| CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIESINDIANAPOLIS 500INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANATEAM CHEVY PRACTICE REPORTWEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2025 For the second straight day, Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, was the fastest Team Chevy driver with a quick lap of 225.584mph, the second fastest lap of the day.Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Shell V-Power NiTRO Team Penske Chevrolet at 225.545mph, Conor Daly, Conor Daly, No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet at 224.931mph and David Malukas, No. 4 A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet at 224.618mph rounded out the top six. Ed Carpenter Racing were fast on the non-tow list, with Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Splenda ECR Chevrolet at 221.116mph, and Alexander Rossi, No. 20 Java House ECR Chevrolet at 221.277mph.Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Pennzoil Team Penske Chevrolet at 237.724mph, led a Team Chevy top six in the speed trap at the Yard of Bricks. Heavy overnight rain delayed Indianapolis 500 practice for the second straight day, which began an hour late and was interrupted twice by sprinkles. The track was green for three and a half hours, enough for the 34 drivers to complete 2555 laps. Kyle Larson in the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Arrow McLaren Chevrolet was the busiest Team Chevy driver, completing 107 laps, over half the race distance.Tony Kanaan, designated standby driver for the No.17 Hendrickcars.comArrow McLaren Chevrolet of Kyle Larson, who is attempting the Indianapolis 500/Coca Cola 600 double, had his refresher course rained on for the second straight day, and will take place at 10 am Thursday. Indianapolis 500 Wednesday Practice Results |
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| Indianapolis 500 Wednesday Non-Tow Practice Results |
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| Indianapolis 500 practice tune-in alert Thursday, May 15· 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 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 WHAT THEY’RE SAYING INDIANAPOLIS 500 PRACTICE (QUOTES) A.J. Foyt Enterprises David Malukas, No. 4 AJ FOYT RACING Chevrolet:All right day two is a wrap and another very good day for us. We went in a very good direction with the car overnight. Then we even finished the day a bit early. I’m kind of just preparing for some bigger changes going into tomorrow but extremely happy with the work we’ve managed to do with these short windows from day one and into today with the rain, but it’s easy with the car being unloaded in a good spot. So very happy with the way things are going so hopefully we keep the streak going in the next few days. Arrow McLaren Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet: “Good to be out turning laps, but we’re not quite where we want to be yet. We have some work to do, and we’ll see what tomorrow brings.” Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:“We had a solid day two. We’re happy with the balance and have made some small gains, chipping away at that. We’re working our way into traffic and that changed the balance quite a bit. We still have a bit to find there, but overall it’s still comfortable. The main thing is having a smooth few days into Qualifying and we’ll continue finding more speed every day.” Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:“It was a good second day from where we left off. We’re moving in one direction, which is the right way. We’re leaving Wednesday as happy as Tuesday, which is a step up compared to the Open Test. There’s a lot of momentum being built. The No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet is great running out front. There’s more work to be done deeper in the traffic, but there’s a simple way to do that by qualifying and racing up front. Looking at it realistically, we need to work on getting the car better deeper into the pack and we should be in pretty good shape.” Kyle Larson, No. 17 HendrickCars.com Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:“I’m glad we were able to get some race runs today compared to yesterday. That’s really what I wanted to focus on mainly today. We were able to try running in the front of the pack and the middle and get an idea for the balance especially with the cars we were running around.” DRR-Cusick Mostorsports Ryan Hunter-Reay, No.23 DRR CUSICK WEDBUSH SECURITIES: “Today was super useful despite the rain delay. We got through a lot of stuff and we found a good direction with the Wedbush Chevy. In terms of racing running. And I’m looking forward to more of it on Thursday. I’m thankful for the hard work of the team in finding the proper direction. I feel good with the race car right now. But we to find a little more on Thursday.” Jack Harvey, No. 24 DRR CUSICK INVST: “Overall, it was a well-executed day for the INVST crew. We verified the changes we made overnight that worked today. We actually stayed out in pit lane as a rainstorm was coming. And we ran some additional laps. We wanted to get as many laps as possible if it did rain. We did a good job minimizing the time in the garage today. We tried various things, and we went back to the direction we like and made me more confident. All the years here at IMS, confidence is a big thing for me with the race car. For the race setup, we have made improvements each day.” Ed Carpenter Racing Alexander Rossi, No. 20 Java House ECR Chevrolet:“They are all good days at the (Indianapolis Motor) Speedway. It ebbs and flows, but we’re learning things we need to learn. You always feel like you never have enough time here. Two more, obviously, important days ahead of us.” Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Splenda ECR Chevrolet:“That is practice day two done here at IMS. Good day for us. Ended up P10 overall, and P2 on the no-tow list. We will keep working on all the traffic running, but I think we are in a good spot. Excited to see what this month brings.” Juncos Hollinger Racing Conor Daly, No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet:“I feel good. Today was a nice reset after yesterday. Got through a couple things that we wanted to. I feel quite confident in this car, honestly. It feels really good. I think we have some good natural speed, but we just have to keep dialing in the balance. But don’t want to over-react too much, but it feels good. Today was a good day for us.” Team Penske Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Shell V-Power NiTRO+ Team Penske Chevrolet: “It’s showing good signs to begin. It’s a long process. You can have the quickest car in the field, and that doesn’t mean you’re going to win the race. I think it takes a lot of ingredients, clearly, to win at this place. I think we have a few of them that are starting to show themselves in favorable conditions.Right now I think the car is in a really good place. We just have to continue to go through the motions. Qualifying is going to be its own thing. We’re going to find out exactly where everybody else is at as we get to Friday, and hopefully we’ll be in a good spot there.” Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet: “Yeah, I felt pretty good in traffic. I just sat in a line of, I don’t know, ten cars or something. Just sat there going about the same speed. It was kind of, yeah, hard to tell, which the race is a completely different story to qualifying. Almost speed doesn’t quite matter. It’s more about handling, which looks like everyone’s car is handling well too. Everyone is doing long stints. The car is fine. It’s crazy. I think the cool temps help as well.” Josef NewgardenWill PowerPress Conference THE MODERATOR: Josef Newgarden, driver of the No. 2 Shell V-Power NiTRO+ Team Penske Chevrolet. As noted, the two-time Indy 500 champion and reigning champion. Third quick overall. Eighth quick no tow. Josef, you got your stuff done early and can watch this practice end, I guess, today? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I was watching. I was watching and then I got called over here. THE MODERATOR: It happens. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’m missing the last ten minutes. I’ve been watching. This guy is going right here. I had my commentary ripping on the bus, which was good. I was watching like everybody else. Been up and down with the weather, but for the most part we’ve had really good running. Even yesterday where some rain interrupted the beginning, we still got a lot of track time, and we got a lot of track time today. No complaints so far. I think we’ll get good sunny days for the rest of the week. THE MODERATOR: Clearly very quick yesterday. Again, very quick today. Does that bode well for this coming weekend and maybe on the ranks? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s showing good signs to begin. It’s a long process. You can have the quickest car in the field, and that doesn’t mean you’re going to win the race. I think it takes a lot of ingredients, clearly, to win at this place. I think we have a few of them that are starting to show themselves in favorable conditions. Right now I think the car is in a really good place. We just have to continue to go through the motions. Qualifying is going to be its own thing. We’re going to find out exactly where everybody else is at as we get to Friday, and hopefully we’ll be in a good spot there. Then the race will be a whole other animal, and we’ll figure that out next weekend. THE MODERATOR: We’ll open it up to questions. Q. Josef, Chevy seems fast, and maybe a little bit of speed that they haven’t shown yet through five races. Do you feel that way as well? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think we’re definitely quick. Honda is a tough competitor. This is racing. It goes up and down, so you can never be too confident when you are going into something. I said this earlier in the week. Every single one of my INDYCAR victories have been Chevrolet-powered. All 31 of them. I always feel I have a shot when I go into the race. Certainly with Team Penske, the conjunction of those two, I always feel like I have the opportunity to win every single weekend. Where the ultimate performance is going to lie is going to be Saturday and Sunday this weekend and then Sunday the weekend after. We’ve been here many times where we thought we were pretty quick going into the weekend, and then we were nowhere. So I don’t ever get ahead. I’ve learned to never get ahead of myself here. I think Chevrolet has done a good job. We were in a great place last year. They definitely got to make a step because we knew Honda was probably going to make a step, and I think we’ve tried to. So far it looks good this week. It’s just going to be a matter of how does it progress into the weekend is what we’re going to need to look for. Q. My second question comes from Twitter. THE MODERATOR: Or X. Q. X. It’s a high-level — JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Is it an AI question? Q. No, it’s a real person. Obviously Kanaan is having some trouble getting out there to do his refresher course. They said if you polled all the drivers, would any of the drivers have an issue with Kanaan not getting the refresher course? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I saw this. Is he running? THE MODERATOR: It’s a backup plan. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: In case they need him for Larson. Would he jump in… Oh, for the race. Not necessarily to qualify the car. Yeah. You know, I’m a big fan. It’s hard to answer these questions. I love the traditions of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I would want to be very respectful of them. There are some things clearly that should stay traditions. You know, the refresher thing, I’m not as positive on. I was actually just talking to another driver about it this morning. I mean, someone like Tony Kanaan doesn’t need a refresher. It’s up to the team. If the team wants to put Tony Kanaan in the car, then put him in the car. If he wrecks the car, then that was the team’s decision to do that. I think when it’s big-time auto racing, there should be some oversight. It’s not necessarily, hey, just let the teams do whatever they want, but I think there’s some parameters that could be put in place where a guy like Tony Kanaan who clearly could jump in a car no problem tomorrow, should probably be allowed to do that. I certainly have no issue with it. There might be some room for improvement there in the future in my opinion, but with staying respectful to the traditions of the speedway, I think you can make something where it satisfies both sides. Q. I’m having trouble understanding what the hybrid is really doing out there for you guys. Is it making the car feel more twitchy? Can you even tell a difference? I hear, Okay, it drives differently, but how? What are you feeling out there that’s making it drive different? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: The big reason it’s driving differently is not necessarily the hybrid interacting with the car. It is the weight of the hybrid. That’s where you are getting all the comments. Why is the car different? It is just the weight is up. You’re 100, 110 pounds heavier. That’s a lot of mass percentage-wise that you are adding to this car. It’s saturating the tires more. It’s just moving around. The CG changes a little bit. It raises slightly. Your weight distribution is shifted depending on where teams are putting it. That’s what people are trying to figure out right now. You add 100 pounds to this thing, it’s almost like adding 200, 250 pounds to a stock car. If you said, Hey, guys, we’re going to bolt 250 pounds to these stock cars, see what you think, I bet they would all go, Okay, this drives differently, and now we have to counteract it. The hybrid itself and the utilization, I have said this. I do think it’s very important here. It’s more important at this track than anywhere we’ve gone because of the drag level. We’ve not run in a superspeedway configuration yet with this hybrid, so it’s very, very low drag on the cars. Because of that, they’re very power-sensitive. Any time you use something to add power, you feel the magnification of it here more than anywhere else. When you are using the hybrid on the straightaway, it makes a very big difference. Where are you are regenerating it and where you are using it, to either pass or defend or for whatever situation, I think there’s repercussions for burning it, and there’s certainly reward for utilizing it correctly. Q. At the open test the last couple of years you’ve been very confident with how your car was handling. Are you at that level of confidence now? How far along are you all in progressing, figuring out how to get the setup just right with the hybrid weight in the back? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, the great thing about the open test the last few years is you get this big head start coming into the month. If you are fortunate enough to show up with a pretty good car and get that dialed in in the test, then you don’t have a lot of work to do by the time we get to this week. I feel like we got on top of the hybrid pretty quickly so far. This is only a certain set of conditions that I’ve felt. If it gets much hotter, say it’s 85, 87 and the track temp shoots through the roof at 120, 125, you know, I think that changes the condition and feel of the car. I’m still open-minded that we don’t have everything checked, but the early signs of where we’re at I think is great. I think we’re in a really good window. My car feels fantastic. That’s only one piece of the puzzle. Q. What we’re seeing the first couple of days obviously is race running, but as far as when you start trimming it out for speed, I get asked this on the radio network earlier, if we could see a repeat of what you guys did here last year by sweeping the front row. Do you think you can do it a second year in a row? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think it’s possible, definitely. We’re coming from a very good spot last year, so everyone is going to have to make a big jump, which is possible. We know that everyone gets better every year. So we’ve tried to make a step too to retain hopefully a speed advantage. It’s definitely possible. You know, we can do it. I don’t know that that’s going to materialize, but we’re trying to put our best foot forward and put three fast cars on the track. They look quick. We’ll see what it brings on Saturday and Sunday. Q. Do you think Team Penske has crept ahead just a little bit over Chip Ganassi Racing because they used to have a pretty good handle on qualifying here? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think last year for sure. This year is to be determined. It’s so hard to give you an absolute. I just don’t know until we get to Saturday. When it’s for real, we’re going to see where everyone is really at. THE MODERATOR: Checkered flag is out. Palou, Power, and Josef, the top three. Q. You’ve experienced a lot of great success here the last couple of years. What would a first-time Indy 500 pole mean to you here on Sunday? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t know. I’ve never gone through it. I’ll say this, though… I’ve talked about Indy as it’s this magnification of the team effort more than anywhere else that we go, and I mean that. It’s a team sport more than people realize when you watch racing. Indy is like the greatest example of it. Here more than anywhere else everything has to go perfectly as a team and a unit, and I think that’s on the greatest display in qualifying. So when you qualify well here, it a reward for the total team. I think that’s why you saw such satisfaction last year amongst the whole team. When you lock out the front row, I signed more front row photos than anything else for the team because that’s gratifying for everybody involved. It shows the work that’s been put in. I think from a team standpoint it’s more satisfying. The win is still very much a big team thing, but you get a little more personal satisfaction out of it. I guess to answer your question, being on pole here, I would like to see it again for the team. I liked to see what happened last year for the team. It was really cool to see that in the garage. If we can do it again, I know what it’s going to look like. Q. As we’ve gotten this additional weight added to the car, do you have a feeling yet on what is possible in those late race situations? If something really late on the back stretch going into three is still possible with the car as it is now? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It seems possible. In my head, you know. I wanted to try some things out today, and itself, like, you probably need to park me, just let me sit out. I’m getting a little too excited out here. Things can work out here and be magical until they’re not. It goes so quickly from fantastic to disaster, and you’re just flirting with that line. I think the racing style is going to be very similar this year to what we saw last year. That’s what the early indication advisory shown me. What I felt today, I don’t think it will be a dramatic departure to what people saw at the end of the race last year, unless it’s crazy hot. If we somehow get like a 90 degree day, super high track temp, that’s just going to string the field out. You sort of can’t do anything about that. It is what it is. I think if it’s a normal, typical 75, 80 degree Indiana day, I think you’re going to have a similar show to what we had last year, with the similar ability to do what you’ve seen. Q. You know better than I do. The heavy rain it in the morning, I suppose cools the temperature down. Is a different setup required for cold temperature than for very hot temperature? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yes, definitely, definitely. The rain contributed to cooling it before we started, so it was a fairly — I think it was probably 95 degrees when we started practice today, so it came from a lower level. Especially it being whatever it was, 1:00, 1:15 when we rolled out. You run the car very differently if it’s 120 degrees versus 90 or 95. The car, the tires, they react very, very differently. That’s why I said earlier, in certain conditions my car feels pretty solid. We don’t know what it could be like in extreme conditions. At least extreme on the other end of the temp spectrum. Yeah, you’ve got to be ready to combat that. Some guys have cars that are really good in the heat. Some guys have cars that are really good in the cold. Some have both. Ideally you like to have a car that’s flexible because you need different cars in different conditions. Q. (Off microphone) JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t care. I normally like the harder condition. Typically hot is tougher around this place, so make it cold, make it hot, but yeah, when it’s harder, it’s more fun. Q. Earlier you said you learned to never get ahead of yourself. With success and it can be so easy and human nature to build pride or get complacent, but what keeps you humble as you head for three straight? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I almost think winning the race was more humbling for me. I feel just so grateful to have been here. I kind of got there 24 months ago. I was so enamored with trying to win in this race. It seemed like it was like a needed thing. Like you have to win here. Otherwise, your career is a failure. That’s what people have always kind of painted it as. I think I got too consumed by it. Then winning it has just made it very gratifying. If anything, I just feel more thankful now to have been here. I’ve told people too, if you focus on the end result, the winning the race, you’re missing the point that you have already succeeded so much by just being here. You get here. You qualify. You’re on the grid. You’re already winning in so many ways. That’s what I feel when I show up. I try and remind myself of that. It doesn’t matter that we’ve won it a couple of minutes. I’m just still thankful to be here this year and to have another shot. That’s what I’m focusing on is just the next opportunity, which we have in front of us right now. Q. You mentioned earlier about Chevy making gains, Honda making gains. We’re talking about engines that have been running since the fall of 2011. How much more do you think is there to get out of these engines? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: You would be surprised. We’re still finding stuff. Chevrolet made a great jump last year. They’re still making it happen. I think we’ve made another — I think we can make another step this year. As much as they’ve been — you’ve kind of rung the thing out as much as you can, there’s still just a little bit left in there it seems like. We’re searching for it. It’s becoming more detail-specific. You really have to be fantastic on the details these days. Not just as a manufacturer, but as a team. The field is so compressed that if you don’t nail the details, you will not win, and you will not find the next step in front of the competition. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Josef. Joined now by Will Power, driver the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. Of course, the 2018 winner of the Indianapolis 500. Currently seventh in points. Second quick in the overall session. 13th I think, the last time I looked. Tell us about your day. What did you get done? WILL POWER: Yeah, I think we’ve got a reasonable package right now. Seems very difficult to pass when you are in the back of the pack, but car stayed really consistent through the rounds, yeah. THE MODERATOR: We’ll open it up to questions. Q. Same question I asked Josef. Chevy looks pretty good and has not looked so great through the first five races. How are you feeling about what they’ve brought so far? WILL POWER: Yeah, I actually haven’t looked. It’s so hard to tell right now. We won’t know until maybe Friday. We’ll start to see some sort of indication. Really Saturday, to be honest. Q. (Off microphone) WILL POWER: Yeah, I felt pretty good in traffic. I just sat in a line of, I don’t know, ten cars or something. Just sat there going about the same speed. It was kind of, yeah, hard to tell, which the race is a completely different story to qualifying. Almost speed doesn’t quite matter. It’s more about handling, which looks like everyone’s car is handling well too. Everyone is doing long stints. The car is fine. It’s crazy. I think the cool temps help as well. Q. (Off microphone) WILL POWER: If it gets hot, it’s more difficult, but it looks like race day is about this temp. It’s going to be similar to last year. Very similar. Q. (Off microphone) WILL POWER: It might rain first and then hopefully dry. It would suck to have to do a Monday or Tuesday, yeah. Q. Seven of the eight fastest cars today were either Ganassi or Penske or one of their affiliates. Is this kind of coming down to one of those Ganassi versus Penske weeks? WILL POWER: I don’t know. Maybe both the bosses are, like, You better get out there and get a big tow, or you’re going to be at the top of the Times. I don’t know. Yeah, usually. Yeah, I think even with tows it is an indication of car speed for sure or car handling and speed. It’s so hard to tell, man. It hasn’t been as many full-tank pack runs this year as there have been. Maybe it’s because of the rain and so on. THE MODERATOR: Tomorrow looks dry, but there’s going to be a ton of that tomorrow, do you think? WILL POWER: No. No, I think a lot of people switch to quallie tomorrow. Yeah. Start with a bit of race and then quickly get into quallie stuff. Q. With the added weight of the hybrid in the back, how much does this feel like a brand new car, or does it just feel slightly different than last year? WILL POWER: It feels very similar. Very similar. Honestly, the biggest changes are the changes you actually do suspension-wise to make the car better or worse. Yeah, honestly in racing it’s very similar. Q. So your level of comfort now compared to what it was at this time last year, how would you gauge that? WILL POWER: Mine is a lot more, yeah. I’ve actually found a pretty good setup. Q. So why is that? You guys obviously had a fast car last year. Why are you feeling a lot more comfortable at this point already than last year? WILL POWER: I had a fast car in qualifying. Definitely not in the race. I just went backwards the whole race on any restarts. It feels a lot better. It is quite a different setup. Quite different from last few, so it’s what sort of direction we needed to go. Q. When we were talking Wednesday after second practice, we’ve had a little bit of delays. In your experience does a confident week and a half before the race, does that typically still follow through and get you into feeling confident on race day, or how much can things change from now until Sunday when we’re rolling out on May 25th? WILL POWER: Hard to say, man. You just have one session. It tips over a bit, and you start getting a bit uncomfortable, but yeah, I think you’ve got to be on top of your tools. I think once you’ve got your round-about philosophy, you just sort of go on minor changes. That should keep you in your window, if you know what you’re doing. Q. I guess you were talking a little bit about the people you were running with, and you felt like you were maybe stuck in line a little bit. Were there any cars in particular you felt were really strong? WILL POWER: I think my two teammates look really good. Palou looked good. He was running trying to get a big tow lap, I suppose. Maybe he was on light fuel. Rosenqvist. I sat in a line, man. Everyone looked about the same. No one was really passing. Some cars were closer. Yeah, it’s difficult to tell. Very hard to tell. Q. You’ve got a gap of 120 points to Alex Palou in the points standing, which is obviously quite a big deficit already. Do you feel your season rides even more on the 500 now considering the points gap you do have? WILL POWER: You most certainly have to start beating Alex. I mean, yeah, I haven’t beaten him once this year. I would like to start slowly chipping away at that. It’s funny, how quickly things can turn around. It would be nice if it was double points and he had a bad day. I’m not joking. It would be crazy if that was the case and it switched around like that. Yeah, two bad races for him and two good for me, and you start getting back within a race worth of points. There’s a lot of guys very close from second all the way back to where I am, I suppose, or eighth. Q. I remember last year you sort of came into qualifying having such confidence that Penske would lock out the front row. Do you have a similar confidence going into this year, or do you think you’ll have more competition? WILL POWER: I think it will be closer, yeah, for a number of reasons. Not just people caught up. It’s probably a bit of a different — it looks like it’s windy. It’s going to be more difficult because of the weight. I think that’s more pronounced in qualifying trim when you are on lighter downforce. Yeah, I can see it being a little less about the speed of the car, but more about the handling. THE MODERATOR: Forecast is for less rain. Thanks for coming up, Will. |