Power, Castroneves focus on race setups, not distracted by Honda

Power said that although he topped the speed charts at 224.656mph, it was his no-tow speed of 220.902mph which he regarded as most encouraging.

“It was pretty good all day, actually. I have to say that we’ve made some improvements overnight. The no-tow speed is better for sure, and yeah, I feel comfortable in traffic.

“You know, it's a long week. Got to keep working at it. Things change and the car goes in and out of being good and bad and this and that. You've got to try not to get lost and just keep it simple.

“But it's okay. It's all good. We keep focusing on our work. We're working together with Chevy and everybody else so that we can keep up the good pace and move forward.

“As a team, we did a lot of homework in the off-season for this race, and we tested here twice, so you know, we're getting the most out of our package. I know Chevy is working really hard, and obviously you can see that our speeds are pretty good right now.

“Today the Hondas are turned down quite a bit, we can see that. But I feel like our alone [no-tow] speed is actually good compared to what they were running yesterday.”

Power explained that the slower-than-expected speeds were partly down to the heat, and partly down to the teams not running qualifying setups.

“[The heat] definitely made the track greasy,” he said, “but it all has to do with whether people want to practice qualifying. That's when you start to see some bigger speeds, and we don't get the [extra qualifying] boost until Friday and probably won’t practice qualifying until Thursday.

“So these first three days… Being hot will make it slower, yeah, but we're not in the configuration that's going to put up a big speed anyway.”

Teammate Castroneves said that Honda possibly turning down its engines can’t affect how the five-car Team Penske Chevrolet team approaches its preparations for the race.

“We've just got to focus on our work,” said the three-time Indy 500 winner. “We can only speculate, but out there we're just trying to run. As Will mentioned about downforce and qualifying setup and race setup, we're just trying to make sure that we feel as comfortable as possible. Whatever happens on race day, we'll prepare as much as we can.

“We can't keep talking about [Honda], we can only focus on our way, and Chevy – as Will touched on the subject – is working really hard. Maybe with 1.4-bar boost [as used in qualifying at IMS], it might be different; at this point, even we don't know.

“But we know that everybody is working together. We don’t see as much of the difference [between engine manufacturers] as last year, where they were strong.

“If they are, we’ve just got to make sure we have a better car.”