- Wednesday saw NTT IndyCar Series teams venture onto the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first day of opening testing. Rain delayed the start, but teams got hours of track time.
Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon was fastest in the veteran session with a lap at 225.622 mph, followed by Scott McLaughlin, Santino Ferrucci, Romain Grosjean and Patricio O'Ward. The Rookie/Refresher session saw Callum Ilott go fastest at 222.184 mph, one-tenth of a second faster than Devlin DeFrancesco. Marco Andretti was third, then Sage Karam and
Juan Pablo Montoya.
The full field afternoon session was marred by what could have been a horrific crash that brought back memories of Alex Zanardi's crash at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz in 2001. Team Penske's
Will Power lost control on the warmup lane on the inside of turn 1 and nearly spun up the track. Colton Herta had to make a quick move to the outside and ultimately spin himself out to avoid a cataclysmic collision.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Doug Boles indicated on the Peacock livestream Thursday morning that after testing concluded Wednesday, Firestone went out and measured track grip. According to Boles, the overall track grip is the same as last year, but the warmup lanes and pit lane have way less grip. Since then, tires have been dragged on the
warmup lanes in order to prevent another mess. Unfortunately, rain may hamper these efforts.
The Power incident was the third time that someone spun in the warmup lane Wednesday. Earlier in the day, Alexander Rossi spun and continued without incident. Just after 5 p.m. ET, Helio Castroneves spun on the warmup lane in turn 2 and smacked the wall. Castroneves is ok, but the team will not test today.
At the end of the test, Dixon ended up fastest with a wind-aided lap at 227.187 mph. This was three-hundredths of a second faster than Conor Daly. Ilott was third, then Ferrucci and Marcus Ericsson.
- The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series originally scheduled for April 1 at Lawton Speedway that was postponed due to weather has now been
officially cancelled after a replacement date could not be found.
