The preparations for the 94th Indianapolis 500 have begun at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the race’s defending champion at the top of the practice charts.
Three-time ‘500’ king Helio Castroneves topped today’s two-hour practice session for veterans with a lap at 226.603 in his backup No. 3T Team Penske entry. He was one of three drivers to break the 226 m.p.h. range in the session, with Target Chip Ganassi Racing rivals Dario Franchitti (226.535) and Scott Dixon (226.237) close behind him in their own backup cars.
Joining those three in breaking Castroneves’ pole speed of 224.864 m.p.h. from one year ago was Panther Racing’s Dan Wheldon, a former ‘500’ winner in 2005. The Englishman went P4 in the session with a fast lap of 225.609 in his primary No. 4 National Guard-backed entry.
Andretti Autosport’s Tony Kanaan rounded out the top five, but he did so in a rather interesting way. The 2004 IZOD IndyCar Series champ took laps in all of the AA machines early on, shaking down the cars of Marco Andretti, John Andretti, Danica Patrick, and Ryan Hunter-Reay before he finally got into his own No. 11 7-Eleven car. It was a lap at 224.793 m.p.h. in John Andretti’s No. 43 Window World special that made Kanaan fifth-fastest in the practice.
Rookie orientation and refresher laps are now taking place at IMS until 6 p.m. ET. You can follow along on IndyCar.com’s Race Control feature or the Indianapolis Star’s Race Tracker.
