CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES INDIANAPOLIS 500 INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA TEAM CHEVY PRACTICE REPORT FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2025 Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Shell V-Power NITRO Team Penske Chevrolet topped the speed charts at the conclusion of day three practice for the Indianapolis 500 with a top speed of 226.632 mph/39.7120 secondsThe two-time and defending winner has been in top-three fastest since practice opened on TuesdayNewgarden also posted the fasted non-tow time of the day – 222.55 mphConor Daly, No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, continued to impress. during practice leading into the Greatest Spectacle in Racing posting the third fastest speed of 224.893 mph/40.0191 secondsPato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, and Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 23 DRR CUSICK WEDBUSH SECURITIES Chevrolet, completed the top-five in the final orderTony Kanaan, team principal for Arrow McLaren and stand-by driver for Kyle Larson in the No. 17 Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet, completed his veteran. refresher protocol after weather postponed the required program for two daysUp next for Team Chevy in the NTT INDYCAR Series is qualifying for the. 109 th Indianapolis 500 May 17-18, 2025, with Fast Friday up first when the boost is turned up from 1.3 bar to 1.5 adding approximately 60 additional horsepower. Saturday will see teams and drivers run for a starting position in the Indianapolis 500. At the conclusion of the day, the Fast 12 and positions 13-30 will be set. Sunday will see the battle for the final three starting positions, as well as the pole run from the Fast 12 to the Firestone Fast Six. Indy 500 qualifications will be televised on the FOX Network on Saturday, May 17, at 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and. Sunday, May 18, at 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., as well as practice runs on FoxSports 1 and 2 both days Indianapolis 500 Thursday Practice Results |
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Indianapolis 500 Thursday Non-Tow Practice Results |
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Indianapolis 500 practice tune-in alert Friday, May 16· NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice – noon-4pm (ET)/11am-3pm (CT)/10am-2pm (MT)/9am-1pm (PT) – FS2/ INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218· NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice – 4pm-6pm (ET)/3pm-5pm (CT)/2pm-4pm (MT)/1pm-3pm (PT) – FS1/ INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218 Indianapolis 500 qualifying tune-in alert Saturday, May 17 (PPG Armed Forces Qualifying Weekend)· NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice – 8:30am-9:30am (ET)/7:30am-8:30am (CT)/6:30am-7:30am (MT)/5:30am-6:30am (PT) – FS2/ INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218· NTT INDYCAR SERIES qualifying – 11am-1:30pm (ET)/10am-12:30pm (CT)/9am-11:30am (MT)/8am-10:30am (PT) – FS1/ INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218· NTT INDYCAR SERIES qualifying – 1:30pm-4pm (ET)/12:30pm-3pm (CT)/11:30am-2pm (MT)/10:30am-1pm (PT) – FS2/ INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218· NTT INDYCAR SERIES qualifying – 4pm-6pm (ET)/3pm-5pm (CT)/2pm-4pm (MT)/1pm-3pm (PT) – FOX/ INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218 Sunday, May 18 (PPG Armed Forces Qualifying Weekend)· NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice –1pm-3pm (ET)/noon-2pm (CT)/11am-1pm (MT)/10am-noon (PT) – FS2/ INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218· NTT INDYCAR SERIES qualifying – 4pm-7pm (ET)/3pm-6pm (CT)/2pm-5pm (MT)/1pm-4pm (PT) – FOX/ INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218 WHAT THEY’RE SAYING INDIANAPOLIS 500 PRACTICE (QUOTES) Arrow McLaren Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:“There are two different beasts you’re trying to make go fast, to be honest with you. Just because you have a good car in traffic doesn’t mean you’re going to have a good Qualifying car, and vice versa. I’ve done no Qualifying stuff because the car changes a lot with the boost. It could feel good today trimming wise but then tomorrow you put the boost on and it’s like, “What the hell happened to the car?” We had a read at the Open Test that I was somewhat happy with, so tomorrow we’ll see what we’ve got once the boost comes on. 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. There’s still work to do.” Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet: “We worked into traffic, and I think we made a lot of progress there. I’m very comfortable there. Now we’re shifting focus to Qualifying, and hopefully we have a good Fast Friday. I’m looking forward to more boost and more speed. I think the car will continue to be comfortable. The team is making good changes, and I have no doubt we’re going to have a fast race car. I’m excited to show what we have.” Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:“Today was thankfully a good day. It was interesting running on the hotter track and seeing what that does to the car. I think tomorrow will definitely be different with colder weather and potentially more wind. We’re just trying to dial in the race car, verifying things that were good early in the week, and we’re moving around some things. We’re finding good items and applying them to see what works further down the road. I think where we are now is a pretty good spot. I’m looking forward for this weekend.” Kyle Larson, No. 17 HendrickCars.com Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:“Practice went pretty good today. I thought our car was a little bit more competitive in dirty air, so I’m happy with that.” DRR-Cusick Mostorsports Ryan Hunter-Reay, No.23 DRR CUSICK WEDBUSH SECURITIES:“It was definitely hotter today and there were challenging conditions. But we are going to have challenging conditions for the next few days. Again, we were trying some big swings at the car today. One of them didn’t work so we had to go back to the garage to reset the car. We validated that and went back to where we like the car. Then we went back and reset the car for qualifying trim. And we got out and got some runs in qualifying trim. So, we got the big boxes checked off today. Friday is going to be very interesting with the wind and added horsepower for qualifying. We were able to work on pit stops today again and those seemed better. We just have to get ready for qualifying now.” Jack Harvey, No. 24 DRR CUSICK INVST:“It was a good day on the whole. I don’t think we are the fastest car, but I don’t think we are slowest either. Knock on wood. I think Ryan and I are super close in speed which is encouraging. We ran at different times of the day, and you can make an argument on who had the worst conditions in the afternoon. We did some qual setup early and then ran race settings later. I really appreciate the hard work of the INVST crew today. We went out late with some 45 minutes to go and baselined everything in the car. I think we have found something that works pretty well. Now we feel like we have good baselines for qualifying and race trim. Today was the hottest we have had this week, and we will be looking for more mechanical grip now. I think that will be our focus moving into Friday.” Team Penske Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Shell V-Power NiTRO+ Team Penske Chevrolet:“Pretty solid week so far. The team has being doing a lot of work and we’ve shown up really prepared. We’re sort of going through the motions, and can’t ever get ahead of ourselves. We’re excited for Fast Friday. It’s going to be quite hot tomorrow, so we’re going to be trying to work around that and forecast the change going into Saturday and Sunday as the temperature is going to fluctuate quite a bit. Feeling good so far, the car is in a great window. The team is feeling good so I’m excited for the weekend and to turn up the boost tomorrow.” Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Pennzoil Team Penske Chevrolet:“It was a pretty smooth day for me. The last couple of days we’ve run through race settings today and qual today. We’ve already done 20 something laps. I feel really strong and Chevy feels really strong. Playing with the different hybrid settings has been fun.” Pato O’WardConor DalyPress ConferencePato O’Ward joins us, driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. Fourth quick overall. Best finish of a couple of years. 2022, 2024 as well. You feel pretty good heading into past Fast Friday tomorrow? Your thoughts? PATO O’WARD: They’re two different beasts you’re trying to make go fast, to be fairly honest with you. Just because they have traffic car, doesn’t mean you’re going to have a good qualifying car and vice versa.So I have done no qualifying stuff, yeah. It changes a lot with the boost, so it could feel good today like trimming-wise, but then tomorrow you put the boost on, and you are, like, What the hell happened to the car?We had a read at the test. I was somewhat happy with it. Tomorrow we’ll see what we’ve got once the boosts come up.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. Still work to do. THE MODERATOR: Checkered flag is out. Wrapping up the session. It looked like a number of teams are trying qual sims out there. Were you surprised by that today?PATO O’WARD: I mean, I’m not surprised, but also, I don’t know how much everyone will be able to read into what today was for them because, like I said, the boosts really change how the car behaves a lot.It can be as big as, like, I’m loose now, but with the biggest boost, you’re destroying right front, and now you have to understeer. The wall is a approaching a lot faster, so yeah. THE MODERATOR: We will open it up to questions.Q. If you are happy with your car now and it does not react well to the boost, are you then extremely worried, or are you like, Okay, we may not qualify as well, but I feel good for what I have for the following week?PATO O’WARD: I mean, you try and qualify as far up as you can. For some reason I’ve never had I would say the speed or my car has never really had the speed in qualifying, to be honest, for the front row. I would love to be able to challenge for the front row. I think that’s a really neat experience. I’ve always been in the neighborhood of sixth, eighth, tenth, ninth.We usually race really well. So, yeah, I mean, I’m not so worried about it until we really see what we’ve got just because we really don’t know how it’s going to go tomorrow. It’s never right to panic even if you might not have the speed the other cars do.Sometimes it’s just unexplainable, and I’ve had to deal with it every single year of qualifying here because all my teammates’ cars have always been quicker than mine. I always know that I race really well, and putting the car in a decent place in qualifying gives you that opportunity to drive forward.It’s important to qualify well. It’s a cool experience, but also, it’s not the end of the world. Q. How do you show up at a place that’s broken your heart and has so much emotion around it and some of you want so bad, but then avoid letting that get into your head or letting the pressure build or letting how badly you want it affect what you are doing on the track?PATO O’WARD: I treat it as a new thing every time I come back. You can’t plan just like you can never plan a start. You can never plan an Indy 500. You depend on other people’s decisions and mistakes as well, so that plays a lot into how your race is going to go, to be honest.I just really enjoy it. Obviously as the race starts falling and you see where you are at and stuff, that’s where it can get a little bit more interesting or intense, but all my Indy 500s, they’ve all been different.I would say the one last year would be the last one that I would have expected to be fighting, but somehow managed a way to get the car there. It’s a really long race. A lot of things can happen, but yeah, I’m focused on what we can do to put ourselves into a position to win, and the strive is obviously to get that right. We have a pretty good track record here in the past. Q. Nolan obviously had an unfortunate mishap last year, but sometimes the most trying times will cause the most growth. In what specific ways have you seen Nolan grow over the past year, not only as a driver, but as a young man?PATO O’WARD: I mean, I think it’s safe to say that I went through the same thing. In 2019 I got bumped. Well, the whole team that I was in kind of got bumped.To be honest I actually told him after he got bumped, and I said, You’re lucky that you actually got bumped because it’s miserable to drive out here with a car that sucks. I would much rather not be in the race and not race with a car that’s just horrendous rather than having to do the 200 laps with a car that just is fricking miserable.The speeds are so high, and it’s not enjoyable when it’s really there, and I feel like that’s what Nolan’s position was last year. The car obviously didn’t seem strong, but I think this year he’s with a team that obviously gives him a lot more tools to showcase what he’s got in a superspeedway. He’s obviously in good hands in that regard.I still tell him, You look like you’re 12, but he’s a good kid. Q. Pato, you’ve said several times you just don’t know what to expect out of tomorrow. Yet, some of the Andretti guys feel very, very confident that they are the favorites for the pole.PATO O’WARD: They look confident for sure. Oh, yeah. Q. That’s the question. They look good?PATO O’WARD: Yeah, I think they look very strong both speed-wise and traffic running. I would say at least two in their camp are super strong. Yeah, I would say Kirkwood, Herta. Don’t count the Penskes. They’re going to have rockets just like they did last year.For us, I don’t know. I don’t want to assume before we really see what to expect, but Ganassi seems to have taken a step forward as well just from kind of playing around with them in traffic. Yeah, the speed feels a little bit like ’22, to be honest, us against Ganassi. It’s hard to say right now.You don’t know who is hiding what or are both manufacturers showing everything? Not sure, but they do look very strong, I would say. Q. Does it make a difference that Honda will do its engine changes tonight and Chevrolet will wait until post-qualifying?PATO O’WARD: I did hear about that, but I have no idea why each one kind of prefers to do it that way. I’m assuming we’re doing the best decision for our camp. That’s probably what’s best for their camp. Why? No idea, but they seem to have brought a very strong package, I would say.I’m confident that our Chevy power is going to be pulling us forward. Q. Pato, I have a personal question for you. Regardless what happened in the race, where you finished, if you win, I hope you do, you seem to be very ultra popular already here in Indianapolis. You are on the front cover of the “Indianapolis Monthly Magazine?”PATO O’WARD: Did you like the pictures? They make me look way too good (laughing). Q. Then also I’m in the Krieger’s Supermarket, your picture is hanging from the wall.PATO O’WARD: My cardboard Patos, yeah. Q. Do you have an explanation why you have been so popular here in Indianapolis?PATO O’WARD: Do I see it? Q. Yeah.PATO O’WARD: I keep getting tagged people wanting to steal my cardboard Patos, but it’s grown a lot really. Last year’s Indy 500 was a big step in that, I would say. I definitely felt the difference. It’s amazing to see. It’s great to see.It’s always a great feeling seeing your shirts walking around and people smiling to support you. It’s got to be a sold-out event, isn’t it? Pretty much. It’s going to be.THE MODERATOR: If you want a grandstand ticket, good luck. Buy it quick.PATO O’WARD: I bought 300 to give away, bro.THE MODERATOR: Nice.PATO O’WARD: People don’t have to pay for it. I give away for free, 300. I’m so generous. No, anybody that buys stuff in Pato Shop gets free tickets. Buy a shirt, buy whatever. Make sure it adds up to more than $100, and you’re getting a ticket.I think it’s great. It’s just such a phenomenal event, and I have my own suite for the first time here at the Indy 500. I’m super stoked about that one. Definitely haven’t sold out in that one, but it’s okay. Q. (Off microphone)PATO O’WARD: No cousins are coming this year. Can you imagine? One guy is getting married, and the other one is, like, No, sorry, I can’t. Apparently they’re all on unavailable for me now, so…THE MODERATOR: This will be the year you win when they aren’t here, right?PATO O’WARD: I’ll send them a selfie when I’m pouring myself with milk (laughing). Q. When you see where you are now and what you had to endure in 2019, does that almost seem like a nightmare, or are you where you are now because you survived 2019?PATO O’WARD: No, I mean, I didn’t make the race in 2019 because the car sucked. Q. Also, there was the uncertainty with the team. You were going to be —PATO O’WARD: Yeah, that was a blessing in disguise to GTFO out of there. That ultimately ended up being a blessing in disguise.I love the position I’m in right now. I love the people that I get to work with day in, day out. Yeah, I mean, I’m a believer that things do happen for a reason. I don’t think timing is always — timing doesn’t always seem like it’s on your side, but then when you look back, sometimes you’re, like, Huh, well, that worked out a lot better than I thought.Yeah, I guess it’s just part of the journey, man. It’s such a high and low. It’s just you got to ride with it. You got to ride with it. You got to just flow and, you know, make the best decision that you think you are doing at that time. Those will lead you to success.THE MODERATOR: Funny how things work out sometimes, right?PATO O’WARD: I guess (laughing).THE MODERATOR: Thanks for coming up. Good luck tomorrow. Conor Daly joins us, driver of the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet. Third quick overall. Seventh on no tow in the 77 laps turned today, qualifying this weekend for your 12th Indianapolis 500. Things are looking pretty good here, no?CONOR DALY: Yeah. I don’t want to get too overly excited about things. These last two days have honestly been two of the most fun days I’ve had here. I don’t know why. I mean, these guys have obviously given me a great car, and that really makes the driver’s job a lot easier, and it’s just got a lot of raw speed.That’s also thanks to Chevrolet. I think Chevrolet has done an amazing job for us. Yeah, it’s been fun. I feel like we’re quite competitive in traffic. Then our first qualifying run was seventh of the no tow, so I feel pretty decent about that. We haven’t even trimmed as much as the Penske cars.I don’t know. We’re just going to keep our expectations in check. We’re going to keep our belts tightened a little bit and see what happens.THE MODERATOR: Did you go through more than one qual run today?CONOR DALY: We tried. Yeah, we ran into some stuff at the end, but we sorted that out just with kind of like a safety lap at the end just to make sure we had everything taken care of.THE MODERATOR: We’ll open it up to questions. Q. Conor, when you sat down, Dave said, third fastest today. How good does that make you feel coming down here after having what you’ve had in the past before coming here?CONOR DALY: I mean, people seem to — if I end up close to the front here, it’s like, Nice tow lap. Guess what Josef and Scott are doing every day. They are timing these huge tow laps to get these huge media runs. I don’t want to be given any crap about it because those guys are doing way more than we are. I was lifting on my lap. We’re in traffic.It’s just luck of the draw a lot of the times when you get a good lap here, but we’ve been two days in a row here now up at the sharper end of the grid. That’s not a mistake. I’ve been here enough years to know that if it’s much easier to just pop up there, then you’re probably in a good car, and when you are up with the Ganassis and Penskes, that’s not a bad thing.I feel really good. This isn’t anything like, Oh, we got lucky. We’ve had speed all day long and the last two days, so it feels good. It’s just something that, again, measure everything to the smallest degree. Just execute tomorrow. Don’t get too frustrated with anything because obviously you’re going to have tough days here too.Tomorrow Fast Friday is a tough one because you’re adding boost. It’s probably going to be windy. I think realistically we have got good speed in the car, and it’s been awesome to drive in traffic. Q. Growing up in Indiana, obviously this race meant a lot to you. There’s also additional specialness with the Pacers doing well. How much more fun is it coming here in the month of May knowing that they’re doing well, everyone is in such a better mood, does it affect the team at all or you or anybody else?CONOR DALY: It’s just cool. I love the Pacers, so let’s keep winning. That’s all. It’s the greatest month of the year, and there’s so much excitement around this event. I think this year more than ever. Yeah, it feels awesome just all across the board. Q. As the Indiana guy and as someone who has had this up and down career, to be where you are after three days here and to know that you’re probably in good shape this weekend, just emotionally how does that make you feel?CONOR DALY: Well, I mean, qualifying here I’m always pretty honest with everyone. I’ve struggled here in qualifying, without a doubt. The Andretti car that I drove here was actually the most — that was the best qualifying that I’ve had. I was comfortable, but we had a good draw too, you know what I mean? A lot of it’s about the draw.It would be awesome to have like my best qualifying. I would love to make the Fast 12. That would be awesome. That’s goodbye to be super dependent on the draw and the weather and stuff like that.But this car kind of gives me a little bit of a feeling that I had in 2021, which was the best car that I’ve ever had here for sure. Again, it’s a big statement to say. That was definitely one of our strongest races, but it kind of — I get that feeling that I’m, like, Man this thing sucks up really well in the tow and the draft, and it’s just got the ability to race well.Again, the race is the most important part. Josef Newgarden started 21st when he won. I’m not too upset about where we start. It’s just nice to have that confidence, I would say. These guys have done a great job preparing.This team has done a fantastic job, just all the meticulous detail. We’ve had a lot of small things go wrong so far this year. Just tiny little things here and there. When it comes to the speedway car, they’ve done a great job executing and bringing a fast machine.THE MODERATOR: Who is going to draw for you?CONOR DALY: I think Ricardo’s daughter.THE MODERATOR: That’s cool.CONOR DALY: I’m certainly not drawing. No one is going to draw well that way. Q. Josef is very much embracing going for three in a row, right?CONOR DALY: Heck yeah, I would do. Q. Why is that? I mean, this place, it’s so hard to win. We see over and over again, but he’s not running from it. He’s not being, like, I don’t know, anything can happen. He’s, like, I’m going to go take this and win three in a row, you know?CONOR DALY: When we know what we know and we see what we see and how fast those cars are and how well those cars can just go fast, I would be confident too. I mean, those guys are — like, the Penske cars are without a doubt the most impressive cars when it comes to a speed performance platform.I would be confident too. They’ve obviously won two in a row for a reason, and they got all the special information from Michael Cannon too, so then they got a little bit quicker. I was predicting a Penske front row lockout again. I don’t know. Kyle Kirkwood looks fast, though. I think Kyle Kirkwood might fight him a little bit. Maybe I would like to as well.Josef is so good here. He knows exactly what he wants. His engineer, Luke, is an awesome dude and obviously really smart too because I know he’s very smart. I enjoyed working with him. He’s got the whole package.Josef knows exactly what he wants. He’s a great champion, and he’s very smart. Yeah, can’t fault him for being confident. Q. I’m doing a story on Buxton. I know you guys go back a long ways. What do you think he’s brought to INDYCAR in terms of helping gain attention for the series or bridging that gap between F1 fans and you guys?CONOR DALY: I think what’s interesting is Will has such a great respect for this series, and he did forever. He was commentating when I was racing in GP3. When I did the 500 for the first time, I was racing in GP3 full-time. He immediately was following it and already knew so much about it. Loved coming to America, going to INDYCAR races.I think the interesting part about the Formula 1 world is I think a lot more of the people in the paddock and the drivers maybe behind the scenes have a lot more respect for what we’re doing over here than maybe the public acknowledges or the fan base, F1 Twitter accepts.I was trying to get Daniel Ricciardo here next weekend, but I think he’s just enjoying life away from the world right now. Those guys I think have more of a respect for I think what we’re doing than maybe the fan base might, and Will is exemplifies that. He has so much love for this series. The guy is full of energy, and I think he’s a great addition for us here in Fox. I think it’s awesome. Q. One of the questions that was asked to the previous drivers was were they surprised that some teams were racing — were practicing qualification setups. You mentioned that you were earlier. What made your team decide to do that today to get ready?CONOR DALY: I think at least in my history here there’s always a few runs at the end of Thursday just to kind of get a feel for low downforce for tomorrow.Yeah, I can’t remember a year where I haven’t done a couple of qualifying runs just before Fast Friday. It’s just to get yourself ready, get yourself mentally prepared.I mean, we were really happy with the race car as well, so yeah, I think it’s important to at least get a couple of runs and to know where you’re at. Just a quick read on, Hey, are we really struggling, or are we actually not in a bad spot? Q. You never competed here for the pole under the old format that Rick Mears and those guys used to do where they had to get it right on one attempt if they were going to win the pole. Is the low draw more important now, or was it more important then?CONOR DALY: I obviously don’t know what it was like back then because I didn’t really get to experience it. Q. Once you qualified, the only way you would have to pull the time, and basically that car was done.CONOR DALY: I mean, I remember seeing last year a car that was in the first three runs never had to run the rest of the day. I think it was Kyffin Simpson ran really early and just literally never ran again the rest of the day. I think the early draw is for sure very important.With the way the tires are going to deg I think with the heavier car, I think that’s going to be more important. And it depends on the wind. It depends on the sun and the air and the humidity.Yeah, it will be interesting, but I would love — we’re all crossing our fingers for that early draw. Q. Would you have liked to have tried that old format?CONOR DALY: I don’t even know honestly. Q. It was one attempt.CONOR DALY: I’ll race any time, anywhere, any era. Why not? |