re: 2023 IndyCar Season - R17 Laguna Seca 9/10 2:30 pm ET (NBC)

Yeah, no-tow speeds are harder to find. Probably only mentioned briefly in articles rather than fully listed out. But I think it was Land who said no-tow speeds on the first day are probably meaningless. Most teams are focused on race setup / performance in traffic. He noted that VeeKay's tow speed was barely higher than his no-tow speed. I don't really care until Friday when they're on qualy boost and everyone tries to do qualy sims in clean air.

Increasing the boost pressure for quali only is a gimmick and I wish they would stop doing it (or allow the higher boost pressure in the race). Just artificially trying to get those speeds up with the final CART at Indy years.

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He noted that VeeKay's tow speed was barely higher than his no-tow speed.

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This is the only reason I would want to see tow vs no-tow this early. I think they were saying Veekay and Illot's tow to no-tow were not separated. Its going to be tough for those two to make the field.

After two days of practice at race boost and running in traffic, Friday will be all about qualifying sims at higher qualy boost. The top guys will be over 230 mph. Like Coco says, qualy boost is a gimmick so they can publicize speeds over 230 mph. I remember a few years ago IndyCar was even talking about making adjustments to set record speeds. For reference:

Fastest 4-lap average pole speed: 234.046 mph Scott Dixon (2022)
Fastest 4-lap average qualy speed: 236.986 mph Arie Luyendyk (1996)
Fastest single qualy lap speed: 237.498 mph Arie Luyendyk (1996)

Luyendyk's Saturday qualy time was thrown out because he failed post-qualy inspection. So he had to re-qualify on Sunday where he set his record speed, but had to start P21.

FYI, the record IndyCar qualifying speeds were actually set at California Speedway in Fontana. In 1997 I went to the first ever race at California Speedway, where Mauricio Gugelmin got pole position at 240.942 mph, the first time IndyCar set a lap over 240 mph. The record came in 2000 when Gil de Ferran did a 241.428 mph qualy lap. I believe it's still considered a "closed course world record" speed.

CART Gil de Ferran 241.428 mph Fontana 2000 (YouTube)

OK, at the end of Fast Friday, here's where we're at. Everyone ran with qualy boost and it was all about doing simulated 4-lap qualy runs. Late in the session the temperatures came down, and as expected, Ganassi and Penske showed great speed, with two from each team going faster than 233 mph in their four-lap average qualy sim runs. Scott Dixon did a late run but had a problem and finished below where everyone expected him to be.

(The dopey IndyCar site only posted the one-lap speeds for the session results. I got most of the 4-lap info directly from the TV screen during the session, but confirmed the final numbers thanks to David Land's video.)

The top four guys on single-lap speed, Takuma Sato (234.753), Marco Andretti (234.202), Rinus VeeKay (234.171), and Marcus Ericsson (234.029), all had the fastest practice laps since 1996. That was the first year of the CART/IRL split, but they still used the CART cars/engines for one last time.

It's clear that Team Rahal is on shaky ground. All four of their drivers are near the bottom of the chart. Also, as I mentioned, Juncos Hollinger decided to swap Callum Illott's car with the chassis that his teammate Canapino used in the recent open test. They only started the engine swap near the end of the day, so they will be going into Saturday cold. Canapino is in good shape on the chart, so if the car swap and setup goes well, Illott might be in fine shape for tomorrow.

After a random drawing, here is the Saturday qualifying order. Since conditions can change drastically, it's possible the early runners have an advantage since track temperatures will surely rise into the afternoon. If the temperatures fall late in the afternoon there may be a rush to re-qualify at the end of the day.

I believe they are still using the two-lane system after the intial qualifying runs are done. In the priority lane you can get on the track fast, but you must give up your already-qualified position before starting your run. If you start from the regular lane, you can abort your run and keep your previous qualifying speed.

Indianapolis 500 qualifying order

01 Ryan Hunter-Reay
02 Colton Herta
03 Will Power
04 Helio Castroneves
05 Marco Andretti
06 Marcus Ericsson
07 Christian Lundgaard
08 Alexander Rossi
09 Scott Dixon
10 Simon Pagenaud
11 Benjamin Pedersen
12 Sting Ray Robb
13 Felix Rosenqvist
14 Tony Kanaan
15 Ed Carpenter
16 R.C. Enerson
17 Jack Harvey
18 Conor Daly
19 Devlin DeFrancesco
20 Graham Rahal
21 Rinus VeeKay
22 Pato O'Ward
23 Callum Ilott
24 Stefan Wilson
25 Takuma Sato
26 David Malukas
27 Santino Ferrucci
28 Alex Palou
29 Romain Grosjean
30 Kyle Kirkwood
31 Katherine Legge
32 Scott McLaughlin
33 Augustin Canapino
34 Josef Newgarden


Edit: A couple of notes I forgot to mention earlier...

1. I heard Pato O'Ward say in a couple of interviews that the new aerodynamic bits aren't going to help the racing. The problem has been that in a train of cars, the first three or four cars have a chance to race and pass, but the air gets worse beyond that and cars behind the third or fourth car are stuck in the train. O'Ward says the situation has not improved this year.

2. On Friday we had our first engine failure. At the end of the day on his last run, Jack Harvey's Honda engine spewed smoke. It was later confirmed that the engine expired and will be replaced for Saturday.

The Argentinian needs to change rear toe link and his pants.

The 34th entry is having a huge effect on the Top 12. No one can try to break into the Top 12 because the guys at the bottom in Lane 1 using up all the time.

Newgarden gave up his time, and lost a place. It was worth the attempt though.