INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — IndyCar driver Pato O'Ward finally saw his name at the top of the Indianapolis 500 leaderboard Thursday.
He's hoping his name is still in the No. 1 spot on May 24.
The Mexican driver who finished second in 2022 and 2024 and third last year in IndyCar's biggest race of the season posted the fastest lap of the day on the third day of practice on Indy's 2.5-mile oval, going 227.308 mph. Four-time race winner Helio Castroneves, who tried his hand at Cup cars earlier this year, posted a 226.977.
“I like love the whole month, the practice days going into qualifying. The whole thing of qualifying on its own weekend, I love that," O'Ward said. “I really enjoy watching as well, and it's cool to see the big runs, big numbers and then going out there yourself and trying to beat that.”
The only thing that would be better than beating the competition in practice would be celebrating with a sip of milk after the 500.
But as O'Ward knows, Thursday's numbers don't mean much heading into qualifications Saturday and Sunday — or race day.
All 33 cars will have their power cranked up with a turbocharged boost Friday and before starting their four-lap qualifying runs Saturday.
Because of that, most teams used the six-hour practice session to work on qualifying runs, banking information on race-day setups and simply trying to get more answers about what works well and what won't during the race.
And the speeds were not nearly as quick as Wednesday when Conor Daly and defending Indy winner Alex Palou topped 228.
Only five drivers — O'Ward, Castroneves, Marcus Armstrong, Felix Rosenqvist and Alexander Rossi — hit 226.
“You couldn’t ask for better weather, not only in terms of the wind conditions, but the temperature, everything is just perfect,” Castroneves said as the Brazilian again tries to become Indy's first five-time winner. ”We know it’s going to be like this Saturday (in qualifying), but at the end of the day we felt comfortable. The starting point is one of the best balances I’ve had on qualifying weekend. We’ll see what we’ve got tomorrow.”
But speed was only part of Thursday's story.
Two-time race winner Takuma Sato posted the fastest non-tow speed at 223.828 while Team Penske teammates Scott McLaughlin and David Malukas were second and third in non-tow speeds at 223.738 and 223.391.
Rossi, the 2016 Indy winner, was the busiest driver of the day. He turned 68 laps less than 24 hours after his crew with Ed Carpenter Racing changed his engine.
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
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