Sato, Grosjean, Johnson in top 12 fight, ranked 13-33

After Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay took full advantage of favorable temperatures early in the day to put down the third fastest qualifying run in Indy history, the cars raced again to try to finish in the top 12 for tomorrow’s pole pick up.

The track temperature had dropped to 101°F by the end of the first few heats (minus Colton Herta and Stefan Wilson who both had engine changes).

Junco’s Hollinger Racing-Chevrolet’s Callum Ilott was the first to complete a rerun and improved 0.7 mph but gained just three places and lost two of those right after as Dale Coyne Racing beat rookie David Malukas and the veteran Takuma Sato lined up. The latter was forced to run again after his first morning run was voided when he disrupted Marco Andretti’s warm-up lap after failing to follow IndyCar’s direction to switch to the deceleration lane on his slowdown lap.

Rookie Malukas improved to take the HMD-Auto Coyne to 12th place^th, but he was knocked out by his two-time Indy 500-winning teammate. Sato bounced off the SAFER barrier at Turn 2 on his third lap but kept his foot in for the rest of his run to claim 12th place^th.

Ironically, Marco Andretti was next again after suffering an electrical problem on his first run, but he was only able to finish 24th. Helio Castroneves, the Meyer Shank Racing-Honda champion, averaged 229.630 mph. Herta’s first run led to 25^thwith an average of 230.235 miles per hour.

Alexander Rossi opted for Lane 1, the priority lane, for his second run, meaning a driver has to pull his first time and couldn’t improve but pulled away from 15th place^th until 21^St.

Sage Karam was on his warm-up lap when the rain started and the warning flag came out. There were also flash reports within eight miles. However, there were still 3 hours and 30 minutes to go, so the action would resume once the track dried and the flash was gone.

When the session resumed at 1h20min, Karam improved his average speed by 0.5mph in the dense air but only gained two places.

Notably, the Penske-Chevrolet team had elected to pull the times of Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin despite sitting in 14th place^th and 15^th on the starting grid and make your way onto the priority lane. The hope was that the lower track temperatures could put them in the top 12 for Sunday’s shootout.

But McLaughlin’s second run dropped him from 15^th until 26^th, as he was 1.4 mph slower than his first run. Teammate Newgarden was lucky as he was just his warm-up lap when the Lightning returned within eight miles of the speedway and the caution was called. Then the rain came and an hour before the 5:50 p.m. session, IndyCar had to admit that the day was over.

Since he didn’t take the green flag, Newgarden is allowed to reclaim his 14^th slot on the grille.

Positions 13-33 – now seated