NASCAR champion Kyle Larson and two-time Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato both emerged unhurt after finding the wall in separate incidents during the morning.
The test featured two segments with qualifying boost levels used in the morning before the field switched to race trim for the afternoon.
Team Penske’s McLaughlin topped the morning with a 232.686mph best from Sato (Rahal Letterman Lanigan), Will Power (Penske), Felix Rosenqvist (Meyer Shank) and Alex Palou (Ganassi).
Palou paced the afternoon on 223.993mph ahead of Rosenqvist, Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti), Conor Daly (Juncos Hollinger), and Josef Newgarden (Penske), with Power 11th and McLaughlin 13th.
FULL RESULTS: Afternoon session
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“We had a really good day, a good couple of days,” McLaughlin, the reigning Indy 500 polesitter, said of the two-day test.
“I felt like we got through a lot from a hybrid perspective.
“Then I felt like the morning qualifying session – the high-boost session – was a bit of a crapshoot [with] a couple yellows.
“When the track got better, it was a bit dirty from some of the shunts, as well. Then everyone was trying to cram a lot into 40 minutes.
“But overall, a really solid balance to kick off the Month of May.”
Sato and Larson both crashed during the morning and did not return for the afternoon.
“I lost it; I simply lost it,” said Sato after he made heavy contact with the SAFER barrier at Turn 1.
“It’s hard. My body is fine. It’s just the car, I lost the car. That’s heartbreaking.”
Larson, who is tackling the Indy 500 with Arrow McLaren for a second time, also slapped the Turn 1 wall.
“I was starting my qualifying laps there and just got really tight,” explained Larson, who is also aiming to race at Supercars’ Adelaide Grand Final event this year.
“Just a bunch of understeer through (Turn) 1 and ran out of space off of Turn 1. I kind of fought the understeer feeling yesterday, and it carried over to today.”
The IndyCar Series continues with the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix on Sunday, May 4 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama.
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