Power, Newgarden fast in Indy 500 practice, hours after IndyCar hits teams with stiff penalties

Will Power and Josef Newgarden were among the fastest cars in Indianapolis 500 practice Monday, just hours after their teams were penalized for illegal modifications in qualifying, while Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin was searching for speed in a car built up following his practice crash.

IndyCar champion Alex Palou paced the two-hour session — the last before Carb Day on Friday, when drivers get on the track one last time before Sunday’s race — with a lap of 226.765 mph. Palou was followed by Helio Castroneves and Takuma Sato, and Jack Harvey, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Nolan Siegel were next, raising some eyebrows throughout the paddock.

Power was seventh on the speed chart. Newgarden was eighth.

Power, the 2018 winner, and Newgarden, the two-time defending champion, will start side-by-side in the final row for the 109th running of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” That was among penalties levied by IndyCar on Monday for unapproved changes to the attenuator, a safety device on the rear of the car designed to absorb and reduce the force of impacts.

They also will be without their race strategist, lose their qualifying points and their teams were issued $100,000 fines.

“Did you guys see Josef out there today? He’ll be just fine,” quipped Kyle Larson, who returned to Indianapolis Motor Speedway early Monday from the NASCAR All-Star Race the previous night in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

Larson will make a second attempt at running all 1,100 laps of the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte next Sunday.

“It’s kind of a weird situation, I would say. You don’t see this every year,” Rinus Veekay, who had qualified last but will now start 31st, said of the Penske penalties. “If you told me a week ago that I would be starting on the same row as two Penskes, I would be very happy. Unfortunately, we’re at the tail end of the field.”

McLaughlin had a car capable of winning the pole until his crash in an hour-long practice Sunday, which left the No. 3 team just over 24 hours to put together the backup for him. IndyCar said the unapproved alteration on the cars of his teammates was not found on McLaughlin’s wrecked ride, so he will maintain his 10th starting position.

McLaughlin’s best lap in practice Monday was 221.561 mph, better only than Kyffin Simpson and Christian Lundgaard.

Other favorites struggled, too.

Robert Shwartzman, the first rookie to win the pole in 42 years, was 26th among the 33 cars with a best lap of 222.561 mph. And while 2008 winner Scott Dixon showed plenty of speed, he only managed six laps before warning lights went off to signal an overheating issue, and he spent the last 90 minutes of the practice session in the garage.

The only incident in practice involved Christian Rasmussen, who touched the wall for the second time in five days. The impact sent him across the track and bumping into the inner wall, though his car appeared to escape significant damage.

Rasmussen had just run a lap of 225.247 mph, which wound up being the ninth-quickest on the day.

“I’m just bummed for the guys. We’re into race week and it’s just not where we want to be,” Rasmussen said. “There’s always things you can do differently, but were preparing to race — we’re trying to race as close to the front as we can. You’ve got to try to do something but we have to look at what we have an reevaluate.”

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