Palou climbs but the Antipodeans lurk

Palou topped the third session at the Indy 500

By Timothy Neal

Date posted: 15 May 2025

The third Practice session in the lead up the Indy 500 was shortened by rain delays, but title leader Alex Palou built into some speed to top the charts, whilst Will Power and Scott Dixon showed they’ll be in the hunt.

The six hour session was cut to three and and 43 minutes after heavy rain greeted the mornings start time, whilst further showers later in the day also saw a halt to the session.

Hitting a top speed of 366.1 km/h, Palou pulled a lap of 00:39.552 to edge out Aussie Penske driver Will Power, who was just 0.344 behind with fewer laps attempted.

Click here for full session results.

With his teammate Josef Newgarden in third as he looks for a third straight win in the “500”, just behind him was the evergreen Scott Dixon, a fourth place that he’s largely occupied since the Practice sessions began.

Newgarden (third on Day 2) is on the hunt for a third straight Indy 500. image: Penske Entertainment

But in terms of the fastest time without a “tow”, Long Beach winner Kyle Kirkwood looks to have a good set up in his Andretti Honda, having been the fastest in that department across both days.

With the teams creeping up to “Fast Friday” the open sessions allow drivers to gain a feel for how their Honda or Chevrolet machines handle in the dirty air, as well being able to use other drivers to gain a tow and increase their speeds.

For Palou, the Day 2 chart topper is very much aware of how quickly Dixon was able to build up to his speed.

“We saw him on his first lap (of Tuesday’s practice) go P1 (on the speed chart),” Palou said of his teammate.

“Then it took everybody kind of an hour or two to get to the speed he was at.”

Dixon is thereabouts with his speed heading up to Fast Friday. Image: Penske Entertainment

As an indicator to Dixon’s threat at the Indy 500, this is his list of records held…

He’s led the field in more “500” than any other driver: in the lead for 16 of his 22 appearances
His 667 laps led is the most in history
His 74 times at the front of the field in total is also the highest
He’s one of four drivers to have completed more than 10,000 miles (that’s over 16,093km
And he’s also about to break Mario Andretti’s all-time career starts (currently tied on 363).

As for Power, who qualified second behind teammate Scott McLaughlin last year, he lacked the pace on race day. And for the driver who also holds the record number of poles in IndyCar, he’s yet to claim a “500” pole. But it’s only the winning that concerns him, and finding out how to get his balance in heavy traffic.

“I’d qualify last if I could get another race win, man,” the 2018 Indy 500 winner said.

“…I’m very motivated to understand why (last year went as it did) and to get the car right. I do understand the differences between (my car) and my teammates last year.

“My car was really good in clean air last year. I set it up that way because we qualified up front. I didn’t realise every (pit) stop would be a yellow-flag stop.

“You just had all these restarts where we were in traffic. That was my problem. If I was out front or in the first two, I would have been very strong, so this year I’m very focused on heavy traffic (and) restarts. That’s where I struggled.”

Power takes out session in a rain affected Day 2 at the Indy 500. Image: Penske Entertainment

On track activity resumes at 10:00am local time tomorrow, with 2013 “500” winner and Arrow McLaren Team Principal Tony Kanaan set for a refresher course in case he needs to step-in for NASCAR driver Kyle Larson, who is attempting the double.

Larson is due to head to the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte after the race, but should rain delay the start of the race (as it did last year), the Hendricks NASCAR driver will need to head straight for Charlotte as to not miss the start of the 600, which would jeopardise his postseason qualification.

The track is then available for another open session, the last before teams start to tune up their engines for Fast Friday to get the machines into boosted Qualifying trim.

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Palou climbs but the Antipodeans lurk

For Palou, the Day 2 chart topper is very much aware of how quickly Dixon was able to build up to his speed.

On track activity resumes at 10:00am local time tomorrow, with 2013 “500” winner and Arrow McLaren Team Principal Tony Kanaan set for a refresher course in case he needs to step-in for NASCAR driver Kyle Larson, who is attempting the double.

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