A day after Team Penske swept the front row for the 108th running of IndyCar’s biggest race, the 2023 Indy 500 winner set the pace with a fastest lap of 226.238mph (364.095km/h) in the #2 Chevrolet.
Colton Herta spent much of the two-hour session on top and his 226.222mph (364.069km/h) on Lap 14 of 96 would leave the #26 Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian Honda second all-told.
Will Power, who is shooting for a second Indy 500 win from the middle of the front row, ended up third in Practice 8 on a 226.137mph (363.932km/h) in the #12 Team Penske Chevrolet.
Pole-sitter Scott McLaughlin finished down in 21st in the #3 Chevrolet and, with boost turned back down from 1.5 bar to 1.3 bar, his best lap of 224.031mph (360.543km/h) was 10mph slower than he had gone the afternoon prior.
There were a handful of minor incidents during the session, with Conor Daly handed a drive-through penalty for an unsafe release which saw him nearly collide with Marcus Ericsson, while Tom Blomqvist later spun exiting his pit box.
Earlier, a mid-session Caution was called for a track inspection.
Drivers are now not back on-track until Friday’s two-hour Carb Day practice session (Saturday morning AEST), after which all that remains is the race itself.
Results: Practice 8
| Pos | Num | Driver | C/E/T | Fastest lap | Fastest speed | Split 1st/prev | Lap |
| 1 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | D/C/F | 0:39.7811 | 226.238 | 53/89 | |
| 2 | 26 | Colton Herta | D/H/F | 0:39.7839 | 226.222 | 0.0028/0.0028 | 14/96 |
| 3 | 12 | Will Power | D/C/F | 0:39.7988 | 226.137 | 0.0177/0.0149 | 5/89 |
| 4 | 78 | Agustin Canapino | D/C/F | 0:39.8677 | 225.747 | 0.0866/0.0689 | 35/69 |
| 5 | 5 | Pato O’Ward | D/C/F | 0:39.8693 | 225.738 | 0.0882/0.0016 | 27/70 |
| 6 | 33 | Christian Rasmussen | D/C/F | 0:39.8727 | 225.718 | 0.0916/0.0034 | 55/100 |
| 7 | 9 | Scott Dixon | D/H/F | 0:39.9085 | 225.516 | 0.1274/0.0358 | 3/66 |
| 8 | 77 | Romain Grosjean | D/C/F | 0:39.9100 | 225.507 | 0.1289/0.0015 | 51/91 |
| 9 | 7 | Alexander Rossi | D/C/F | 0:39.9208 | 225.446 | 0.1397/0.0108 | 90/92 |
| 10 | 98 | Marco Andretti | D/H/F | 0:39.9636 | 225.205 | 0.1825/0.0428 | 87/92 |
| 11 | 15 | Graham Rahal | D/H/F | 0:39.9681 | 225.180 | 0.1870/0.0045 | 82/86 |
| 12 | 23 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | D/C/F | 0:39.9911 | 225.050 | 0.2100/0.0230 | 73/75 |
| 13 | 06 | Helio Castroneves | D/H/F | 0:39.9994 | 225.003 | 0.2183/0.0083 | 62/75 |
| 14 | 24 | Conor Daly | D/C/F | 0:40.0139 | 224.922 | 0.2328/0.0145 | 10/55 |
| 15 | 14 | Santino Ferrucci | D/C/F | 0:40.0316 | 224.822 | 0.2505/0.0177 | 14/95 |
| 16 | 66 | Tom Blomqvist | D/H/F | 0:40.0713 | 224.600 | 0.2902/0.0397 | 70/106 |
| 17 | 75 | Takuma Sato | D/H/F | 0:40.0771 | 224.567 | 0.2960/0.0058 | 17/61 |
| 18 | 6 | Callum Ilott | D/C/F | 0:40.1036 | 224.419 | 0.3225/0.0265 | 13/85 |
| 19 | 10 | Alex Palou | D/H/F | 0:40.1194 | 224.330 | 0.3383/0.0158 | 7/79 |
| 20 | 45 | Christian Lundgaard | D/H/F | 0:40.1500 | 224.159 | 0.3689/0.0306 | 52/75 |
| 21 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | D/C/F | 0:40.1731 | 224.031 | 0.3920/0.0231 | 64/77 |
| 22 | 60 | Felix Rosenqvist | D/H/F | 0:40.2067 | 223.843 | 0.4256/0.0336 | 62/99 |
| 23 | 8 | Linus Lundqvist | D/H/F | 0:40.2069 | 223.842 | 0.4258/0.0002 | 68/83 |
| 24 | 27 | Kyle Kirkwood | D/H/F | 0:40.2111 | 223.819 | 0.4300/0.0042 | 10/95 |
| 25 | 28 | Marcus Ericsson | D/H/F | 0:40.2399 | 223.659 | 0.4588/0.0288 | 71/77 |
| 26 | 30 | Pietro Fittipaldi | D/H/F | 0:40.2732 | 223.474 | 0.4921/0.0333 | 87/88 |
| 27 | 4 | Kyffin Simpson | D/H/F | 0:40.2978 | 223.337 | 0.5167/0.0246 | 14/57 |
| 28 | 17 | Kyle Larson | D/C/F | 0:40.3023 | 223.312 | 0.5212/0.0045 | 8/70 |
| 29 | 21 | Rinus VeeKay | D/C/F | 0:40.3541 | 223.026 | 0.5730/0.0518 | 42/81 |
| 30 | 11 | Marcus Armstrong | D/H/F | 0:40.3704 | 222.936 | 0.5893/0.0163 | 26/89 |
| 31 | 41 | Sting Ray Robb | D/C/F | 0:40.3848 | 222.856 | 0.6037/0.0144 | 15/64 |
| 32 | 20 | Ed Carpenter | D/C/F | 0:40.4150 | 222.690 | 0.6339/0.0302 | 9/71 |
| 33 | 51 | Katherine Legge | D/H/F | 0:40.5222 | 222.100 | 0.7411/0.1072 | 53/58 |
Discussion about this post