Team Penske breaches 227mph mark during Indy 500 practice

INDIANAPOLIS - Verizon IndyCar teams took full advantage of Tuesday's six hours of practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Today, we saw a lot more drafting action and packs of five to eight cars.

The session was halted four times, all due to mechanical issues. James Jacks suffered an engine failure, Jack Hawksworth had issues with the brakes, and a fuel leak ignited a massive fire on Simona de Silvestro's car. The No. 29 Andretti Autosport Honda has sent left the track as the team works to rebuild their machine.

Finally, the session ended under caution as Andretti encountered more issues with Justin Wilson losing an engine. He was the fastest Honda in fourth at 226.688mph.

Helio Castroneves and Team Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud are the only drivers to top 227mph and led the way ahead of Ganassi's Scott Dixon, who put up a lap of 226.769mph. In comparison, Castroneves ran a 227.514.

"It was a good day," Castroneves said. "The Shell V-Power Nitro+ car was super strong, super solid, felt comfortable. Now we've got to just keep working with this new aero kit. Today was basically the second day that we've been working constantly, but I like what I see.

"Things are looking in the right direction. We're not focused on just the lap, we're focused on the performance of it all."

33 cars posted a time with Buddy Lazier being the only driver yet to make a lap, but isn't expected to until Thursday. As reported by Motorsport.com earlier today, James Davison has been selected to drive the No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda and made laps in the car with 30 minutes to go in practice.

Marco Andretti also did some laps in his teammate Carlos Munoz's car, shaking down the No. 26, as well as his No. 27. He ran the most laps of anyone at 103 total (99 in No. 27, four in No. 26).