INDY 500 - Wed. May 16 Midday Update

by Tom Beeler

INDIANAPOLIS -RIS- (May 16, 2018) The threat of rain has been reduced to a suggestion, and the entrants for the 102nd running of the Indianapolis 500 here at the Indianapoplis Motor Speedway have taken advantage of the partly cloudy, 78-degree weather to work on settling the new IndyCar aero package.

All 35 entrants have appeared on-track, thus far turning over 1300 practice laps.

Andretti Autosport's favorite son, Marco Andretti, is the man atop the speed chart at midday, running a best lap of 226.900 mph.

The new cars are visually significantly more-appealing than the last Dallara-designed aero kit for the current DW12 chassis, now in its seventh year of competition. Paint schemes for the new cars are appealing, but any notion of using car numbers to identify drivers is hopeless; use of a spotter's guide will be necessary, and even then, not that easy.

Pop up rain showers may present themselves in the late afternoon, so practice proceeds apace.

P	CAR	DRIVER	ENG	DIFF	BLS	BLN	LAPS	NTS	NTR	NTLN
1	98	Marco Andretti	Honda	--	226.900	12	29	221.446	8	26
2	9	Scott Dixon	Honda	0.1001	226.329	7	45	219.479	17	14
3	14	Tony Kanaan	Chevy	0.2038	225.740	16	41	223.048	1	10
4	20	Ed Carpenter	Chevy	0.3059	225.164	8	33	222.754	2	21
5	29	Carlos Munoz	Honda	0.4130	224.562	4	27	220.171	14	35
6	21	Spencer Pigot	Chevy	0.4162	224.544	14	32	220.202	13	20
7	7	Jay Howard	Honda	0.4171	224.539	4	56	219.093	22	25
8	4	Matheus Leist	Chevy	0.4229	224.507	6	32	221.682	5	22
9	59	Max Chilton	Chevy	0.4328	224.451	8	23	221.625	6	21
10	24	Sage Karam	Chevy	0.4534	224.336	14	37	220.904	11	4

Diff = Difference
BLS = Best Lap Speed
LLS = Last Lap Speed
BLT = Best Lap Time
LLT = Last Lap Time
BLN = Best Lap Number
NTS = Best No-Tow Lap Speed
NTT = Best No-Tow Lap Time
NTR = Rank by No-Tow Speed
NTLN = Best No-Tow Lap Number

Tom Beeler

Tom has been a contributor to RIS since 1992. He was invited to join the staff as a full-time reporter/editor in 1995, and has covered IndyCar, Formula 1, NASCAR, Grand-Am, ALMS and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In addition to his RIS work, Tom has been a contributor for General Motors, Nissan, Toyota and the ACO.