Palou fastest, Rasmussen crashes as Indy 500 practice continues

Monday's relatively brief two-hour Indianapolis 500 practice session was led by Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou with a best lap of 226.765mph in the No. 10 Honda.

With qualifying over, the 1-3pm ET run was fully dedicated to lapping in packs to simulate race-day conditions, and behind Palou were Helio Castroneves of Meyer Shank Racing with a 226.441mph in the No. 06 Honda and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Takuma Sato with a 226.087mph in the No. 75 Honda.

Dreyer & Reinbold/Cusick Motorsports were happy as both of its drivers were in the top five, starting with Jack Harvey in the No. 24 Chevy (226.048mph) and Ryan Hunter-Reay in the No. 23 Chevy (225.969mph).

The only drama from the session was authored by Christian Rasmussen, who became the sixth driver to crash at the Speedway in recent days.

Rasmussen got lucky last week when he spun in Turn 2 during practice at the Indianapolis 500 and only incurred rear wing damage. The Ed Carpenter Racing driver wasn’t as fortunate during Monday’s two-hour practice run when the No. 21 Chevy spun again in Turn 2 and did more significant damage to the front and rear suspension and its wings.

The Dane was seen, released, and cleared to drive when action resumes on Friday.

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