Kanaan leads opening IndyCar practice in Detroit; results and qualifying groups - MotorSportsTalk

DETROIT – Tony Kanaan has led the opening 75-minute practice for the Verizon IndyCar Series’ Chevrolet Dual in Detroit Presented by Quicken Loans.

Kanaan, now in the Taylor Swift THE 1989 WORLD TOUR livery, topped the timesheets with a 1:16.2931 near the end of the incident-filled session.

There were five red flags but no major incidents.

Sage Karam, who caused one of the reds with an off exiting Turn 3, ended an impressive second with three Team Penske drivers: Will Power, Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves completing the top five.

Times are below:

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From INDYCAR, there were several aerodynamic changes done prior to the session.

Here is the notification from INDYCAR, per its Daily Trackside Report:

Alterations to the Chevrolet and Honda road/street course aerodynamic platforms have been implemented by corresponding teams for this weekend’s Chevrolet Dual in Detroit presented by Quicken Loans.

INDYCAR mandated that Honda teams remove the outer vertical wall of the front wing assembly end fence, attached flaps and strakes.

“We’ve been very cautious of any change that would make the car a challenge to drive and spoke with the manufacturer beforehand to make sure that wasn’t the case,” INDYCAR vice president of technology Will Phillips said. “The manufacturer understood our motivation and supported this action.”

Teams have installed a patch where the vertical wall had been attached to the front wing assembly. There is minimal balance change required by teams, according to Phillips.

For the Detroit doubleheader, Chevrolet has introduced a winglet on the top of each sidepod for added downforce, creating a potential performance increase on the 2.35-mile, 14-turn street circuit.

“You pick and choose your homologated optional components depending on their efficiency for a specific track. Chevy deems this track is right for this part,” Phillips said.

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Here are qualifying groups for the first of two races:

Group 1: 10-Tony Kanaan, 1-Will Power, 3-Helio Castroneves, 11-Sebastien Bourdais, 14-Takuma Sato, 27-Marco Andretti, 15-Graham Rahal, 20-Luca Filippi, 83-Charlie Kimball, 19-Tristan Vautier, 5-Conor Daly, 98-Gabby Chaves

Group 2: 8-Sage Karam, 22-Simon Pagenaud, 4-Stefano Coletti, 9-Scott Dixon, 2-Juan Pablo Montoya, 41-Jack Hawksworth, 67-Josef Newgarden, 7-James Jakes, 28-Ryan Hunter-Reay, 26-Carlos Munoz, 18-Rodolfo Gonzalez

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INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $16 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33. Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports