Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden delivered the fastest lap of Carb Day's final practice session on Friday, signalling the Team Penske camp is hitting its straps just 48 hours before the 110th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
Newgarden circled Indianapolis Motor Speedway at 228.342 mph in the No. 2 Shell Fuel Rewards Team Penske Chevrolet, narrowly edging Christian Rasmussen (227.474) and David Malukas (226.565). Conor Daly and Takuma Sato rounded out the top five at 226.341 mph and 226.244 mph respectively.
It is not the first time Newgarden has paced the field this month. Earlier in the week, he led Monday's post-qualifying practice at 226.198 mph, hinting that Penske's race set-up is in a different ballpark to its qualifying configuration. The 35-year-old will, however, line up only 23rd on the 33-car grid for Sunday — the consequence of a sub-par qualifying weekend that left him stuck on Row 8.
For Newgarden, who won the 500 in 2023 and 2024, qualifying position is not the headline. Race pace is.
"It feels OK, feels all right," Newgarden said after the session. "But today is Friday. We've got to be good on Sunday. I'm just ready to get to Sunday."
His confidence in the Chevrolet bullet under the rear cowl was clear.
"Team Chevy has done a great job for us this month, so I'm excited to go racing," he added.
The Friday tempo will give Penske strategist Tim Cindric a lift after a tense fortnight at the Speedway. Newgarden was bumped clear of the Fast 12 in qualifying last weekend, and team-mates Will Power and Scott McLaughlin also failed to convert raw practice pace into clean qualifying laps. McLaughlin had previously topped Fast Friday in the 232mph bracket — a reminder that the Chevrolet front-end straight-line speed remains a Sunday weapon, even if the cars have run heavier on Carb Day with race fuel loads and tyre wear simulations.
Pole-sitter Alex Palou starts alongside Felix Rosenqvist, who edged Palou for the Fast 12 honours before Sunday's rain-shortened Pole Day forced Indianapolis Motor Speedway to crown its grid in the rain. Palou heads into the race chasing a third triple-crown month of May — the Sonsio Grand Prix on the road course is already in the bag — but the McLaren camp will be wary of the back half of the field with Newgarden, McLaughlin and Lundgaard all rolling on race-friendly set-ups.
Rain is the elephant in the Indiana sky. Local forecasters at WTHR and IndyStar have put the chance of showers across race weekend at well above 50 per cent, and IMS officials are already war-gaming compressed schedules. Carb Day finished without rain, but the Wienie 500 mascot race that has become a quirky Friday fixture played out under heavy cloud, drawing boos when the New York Dog claimed its second straight title.
Newgarden has been here before. In 2023 he passed Marcus Ericsson on the final lap to break a Penske drought stretching back to Helio Castroneves' 2009 triumph, and in 2024 he became the first driver since the dual-era greats to repeat at Indianapolis. He starts deeper in the field than he has at any point in his recent 500 history, but the Friday hint is unmistakable: this car can move forward.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/newgarden-paces-indy-500-carb-day-228mph-row-8). Visit for full coverage.*
