Kanaan Fastest as Ganassi Top Practice for Second Consecutive Day

2013 Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan finished the third day of Indy 500 practice at the top of the speed charts, with his lap speed of 225.341 mph set with just under one hour left in the session good enough to take the top spot. Kanaan’s teammate Scott Dixon was fastest in yesterday’s session, marking the second day in a row where Chip Ganassi Racing sat atop the charts at the end of the day.

There was controversy at the beginning of the session, as the three Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing cars of Graham Rahal, Takuma Sato and Santino Ferrucci slowly went across the frontstretch for a photoshoot. Some drivers were able to check up for it, but Andretti Autosport‘s Colton Herta got the information too late and bumped the wall in turn four at full speed and made slight contact with Scott McLaughlin as well. Both cars were okay to continue, but Herta required more time for repairs than Team Penske‘s star rookie.

At the end of the session, IndyCar reprimanded RLLR with a penalty that their cars will have to sit for the first thirty minutes of tomorrow’s Fast Friday session.

The first half of the session was dominated by CGR, with all four of their cars at the top of the charts with Dixon at the top. Ed Carpenter Racing‘s Rinus Veekay was the first to breach the Ganassi stronghold, taking second from Marcus Ericsson with about two and a half hours left in the session. After that, the flood gates opened up to a very diverse top ten.

Conor Daly had his second consecutive second place finish, looking absolutely dialed in this week. He joked that “Old Tony [Kanaan] had to ruin the party” but is very happy with the speed of his No. 47 U.S. Air Force Chevrolet.

Ferrucci finished the session third fastest, but suffered a serious crash with just under two hours left in the session. He lost control of his No. 45 Honda in turn two, spinning and smashing the rear end of the car into the outside wall. The twenty-two-year-old suffered a minor injury to his “left lower extremity” according to Indianapolis Motor Speedway Medical Director Dr. Geoffrey Billows. He has been transported to IU Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis for further evaluation.

Josef Newgarden was the fastest of the Penske machines, taking fourth place ahead of his championship rival last year Dixon in fifth. This is the first day of practice that Newgarden has broken into the top ten.

Veekay’s second place speed eventually settled him into sixth place, the second straight day where ECR put three cars in the top ten. Every session so far has seen at least one of their cars in the top ten, namely Daly. They look like legitimate threat so far this month.

Helio Castroneves put his Meyer Shank Racing Honda in the top ten, finishing seventh fastest. Castroneves is hunting down his fourth, and MSR’s first, Borg Warner trophy. His teammate Jack Harvey finished seventeenth.

Ericsson spent much of the early part of the session at the top of the charts in second place, and once again put his No. 8 CGR Honda in the top ten with an eighth place finish.

Reigning Indy 500 champion Sato was very happy with his car at the end of the day, successfully completing all of the programs planned today. He finished the session ninth fastest, and will be forced to sit for the first half an hour tomorrow.

After being caught up in the photoshoot debacle, Herta got his car repaired and put in a lot of running time, rounding out the top ten at the checkered flag. He was the highest placed Andretti car of the day, with Ryan Hunter-Reay the second fastest in twelfth.

For tomorrow’s practice session, the cars will receive an extra boost of power which will make for an exciting Fast Friday that begins at 1200 EST / 1700 BST.

2021 Indianapolis 500 Practice Day 3 Results

RANK	CAR NO.	DRIVER	NAT	TEAM	LAP SPEED (MPH)
1	48	Tony Kanaan	BRA	Chip Ganassi Racing	225.341
2	47	Conor Daly	USA	Ed Carpenter Racing	225.245
3	45	Santino Ferrucci	USA	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	224.922
4	2	Josef Newgarden	USA	Team Penske	224.885
5	9	Scott Dixon	NZL	Chip Ganassi Racing	224.666
6	21	Rinus VeeKay	NED	Ed Carpenter Racing	224.409
7	6	Helio Castroneves	BRA	Meyer Shank Racing	224.393
8	8	Marcus Ericsson	SWE	Chip Ganassi Racing	224.273
9	30	Takuma Sato	JPN	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	224.232
10	26	Colton Herta	USA	Andretti Autosport	223.944
11	10	Alex Palou	ESP	Chip Ganassi Racing	223.679
12	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	USA	Andretti Autosport	223.548
13	3	Scott McLaughlin (R)	NZL	Team Penske	223.491
14	5	Pato O’Ward	MEX	Arrow McLaren SP	223.333
15	12	Will Power	AUS	Team Penske	223.23
16	7	Felix Rosenqvist	SWE	Arrow McLaren SP	223.199
17	60	Jack Harvey	GBR	Meyer Shank Racing	223.116
18	98	Marco Andretti	USA	Andretti Herta-Haupert w/ Marco & Curb-Agajanian	222.623
19	18	Ed Jones	UAE	Dale Coyne Racing w/ Vasser-Sullivan	222.604
20	20	Ed Carpenter	USA	Ed Carpenter Racing	222.441
21	27	Alexander Rossi	USA	Andrett Autosport	222.412
22	86	Juan Pablo Montoya	COL	Arrow McLaren SP	222.384
23	22	Simon Pagenaud	FRA	Team Penske	222.364
24	4	Dalton Kellett	CAN	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	221.926
25	25	Stefan Wilson	GBR	Andretti Autosport	221.804
26	15	Graham Rahal	USA	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	221.748
27	51	Pietro Fittipaldi	BRA	Dale Coyne Racing w/ Rick Ware Racing	221.602
28	24	Sage Karam	USA	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	221.411
29	11	Charlie Kimball	USA	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	221.251
30	1	JR Hildebrand	USA	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	221.173
31	16	Simona De Silvestro	SUI	Paretta Autosport	220.911
32	29	James Hinchcliffe	CAN	Andretti Autosport	220.822
33	59	Max Chilton	GBR	Carlin	220.489
34	14	Sebastien Bourdais	FRA	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	219.876
35	75	RC Enerson	USA	Top Gun Racing	217.444