The second day of the Indy 500 Open Test was canceled Friday morning because of rain.
After getting on track from 10 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. Thursday (with a 45-minute interruption for a shower), the 33 teams were expected to hit Indianapolis Motor Speedway at 10 a.m. Friday.
But with persistent rain falling Friday morning and a forecast for wet weather until mid-afternoon, the Indy 500 Open Test was canceled for the second day at 9:15 a.m. ET.
INDY 500 PRIMER: Details for the May 28 race on NBC
Anticipating the inclement weather Friday, 90 minutes already had been added to the Thursday schedule.
Drivers made 3,517 total laps around the 2.5-mile oval Thursday while testing a new aero package that is designed to increase raceability and passing in traffic.
Due to rain showers moving through the Indianapolis area, Day Two of the #INDYCAR Indy 500 Open Test at @IMS has been canceled, concluding the test. pic.twitter.com/ZhOQ1vVhjt
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) April 21, 2023
Josef Newgarden, who is seeking his first Indy 500 win in his 12th start, turned the fastest lap at 227.686 mph in his No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet
“I was just really happy that we went through some of the new aerodynamic parts, kind of put the car in sort of a rough guess for what we thought was going to be optimized as far as the setup,” said the Team Penske driver, who made 115 laps. “I felt like for the first look, I was really happy. Sometimes you assess kind of everything globally speaking from last year. Let’s try to put our best guess on what we think are the main hitters that are going to be solid for this year.
“We somewhat did that holistically on the race car. I thought it just worked really, really well right out of the box. That was probably the most comforting thing to me. We had a great day today. Just having a good day today at Indianapolis does not necessarily mean you’re going to have a great race day.”
THURSDAY SPEEDS: ROP l Session I l Session II l Combined
IndyCar teams will return to the Brickyard May 12 for practice and qualifying on the road course for the GMR Grand Prix the following day.
Indy 500 practice will begin Tuesday, May 16 on the oval for the May 28 race (NBC broadcast starting at 11 a.m. ET). Click here for a primer on the 107th Indy 500 with schedules and viewing information.
The NTT IndyCar Series’ next race will be April 30 with the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park (3 p.m. ET, NBC and Peacock).