Dixon, McLaughlin set pace in incident-filled day of Indy 500 testing

Scott Dixon and Scott McLaughlin have set the outright and non-tow pace respectively on an incident-filled opening day of Indianapolis 500 testing.

That was the case in both the morning session for veterans and the latter, all-in hit-out which was brought to a premature end after a Will Power spin triggered a crash for Colton Herta.

Dixon wheeled the #9 Chip Ganassi Racing entry to an average speed of 227.187mph (365.622km/h) on his ninth lap in the third and final session of the day, the Honda driver edging out Chevrolet steerers Conor Daly (Ed Carpenter Racing), Callum Ilott (Juncos Hollinger Racing), and Santino Ferrucci (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing).

McLaughlin was only 17th-fastest in that session, albeit fastest of the Chevrolet-powered, Team Penske trio.

Furthermore, the New Zealander set the benchmark non-tow speed of 219.841mph (353.780km/h), just quicker than Simon Pagenaud’s 219.767mph (353.681km/h) in one of the Meyer Shank Racing Hondas.

The other MSR car, of Helio Castroneves, did not get through the day unscathed after the four-time race winner was one of three to spin exiting the pits.

After a delayed start due to rain, Alexander Rossi looped the #27 Andretti Autosport entry in the veteran session, with little consequences.

Castroneves on the other hand, rotated in such a fashion during the third session that he crunched the outside wall at Turn 1, in the car in which he took victory in the 500 last year.

“I didn’t feel anything strange, anything bottoming, I wasn’t pushing,” said the Brazilian.

“And the rear just spun out. I was trying to control it, making sure I didn’t crash, and it was a very odd situation.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t avoid that. It was very unusual.”

Power swapped ends in somewhat similar fashion later in the afternoon and while the Penske driver managed to avoid sliding up the oval, Herta’s evasive action caused him to lose control.

His #26 Andretti Autosport car swiped the outside wall with its rear attenuator before spinning down the track.

Herta eventually came to rest without further damage, thanks in part to the reflexes of Marcus Ericsson (CGR).

It was after that incident that the day was called 30 minutes early, due to questions over the track surface, to which a new layer of sealant has recently been applied.

Jimmie Johnson and Romain Grosjean had already passed their rookie orientation in a previous test, while Kyle Kirkwood, Devlin DeFrancesco, David Malukas, Christian Lundgaard, and Ilott did so today.

Marco Andretti completed his refresher test, while two-time race winner Juan Pablo Montoya and Sage Karam are set to do so tomorrow, when testing resumes at 00:00 AEST.

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Results: Test Session 2

Pos	Num	Driver	C/E/T	Fastest lap	Speed (mph)	Split 1st/prev	Lap
1	9	Scott Dixon	D/H/F	0:39.6150	227.187		9/11
2	20	Conor Daly	D/C/F	0:39.6502	226.985	0.0352/0.0352	24/26
3	77	Callum Ilott	D/C/F	0:39.7688	226.308	0.1538/0.1186	10/11
4	23	Santino Ferrucci	D/C/F	0:39.7910	226.182	0.1760/0.0222	16/21
5	8	Marcus Ericsson	D/H/F	0:39.9394	225.341	0.3244/0.1484	9/16
6	27	Alexander Rossi	D/H/F	0:39.9624	225.212	0.3474/0.0230	25/27
7	06	Helio Castroneves	D/H/F	0:39.9723	225.156	0.3573/0.0099	5/10
8	11	JR Hildebrand	D/C/F	0:39.9813	225.105	0.3663/0.0090	8/9
9	26	Colton Herta	D/H/F	0:40.0531	224.702	0.4381/0.0718	33/35
10	51	Takuma Sato	D/H/F	0:40.0664	224.627	0.4514/0.0133	11/12
11	10	Alex Palou	D/H/F	0:40.0947	224.469	0.4797/0.0283	14/17
12	29	Devlin DeFrancesco	D/H/F	0:40.1411	224.209	0.5261/0.0464	4/5
13	21	Rinus VeeKay	D/C/F	0:40.1418	224.205	0.5268/0.0007	4/11
14	60	Simon Pagenaud	D/H/F	0:40.2563	223.567	0.6413/0.1145	22/24
15	28	Romain Grosjean	D/H/F	0:40.3130	223.253	0.6980/0.0567	30/34
16	5	Pato O’Ward	D/C/F	0:40.3213	223.207	0.7063/0.0083	4/23
17	3	Scott McLaughlin	D/C/F	0:40.4964	222.242	0.8814/0.1751	8/15
18	7	Felix Rosenqvist	D/C/F	0:40.5600	221.893	0.9450/0.0636	5/12
19	12	Will Power	D/C/F	0:40.5782	221.794	0.9632/0.0182	8/12
20	33	Ed Carpenter	D/C/F	0:40.6656	221.317	1.0506/0.0874	11/16
21	45	Jack Harvey	D/H/F	0:40.7314	220.960	1.1164/0.0658	15/21
22	1	Tony Kanaan	D/H/F	0:40.8475	220.332	1.2325/0.1161	7/8
23	15	Graham Rahal	D/H/F	0:40.9498	219.781	1.3348/0.1023	4/26
24	2	Josef Newgarden	D/C/F	0:41.1004	218.976	1.4854/0.1506	4/10
25	48	Jimmie Johnson	D/H/F	0:41.1363	218.785	1.5213/0.0359	9/21
26	6	Juan Pablo Montoya	D/C/F	No Time	No Speed		0/1
27	14	Kyle Kirkwood	D/C/F	No Time	No Speed		0/0
28	30	Christian Lundgaard	D/H/F	No Time	No Speed		0/0
29	18	David Malukas	D/H/F	No Time	No Speed		0/0
30	98	Marco Andretti	D/H/F	No Time	No Speed		0/0
31	4	Dalton Kellett	D/C/F	No Time	No Speed		0/0

Note: Third session of day designated officially as ‘Test Session 2’, after Test Session 1 and ROP Test Session 1