Josef Newgarden fastest again in Indy 500 practice. Scott Dixon jumps to second on the speed chart

By Canadian Press on May 15, 2025.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Two-time defending Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden was back atop the speed chart Thursday in the last practice before cars get a horsepower boost on “Fast Friday” for qualifying weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Newgarden was fastest among the 34 cars trying to make the 33-car field when practice opened Tuesday, only to see IndyCar champion Alex Palou take the top spot the following day. Newgarden was back to setting the pace Thursday, turning just 35 laps but with a fastest of 226.632 mph — more than a full mile-per-hour better than Scott Dixon and anyone else.

“Lots of things can change,” said Dixon, who is trying to tie Rick Mears’ record with his sixth Indy 500 pole. “The Penske teams seem strong, there’s no doubt about that. They’re running some big laps. There can always be some kind of weird twist.”

Dixon was the lone Honda-powered car among the top five Thursday with a best lap of 225.457 mph for Chip Ganassi Racing. Conor Daly was third, Pato O’Ward was fourth on a good day for Arrow McLaren, and Ryan Hunter-Reay was fifth.

“They’re two different beasts you’re trying to make go fast, to be fairly honest with you. Just because you have a good traffic car doesn’t mean you’ll have a good qualifying car, and vice versa,” O’Ward said. “In traffic, I think we’ve gotten better, but there’s still a handful of other cars that I believe are a lot stronger than we are, so still work to do.”

Palou turned 112 laps on Thursday, second only to Kyffin Simpson, and had a best lap of 223.456 mph.

Honda was planning to change the engines late Thursday on all of its full-time entries ahead of this weekend’s qualifying.

It will be the second engine change for Dixon, the 2008 Indy 500 winner. His initial engine was changed Wednesday night, and Honda plans to send that one back to California to inspect what was wrong with it. Dixon will be penalized for that change at the next race, in Detroit on June 1, while the rest of the Honda engine changes are permitted under Indy 500 rules.

“I guess we’ll see what tomorrow brings,” Dixon said.

Chevrolet, meanwhile, was not planning to swap out its engines until after qualifying.

Christian Rasmussen, who was eighth on the speed chart, survived a scare with just under two hours left in the six-hour practice session. He spun coming out of Turn 2 right in front of Kyle Larson, but he managed to only brush the wall with the rear wing of the Ed Carpenter Racing entry before getting the car pointed straight again down the backstretch.

“It’s what happens,” Rasmussen said. “It’s obviously not where you want it to be, but I think we have fast cars around here, so it’s still a positive day. I have that out of the way and we move on.”

Larson, the NASCAR Cup Series star, is taking his second shot at “the Double” by trying to run the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte on the same day. Larson turned 61 laps in practice and was feeling more comfortable in the car.

“We’re getting our car better,” he added. “There’s still some room to improve, but overall, a better Thursday than Wednesday.”

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AP Auto Racing Writer Jenna Fryer contributed to this report.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Dave Skretta, The Associated Press