INDIANAPOLIS – An active day on the 2.5 mile oval at Indianapolis Motor Speedway ended with Josef Newgarden pacing the IndyCar field on day one of an open test one month out from the 107th Indianapolis 500.
“Everyone’s excited to be here as always, get the feeling of the month of May,” said Newgarden, whose fastest lap averaged a best-in-field 227.686 MPH. “We’re not quite there, but we’re very close. We know it’s right around the corner.”
With rain in the forecast for Friday, drivers packed as much as they could into Thursday, turning 3108 total laps, while dodging a few mid-afternoon raindrops.
“As soon as you hear the first (car) go across the bricks, make that click, it’s just awesome to be back here getting back to work,” said 2016 Indy 500 champion Alexander Rossi.
This year’s 500 field will feature nine winners of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing with 13 championships among them. Alongside eight single-race winners, Helio Castroneves has won four. The whole group posed for a photo shoot Thursday morning with the Borg Warner trophy on the yard of bricks.
“It’s the best club in the world I would say and it’s a very exclusive club to be part of,” says Marcus Ericsson, who joins the winners’ photo for the first time after his 2022 victory. “It’s just another thing that’s so cool to win this race: being a part of a picture like that with these fellow winners and legends.”
“It’s pretty special,” adds Castroneves. “When you walk in doing those pictures with the champions, I’m like ‘I did it, right?’ It’s really a dream come true.”
IMS OVAL OPEN TEST: DAY 1 FASTEST DRIVERS
- Josef Newgarden
- Conor Daly
- Scott Dixon
- Kyle Kirkwood
- Takuma Sato
- Stefan Wilson
- Colton Herta
- Alex Palou
- Pato O’ward
- Scott McLaughlin
