The first day back at Indianapolis Motor Speedway each spring always elicits special sentiment that everyone is familiar with. Will Power felt it in spades Wednesday.
“There's no feeling (like it); you can't explain it,” the winner of the 2018 Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge said during Wednesday’s annual Open Test. “Man, I was in the (renovated Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum) yesterday. What is the name of the display? The ‘Starting Line Experience.’ It gave me goose bumps because you have the flyover, the national anthem, singing '(Back Home Again in) Indiana.’ Yeah, there's no event like it.”
This will be Power’s 18th “500.”
“I think the longer I've done it, the more I've appreciated it,” the driver of the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet said. “The amount of media attention over the month, how hard it is to get a pole position here. I'm the all-time pole position holder for INDYCAR, and I don't have a pole at this place. I've (started) on the front row, and I've (started) on the back row. It's much harder doing the four laps to just get in the field than the four laps I did last year to get on the front row.
“It gives you a lot of respect for the place. It can certainly bite you. When you win it, the feeling, there's no other feeling like it driving into Victory Lane here with that many people, doing the victory lap. An incredible place, incredibly difficult to win. When you do, it's something you'll never forget.”
Some Teams Using ‘Race’ Car This Week
Over the years, teams have varied their approach on whether to use the car they intend to use during the “500” for this April test. Many have chosen not to risk wrecking their preferred machine that’s been massaged almost since the end of last year’s race.
Times have changed, and Team Penske is among those that are doing things differently this year. This week, all three of its cars are the ones the drivers expect to use in May.
Scott McLaughlin is using the same No. 3 Pennzoil Team Penske Chevrolet that won last year’s Indianapolis 500 NTT P1 Award with a record four-lap pole speed average of 234.220 mph. Two-time “500” winner Josef Newgarden is driving a new car, but it’s the one planned for a three-peat bid.
“The last one was a one-and-done,” Newgarden said of last year’s winning car. “We'd like to do that again.”
Newgarden tested this car in the October test and noted that Wednesday was technically the third day this No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet has been on track.
“I’ve heard a lot of threes lately,” he said, smiling.
Making Sense of the Hybrid
This is the first full-field test on the Indy oval of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES’ still-new hybrid technology, and most of the drivers have mentioned feeling more weight in the rear of the cars.
Christian Lundgaard is one of the drivers who isn’t sure what to make of the addition. He noted that his only laps at this track with Arrow McLaren have been with the hybrid technology, including the 11-car test in October, and all his laps with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing were without the hybrid technology. Those two teams have different engine partners, as well, with Chevrolet powering Arrow McLaren and Honda providing power for RLL.
But don’t misconstrue what Lundgaard is saying. The driver who is third in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES standings after three races expects to have a strong car throughout May.
“That’s the hope, right?” the driver of the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet said. “The car’s good; it’s fast. The momentum that we’re building currently, regardless of what track is it, is real.”
Lundgaard also is buoyed by the fact Arrow McLaren has placed five cars in the top five at the finish over the past three “500s.” The team’s No. 7 car finished fourth in 2022 with Felix Rosenqvist driving and was seventh and fourth in the past two years with Alexander Rossi at the wheel.
Fast Friday Boost Levels Coming Thursday
In a first for the “500,” INDYCAR will turn up engine boost to levels that will be used next month on Fast Friday (May 16) and in the PPG Presents Armed Forces Qualifying sessions (May 17-18). With that comes the questions.
Who looks like pole contenders? Who should be worried about being sent to the Last Row Shootout? What will the fastest laps of May look like?
Many of those could be answered Thursday.
Part of the idea for this session was for drivers to get used to the addition of the hybrid unit, which shifts weight rearward. Drivers will have time beginning at 9:30 a.m. to experiment with the technology that was introduced to the sport last July. Also, Thursday’s “qualifying simulation” session, which runs through noon, will help Chevrolet and Honda determine what is needed for next month.
Conor Daly doesn’t expect speeds to be comparable to what wins the pole for the 109th Running on Sunday, May 25.
“I don’t think anyone is going to go out there and try to set the world on fire because there’s no point,” the driver of the No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet said. “No one makes money in April. It’s something that I think we want to be very reasonable with. In my personal experience, we would never even trim the car until (the day before) Fast Friday.
“You want to see what this car feels like when you do carry 6 or 8 more miles an hour in the car because right now, it seems like when you’re loading the car, the loading process is a little bit different. That will change again when you’re on low downforce.”
Graham Rahal said it will be good to know how the car carrying the hybrid reacts with additional horsepower.
“By Fast Friday, it’s too late (to find out),” the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver said.
Rossi would be fine without the sneak peek.
“It's a little sad to lose some of the anticipation of Fast Friday,” the driver of the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet said. “In my mind, I understand wholeheartedly why we're doing this. It’s probably the right thing to do, but it's a shame that you're going to get a preview of what qualifying looks like a little bit as early as April.”