Newgarden tops Carb Day with 228.342 mph lap, starts 23rd

Josef Newgarden topped Friday’s Carb Day final practice with the session’s fastest lap at 228.342 mph in the No. 2 Team Penske (Chevrolet). The two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, who will start 23rd on Sunday, said the team will need a strong Race Day effort to contend from that position. That lap also recalled a rare historical note: the last driver to win from 23rd or lower was Johnny Rutherford, who won from 25th in 1974.

Christian Rasmussen was second-fastest at 227.474 mph in the No. 21 Splenda (Chevrolet), and David Malukas was third at 226.565 mph in the No. 12 Team Penske (Chevrolet); Malukas is also set to start third on the grid. Conor Daly ran fourth at 226.341 mph and Takuma Sato was fifth. Pole sitter and defending champion Alex Palou was sixth-fastest at 225.986 mph. Chevrolet-powered entries occupied the top times, and Team Penske placed two cars in the top five.

Alexander Rossi returned to the cockpit after Monday’s crash and surgery, running 31st at 222.291 mph; he wore a carbon-fiber boot and reported no pain. Teams used the two-hour Carb Day session as a final tune-up, rehearsing traffic runs, fuel-save scenarios and race simulations under cooler, grippier track conditions. The 33 cars combined for 2,169 laps. According to multiple reports, the session included one caution when Marcus Ericsson developed a loose right-rear wheel and returned to pit road, and Felix Rosenqvist suffered a suspected mechanical issue teams planned to monitor ahead of the 110th Indianapolis 500 on May 24.