920 mph
Laps Completed: 110 laps “

A long day for us. We made quite a lot changes, some worked, some didn’t, but that’s what practice is all about. We’re working to find ways of improving our car in the areas where we’ve had issues in the past, but it felt like home when we went back out there today. It’s been a great benchmark and starting point to try and make the car faster. “Today we worked a lot on pace in traffic, we’ll start worrying about speed later in the week before qualifying. Right now, we’re focused on trying to make the race pace as good as possible. The track temp was quite high today, which it usually is on race day, so I think today’s running was a really good representation of what we can expect next week.”

Juan Pablo Montoya, No. 6 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet

Practice 1: 18th, 223.630 mph
Practice 2: 31st, 223.929 mph
Laps Completed: 56 laps 

“Day one of the Indianapolis 500 went better than last year but not as good as I want it. It’s difficult conditions, its windy, its really hot, so we were just going through a lot of test items. We tried out a lot of things and we didn’t quite find as many things that worked as we did in the open test. You need to stay cool and collected and understand what you need to do. We still have a lot of practice to go. Hopefully the weather cooperates tomorrow. “Overall it’s okay. I never really focus on putting up a big number or lap time, like everyone who put on new tires and tried to get big numbers in the tow. I dont really focus on that at all so it’s hard to know where you really stack up with everybody.”
        Taylor Kiel – President, Arrow McLaren SP
“Day one complete here at Indianapolis, the opening day of practice for the Indy 500. A really productive day for us, we stayed really disciplined to our run plan. We certainly weren’t out there looking for big tow laps, we were really focused on correlating a lot of our offseason work to make our race car better. We were taking advantage of the conditions today to make sure we have good race cars in varying conditions.”

“This morning had cooler ambient temperatures and cooler track temperatures, that car requires a certain set up and aero balance, and then it got warmer in the afternoon. That gave us a good opportunity to test our cars in varying conditions and gather data which we can look at overnight. Full focus today was on race cars and making sure the 5, 6 & 7 are in the best condition to compete for a win in two weeks’ time. We’ll gradually shift focus towards outright speed and qualifying trim over the week, but today, tomorrow and Thursday our full focus is on our race craft.”