Practice report

IndyCar Indianapolis 500

Indy 500: O’Ward quickest at 228.861mph as Ericsson, Lundqvist crash

Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward led day three of practice for the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500, which featured two wrecks before rain brought an early end to the session.

Joey Barnes

Edited: May 17, 2024, 3:11 PM

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The 25-year-old Mexican latched on to an early morning tow and hurtled around with a flying lap of 228.861mph to claim the top spot on the leaderboard.

Scott McLaughlin’s No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet, which led Wednesday’s practice, continued to showcase strong pace after a tow lap of 227.316mph put him second overall.

Reigning and two-time IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou ended up third-fastest on the day with another tow-supported run at 226.915mph for his No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

Colton Herta’s best lap of 226.828mph was good enough for fourth overall. He also claimed the best no-tow lap on the day – which came in the opening hour – as his No. 26 Andretti Global Honda nailed a best of 224.182mph.

Defending race winner Josef Newgarden was fifth on the overall speed charts after his No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet managed a tow-assisted lap of 226.684mph.

The rest of the top 10, all tow-assisted runs, were led by Marco Andretti (Andretti Herta) in sixth, followed by rookie Linus Lundqvist (Chip Ganssi Racing), Ed Carpenter (Ed Carpenter Racing), 2018 Indy 500 winner Will Power (Team Penske) and 2008 Indy 500 champion Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing).

Directly behind Herta on the no-tow list was Andretti Global team-mate Kyle Kirkwood, who was able to run a lap of 223.387mph.

Four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves was third among single-car runs, with his No. 06 Meyer Shank Racing Honda unleashing a lap of 222.852mph.

Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) and Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing) were fourth and fifth, respectively, on the no-tow list.

Linus Lundqvist hits the wall

Two big wrecks

There were multiple incidents on the day, with Lundqvist the first to experience a practice crash this year at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Lundqvist ran into trouble just 90 minutes into the session after his No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, which was tailing the Arrow McLaren duo of O’Ward and Rossi, touched the inside curb of Turn 2, which thrust the rear-end of his car into the outside wall.

The momentum carried him down the backstretch, where he fortunately avoided the inside wall before coming to a stop. Lundqvist, one of seven rookies entered in the event, was able to walk away under his own power after being carefully assisted out of the car by IndyCar’s AMR Safety Team.

“I'm alright,” said Lunqvist, who ran 23 laps. “It's my mistake. I know exactly what I did; I touched the curb in (Turn) 2 and I couldn't hold onto it. Something they talk about often around this place. But it's just a mistake in my part and obviously my team has to pay the price for it, so yeah, it sucks.”

The team was able to preserve going to a backup car, instead opting to replace the rear assembly, bodywork and replace the floor.

The other incident involved 2022 Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson, who crashed with just over two hours remaining.

He was the last driver in a line of four cars when he grazed the curb in Turn 4 before taking a 180-degree spin and slapping the left side of his car into the outside wall. From there, his No. 28 Andretti Global Honda drifted across the track and nosed into the inside wall before making heavy contact with the attenuator at pit entrance.

Ericsson got out gingerly but also walked away under his own power. He logged 79 laps before the incident, with a best of 224.592mph to stand 18th overall.

“I think I brushed the curb a little bit and that's probably enough to send it,” he said. “And then you're a passenger, so yeah. Very disappointed.

“Very sorry for my team. They've done a very good job and they have a lot of work ahead of them now, so that's probably the worst of the whole thing."

Andretti Global COO Rob Edwards, who also calls strategy for Colton Herta, confirmed to Motorsport.com the damage sustained to Ericsson's crash was severe enough that the team has elected to move to a back-up car.

Kyle Larson, Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

Photo by: Josh Tons / Motorsport Images

Frustration for Larson

NASCAR star Kyle Larson’s day began in the garage as his No. 17 Arrow McLaren-Rick Hendrick Chevrolet underwent an engine change. His car arrived on pit lane at 11:15am ET, 75 minutes after practice began.

Although Larson, the 2021 Cup Series champion, managed to get out with several hours remaining to get acclimated, he reported further issues with his car and only logged 29 laps with a best of 222.805mph in the tow to place 22nd overall.

He got back out on track again at the end of the day and recorded a decent no-tow lap of 222.554mph during a qualifying simulation.

Alexander Rossi had a couple of moments in the early portion of the day, beginning with misjudging the entry in Turn 2 and briefly catching the apron. Roughly an hour later, his No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet was squeezed next to the pit wall on the inside of the front straight while attempting a pass on the No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet of Romain Grosjean.

There was a brief spell of green flag running after Ericsson’s crash and the extended caution to repair the attenuator. However, the rain persisted as the caution came out once again with 90 minutes remaining in the session.

It dried sufficiently for running to resume with 25 minutes on the clock, only for Conor Daly to bring out a yellow when he coasted to the pits with a smoking right-front corner on his Dreyer & Reinbold entry.

More rain sprinkles ended the day with 10 minutes to go.

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info

Main Information

Cla Driver # Laps Time Interval Mph 1 Mexico P. O'Ward Arrow McLaren 5 56

39.3252

228.861 2 New Zealand S. McLaughlin Team Penske 3 73

+0.2673

39.5925

0.2673 227.316 3 Spain A. Palou Chip Ganassi Racing 10 41

+0.3372

39.6624

0.0699 226.915 4 United States C. Herta Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian 26 83

+0.3524

39.6776

0.0152 226.828 5 United States J. Newgarden Team Penske 2 71

+0.3777

39.7029

0.0253 226.684 6 United States M. Andretti Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani 98 48

+0.4005

39.7257

0.0228 226.554 7 Sweden L. Lundqvist Chip Ganassi Racing 8 23

+0.4519

39.7771

0.0514 226.261 8 United States E. Carpenter Ed Carpenter Racing 20 55

+0.4776

39.8028

0.0257 226.115 9 Australia W. Power Team Penske 12 70

+0.5552

39.8804

0.0776 225.675 10 New Zealand S. Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 9 53

+0.5620

39.8872

0.0068 225.636 11 United States C. Daly Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports 24 86

+0.5662

39.8914

0.0042 225.613 12 United Kingdom C. Ilott Arrow McLaren 6 59

+0.6521

39.9773

0.0859 225.128 13 Brazil H. Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian 06 81

+0.6648

39.9900

0.0127 225.056 14 United States R. Hunter-Reay Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports 23 40

+0.6852

40.0104

0.0204 224.942 15 New Zealand M. Armstrong Chip Ganassi Racing 11 67

+0.7144

40.0396

0.0292 224.777 16 France R. Grosjean Juncos Hollinger Racing 77 77

+0.7416

40.0668

0.0272 224.625 17 United States A. Rossi Arrow McLaren 7 61

+0.7424

40.0676

0.0008 224.620 18 Sweden M. Ericsson Andretti Global 28 79

+0.7475

40.0727

0.0051 224.592 19 Sweden F. Rosenqvist Meyer Shank Racing 60 84

+0.8154

40.1406

0.0679 224.212 20 United States K. Kirkwood Andretti Global 27 30

+0.8210

40.1462

0.0056 224.181 21 Netherlands R. van Kalmthout Ed Carpenter Racing 21 44

+0.8365

40.1617

0.0155 224.094 22 United States S. Ferrucci A.J. Foyt Enterprises 14 49

+0.9526

40.2778

0.1161 223.448 23 Japan T. Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 75 54

+0.9550

40.2802

0.0024 223.435 24 United Kingdom K. Legge Dale Coyne Racing 51 56

+0.9608

40.2860

0.0058 223.403 25 United States K. Larson Arrow McLaren/Rick Hendrick 17 29

+1.0689

40.3941

0.1081 222.805 26 Argentina A. Canapino Juncos Hollinger Racing 78 53

+1.0727

40.3979

0.0038 222.784 27 United States G. Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 15 33

+1.0935

40.4187

0.0208 222.669 28 United States K. Simpson Chip Ganassi Racing 4 43

+1.1312

40.4564

0.0377 222.462 29 United Kingdom T. Blomqvist Meyer Shank Racing 66 85

+1.1480

40.4732

0.0168 222.369 30 Denmark C. Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 45 42

+1.2042

40.5294

0.0562 222.061 31 Brazil P. Fittipaldi Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 30 44

+1.2292

40.5544

0.0250 221.924 32

C. Rasmussen Ed Carpenter Racing

33 42

+1.2405

40.5657

0.0113 221.862 33

N. Siegel Dale Coyne Racing

18 72

+1.4164

40.7416

0.1759 220.904 34

R. Robb A.J. Foyt Enterprises

41 14

+1.5857

40.9109

0.1693 219.990 View full results

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