The Reigning Indianapolis 500 champion, Newgarden nailed a flying lap of 228.811 mph around the 2.5-mile superspeedway in the opening two hours of the day.
Kyle Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion, delivered a thrilling run of his own after putting his No. 17 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet second on the timesheets at 226.384 mph. The California native is preparing for his first start in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” as part of the ‘Memorial Day Double’ that also includes running NASCAR’s 600-mile race at Charlotte Motor Speedway the same day on Sunday, May 26.
The No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda of Scott Dixon, the 2008 Indy 500 winner and six-time IndyCar Series champion, was third at 226.346 mph.
Reigning and two-time series champion Alex Palou, last year’s Indy 500 pole-sitter, was directly behind his CGR team-mate in fourth after nailing a best lap of 226.201 mph.
There was only light running in the afternoon before the rain came, but it was enough time for Andretti Global’s Colton Herta to hit a 225.907 mph lap to end up fifth overall – first in the afternoon out of the 21 drivers that recorded a competitive time.
Scott McLaughlin (Team Penske), Ed Carpenter (Ed Carpenter Racing), Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti Global), rookie Christian Rasmussen (Ed Carpenter Racing) and Felix Rosenqvist (Meyer Shank Racing) rounded out the rest of the top 10.
There were no incidents on the day, with the only stoppage happening due to track inspections or moisture.
Each of the six drivers running the Rookie Orientation Program and Refresher were able to complete the three phases.
Of them, Marco Andretti went quickest in the small group and finished up the course in 49 laps, with best at 222.734 mph (17th overall).
Katherine Legge, announced on Tuesday in the No. 51 Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing Honda, was second among the six at 220.664 mph. It took an additional lap in afternoon running after ROP and Refresher to complete the phases.
Pietro Fittipaldi (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) was third among the group, followed by Rasmussen, Nolan Siegal (Dale Coyne Racing) and Kyffin Simpson (Chip Ganassi Racing).
By the end of the day, Rasmussen and Simpson logged the most laps with 80 each.
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing’s Ryan Hunter-Reay ran the fewest laps with seven, ending up 34th with a best of 206.290 mph.
Callum Ilott, substituting for the injured David Malukas, was the only other driver to stay in the single digits with only eight laps run, with the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet sitting 27th overall at 221.085 mph.
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