Oilpressure

Fast Friday for 2025 is now in the books. With the boost turned up, it didn’t take long for eyebrows to be raised. Scott McLaughlin set the bar high on only his second lap of the day and just a few minutes after the green flag flew opening practice. It looked as if we were in for some major speeds. As it turned out, it was the fastest time of the day.

As is usually the case on days like this, there was a big lull in the middle of the day. At 4:00 pm, the blue skies gave way to a gray overcast, which helped cool the track. When Happy Hour officially hit, the skies started darkening noticeably.

I would say conditions were almost perfect for speed, but the already windy conditions the drivers had dealt with all day, suddenly got worse. I was out in the pits, and I noticed how an extremely hot day had suddenly turned very comfortable.

Some teams, the Foyt team in particular, had already packed up; while others were getting cranked up for qualifying sims. Santino Ferrucci had finally gotten his car, at least where his speeds were competitive. I guess they decided not to take a chance in the windy conditions. It would be bad to finally get the car right, and then stuff it into the fence.

The day had seen two crashes already. Less than an hour into the day, Kyffin Simpson had a terrible looking crash. As he was coming off of Turn Four, the back-end of the car suddenly looked squirrelly. As he fought to correct the situation, it all went terribly wrong. Simpson hit the outside wall hard, then the car went into a slow barrel roll to the left. Just when it looked like the car was going over, it righted itself and landed hard onto the track surface. The car finally came to a rest in pit lane, with all four corners damaged.

Simpson got out under his own power. He was visibly shaken, but he seemed to be physically unharmed. His car, however, was destroyed. It didn’t take long for his Chip Ganassi racing team to determine that the tub was done. They started preparing the backup immediately.

Around 4:30 pm, Kyle Larson had another impact with the wall. During the Open Test in April, Larson spun coming out of Turn One and crashed into the outside wall. Today’s crash looked similar, except this time it happened as he was exiting Turn Three. Larson was fine and his team did a quick repair job for hi, to at least sort it out in Happy Hour.

Around 5:30 pm, I checked my weather app. The Speedway was under a tornado watch. A check of the radar showed a big red blob around Terre Haute. I decided to go join Mrs. Oilpressure in the Media Center for the remainder of practice.

Suddenly, laps ion the 232 range were the norm.When the session ended at 6:00, no one had topped McLaughlin’s lap set almost six hours earlier, but four drivers had posted laps above 232. In order, they were Scott Dixon, Alex Palou, Kyle Kirkwood and Colton Herta.

Will Power was just behind, with a top lap of 231.983 mph.Christian Lundgaard, Conor Daly, Marcus Armstrong and Sting Ray Robb rounded out the Top-Ten, all with speeds in the mid-231 range. You have to be impressed with the two Juncos Hollinger Racing cars of Daly and Robb.

I’m still going with my pick of Alex Palou to win the pole. About fifteen minutes before the session ended, he posted a speed of over 232 with no-tow. That is how they will run tomorrow, without the benefit of the tow.

Less than an hour after the session ended, the track was pounded with rain and hail. The big blob over Terre Haute was now over the track. Temps are supposed to be at least ten-degrees cooler tomorrow than they were today. We also know they will be running on a very green race track. Things should get interesting as they always are in qualifying.

Practice will start tomorrow morning at 8:30 am EDT, and will be shown on FS2. Qualifying will begin at 11:00 am EDT and will start off on FS1. At 1:30 pm, things will shift to FS2. At 4:00 pm EDT, Big FOX will take over and will continue until the track closes at 6:00 pm EDT.

The weather has cooperated for the past two days, and held off until after practice to dump the deluge. There is another purple cell headed our was, but it won’t hit for another hour or two. After that, there is no threat of rain for the area for the rest of the weekend. Saturday promises to be beautiful. Tune in early and stay all day. Better yet, if you are within two to three hours of IMS, come and make a day of it. It’s going to be a full day.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on May 16, 2025 at 6:26 pm and is filed under Indianapolis 500. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.