Speedway, Ind. – Day two of Indy 500 testing brought speed and drama, in preparation for the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 Presented by Gainbridge at the infamous Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Last year’s Indy 500 pole sitter Scott McLaughlin set the fast speed of the day of 232.686 mph in his No. 3 Pennzoil Team Penske Chevrolet with the help of the turbo boost, that turned out to be the fastest speed of the two-day open test on the 2.5-mile oval.
“We had a really good day, a good couple of days,” said McLaughlin. “I felt like we got through a lot from a hybrid perspective. Then I felt like the morning qualifying session – the high-boost session – was a bit of a crapshoot. There were a couple yellows. When the track got better, it was a bit dirty from some of the shunts, as well.”
Three-time and reigning NTT IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou set the fastest afternoon session speed of 223.993 in his No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, which was the non-boosted session of the day that will be equivalent to what we will see in the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on Sunday, May 25.
“You need to keep on always chasing it and trying to make it better,” said Palou. “Trying to make it more comfortable when running in traffic, trying to make it faster when you’ve alone. That’s the car that gives me a chance to win, for sure.”
Two-time Indianapolis 500 winer Takuma Sato was second fastest in the boosted morning session with a “no-tow” lap of 232.565 mph in the No. 75 AMADA Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda. Sato’s day would soon put a damper on the good speed the car showed early on, when he LOST THE rear-end of the car and made contact with the turn 1 SAFER Barrier wall and came to a screeching halt in turn 2. The car suffered significant damage that would sideline his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team for the remainder of the test. Sato only suffered minor bruises and was released from the Indiana University infield health center.
“I lost it; I simply lost it,” Sato said. “It’s hard. My body is fine. It’s just the car…I lost the car. That’s hearbreaking.”
Sato’s run-in with the turn 1 SAFER Barrier wouldn’t be the only time we saw a yellow flag due to contact, in the test session. 2024 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year and Brickyard 400 champion Kyle Larson also made contact with the wall in the morning session when his car suffered significant understeer and slid up the track on the exit of the corner. His No. 17 HendrickCars.Com Arrow McLaren Chevrolet slid through the south short chute and made contact with the turn 2 SAFER Barrier before coming to a stop along the wall.
“I was starting my qualifying laps there and just got really tight. Just a bunch of understeer through one and ran out of space off of turn one,” Larson said. “I kind of fought the understeer feeling yesterday and carried over to today. Honestly though, I’m happy to crash my first IndyCar and live through it.”
The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Larson was unhurt, but also didn’t return to on-track testing for the remainder of the day. Larson will be making his second attempt of the 1100-mile “double” of the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 25
Over the course of two days of testing, all 34 drivers turned a combined 5,804 laps (14,510 miles) in preparation for the first day of on-track activities on Tuesday, May 13.
The Trackside Report 
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