The NTT IndyCar Series took to the historic Milwaukee Mile on Saturday morning, sampling the track and getting in a solid hour of practice.

Perhaps making a break in his run of poor results, Josef Newgarden set the fastest lap of the morning.

His fast lap was run in 22.6864 seconds, leading to an average speed of 161.066 MPH on the flat oval.

Team Penske overall looked dialed in, with all three drivers posting laps in the top eight of the time sheets.

The series’ newest four time champion Alex Palou was second quick, with Conor Daly setting the third best time.

Drivers were a little cautious during their practice runs, making sure they did not damage their cars ahead of qualifying.

There is only two hours between practice and qualifying, meaning any repair work would have potentially led to sitting out of qualifying altogether.

A few drivers had moments of oversteer as they pushed the limits a bit, but overall there were no incidents to speak of.

The only interruption was for track inspection, with series officials making sure that there was no moisture seeping through the track.

The Milwaukee area had flooding rains just two weeks ago, but it appears that the track remains safe to race on this weekend.

Louis Foster did not complete any competitive laps at all, and the team quickly diagnosed that a new Honda engine was needed.

His RLL team began work on the rear of the #45 entry, and Foster will take a grid penalty taking a fresh power plant.

Qualifying takes place at 1:00 PM central time, when two timed laps will set the order for Sunday’s race.

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Three drivers have been handed a grid penalty by IndyCar for using excessive engines across the season.

Josef Newgarden’s Team Penske crew began the process of changing out the Chevy power plant after Saturday morning’s practice ended, installing a new engine that put the entry over the limit.

The tight weekend schedule gives the team only 90 minutes to complete a full engine swap, and crews from all three Penske cars were seen working on the same project.

The old engine was near the end of its mileage limit, however, meaning the crew was prepared and had the car disassembled within just a few minutes of the conclusion of practice.

Christian Lundgaard and Santino Ferrucci will also receive grid penalties for swapping in new engines following Friday’s practice runs.

Lundgaard was quickest in Friday’s practice, incidentally using the engine that was replaced just after the conclusion of that session.

Ferrucci sat on pole in Portland last season, and he hopes that a fresh Chevy engine can propel him up the order again this weekend.

All three drivers will be forced to drop six positions from their qualifying positions, but will keep their pole awards should any of them set the fastest time.

The penalties are in addition to the six-place grid penalty for Kyffin Simpson, who was found guilty of avoidable contact during the previous race in Laguna Seca.

Qualifying for Sunday’s race in Portland takes place at 11:30 AM PT.

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Team Penske showed flashes of domination in the two races from Iowa Speedway over the weekend, but it was not enough to keep its star drivers in championship contention.

Saturday was the better of the two races for the historic team. Josef Newgarden nearly won for the seventh time on the 7/8-mile oval, but came up just short by finishing in second.

His two team-mates were directly behind, with Will Power and Scott McLaughlin crossing the line third and fourth respectively. It was by far the trio’s best result of the year as a whole.

Sunday’s race was not so fortunate, as Newgarden finished in tenth and his two team-mates both retired early in the event.

As a result of well-documented season-long struggles, Power is the highest ranking member of Team Penske in the championship race. The veteran sits eighth in the standings, 271 points behind Alex Palou.

With a maximum of 54 points available for each event, and five remaining in the 2025 calendar, the maximum gap that can be overcome at this moment is 270 points.

Even if Power won all races remaining in the season and Palou did not take part, there is no possible way for the veteran to earn his third title this year.

McLaughlin and Newgarden sit 12th and 14th in the standings, and were also officially eliminated from title contention this past weekend.

Historic results

If the team’s three drivers remain in their points positions through the end of the season, it will mark the worst points result for Team Penske since the 1998 CART season.

In that year, the team fielded Al Unser Jr. and Andre Ribeiro. Unser was the best performing of the two, earning one podium and finishing 11th in the championship.

1999 also saw all Team Penske for down the order, but the team also had no single driver compete in every round, which affected the standings as much as individual performances.

Every year since then, Penske has had one driver finishing fifth of higher in the championship, including eight championship victories.

There are still five races in this season, however, and Power is 56 points behind the driver who sits fifth in the points Christian Lundgaard.

If the driver of the #12 can overcome that gap, the team can at least keep from finishing the year with its worst results in over 25 years, even if the championship itself is already out of reach.

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IndyCar took to Iowa Speedway Saturday afternoon for an incredibly important qualifying session, with one lap setting the grid for the first race of the double-header and the second lap setting the order for the second race.

The quickest driver for the first lap was Josef Newgarden, who turned a lap at 183.999 MPH. The veteran’s performance was much needed, as he has been in a spiral of poor results all season.

Conor Daly shocked with a run good enough to earn a spot on the front row, with Felix Rosenqvist and Alex Palou making up the second row for the first race of the weekend.

READ MORE: IndyCar Iowa– Full Qualifying Report

On the second lap, it was Palou that took the top position. He completed the fastest single lap of the session at 184.014 MPH, giving him the prime position for Sunday’s event.

Rosenqvist earned the second grid position for the second race, with David Malukas and Josef Newgarden completing the second row.

There was one incident during qualifying, and unfortunately it involved Team Penske once again. Scott McLaughlin lost control on his first push lap, and spun into the wall in Turn 1.

His #3 entry suffered heavy rear end damage, and the Penske crew will have their hands full getting the car prepared for the first race of the weekend with only a little over two hours to complete the job.

The first of the two races takes place at 4:00 PM central time Saturday afternoon, with the second race getting under way at noon on Sunday.

Race 1

Race 2

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Iowa Speedway was the setting for IndyCar’s busy qualifying session on Saturday afternoon.

Each driver was given a chance to lap the 7/8-mile course, with the first lap speeds setting the grid for first race of the double-header and the second lap setting the order for the second.

The driver that was quickest on the first fast lap was Josef Newgarden. He completed his circuit in 17.4914 seconds, and averaged 183.999 MPH.

READ MORE: IndyCar Iowa– Full Qualifying Results

Newgarden’s performance was well-received, as the veteran has been struggling to put together any sort of results all season.

Conor Daly impressed with a quick lap of his own, earning the outside front row in his Juncos Hollinger Racing entry for the first of the two races. Felix Rosenqvist was third quickest, and Alex Palou was fourth.

On the second lap, Palou put his name on the top of the time sheets with a lap at 184.014 MPH.

The reigning series champion appeared to prioritize the second lap with his hybrid usage, which allowed him to leapfrog the others for Sunday’s starting grid.

Rosenqvist was quick again and qualified second, with David Malukas earning the third grid position and Newgarden slotting into fourth.

Andretti Global was well below where they had hoped to be, with the team’s three drivers starting 14th or below in both races.

Not all rosy

A couple drivers continued to lap way off the pace, continuing their troubles from practice earlier in the day.

Jacob Abel and Rinus VeeKay were well below the speeds of the rest of the field, and will make up the 13th row on the grid for both races.

Sting Ray Robb also qualified down near the back, despite his JHR team-mate placing his car on the first row for the first race.

The biggest disappointment of the session was Scott McLaughlin, who crashed hard on his first qualifying lap.

McLaughlin’s #3 Team Penske entry wiggled in the middle of Turn 1, and his car spun into the outside barriers.

He climbed from his car unhurt, but there was a considerable amount of damage done to the rear of his car. The crew was already preparing spare parts before the damaged car was even brought back to the garage area.

There is just over two hours until the start of the first race of the double-header weekend, and the crew will be frantically attempting to get the car ready in time to take the grid.

The green flag is scheduled for 4:00 PM CT, with 275 laps on tap for the Saturday afternoon race.

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IndyCar finally was able to complete its first practice session of the weekend, and Team Penske looked strong right out of the gate.

There were numerous small rain showers that moved through the St. Louis area in the morning, which delayed the start of track action by two and a half hours.

Even during the 60-minute session, there were a couple small stoppages in order to inspect the track that was barely dry enough to host racing speeds.

From the start, Josef Newgarden was the fastest driver around the 1.25-mile oval.

Newgarden completed a lap in 25.2465 seconds and averaging 178.243 MPH. He only completed 14 laps during the entire session, such was his confidence in the starting package.

Second on the timesheets was Scott McLaughlin, with last year’s pole sitter getting off to a strong start as well.

David Malukas was third quickest, putting in a lap just under the 145 MPH barrier and showing that he still enjoys this track.

Championship leader Alex Palou was fourth fastest, followed by Pato O’Ward in fifth in his Arrow McLaren Chevy.

For the most part, there were no issues on track and no stoppages outside of the couple short track inspections.

Santino Ferrucci reported a large discrepancy with his AJ Foyt Racing team-mate who was third quickest, and will hope the team can track down the problem before qualifying.

Nolan Siegel turned the most laps overall, completing 51 laps and setting the 16th best time of the afternoon.

The next session is qualifying, which gets underway in just over two hours at 4:30 PM central time.

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Friday was Carb Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with drivers having one final chance to complete practice laps ahead of the Indianapolis 500.

The name of the game over the two hour session was to become comfortable in traffic and make sure everything was configured correctly for race conditions.

Every one of the 33 drivers completed laps at some point, and the track was often filled with a busy stream of cars.

There were quite a few drivers that requested setup changes to their cars, and even more that were generally unsatisfied with how their cars were behaving.

Josef Newgarden was not part of those categories, and set the fastest lap around the 2.5-mile oval. His lap of 235.687 MPH was reflective of just how well his #2 Team Penske Chevy was working for him.

The reigning two-time winner of the Indy 500 will be starting from the back row after a rules infraction on qualifying weekend, but appears to have the car to drive to the front.

Takuma Sato was the second fastest of the day, although he suffered a power failure near the end of the session and had to be towed off the track.

He was followed by another veteran Scott Dixon, who was third fastest on the day.

Devlin DeFrancesco and Will Power rounded out the top five of the all-important final practice session.

Meyer Shank Racing also looked strong, placing two of its drivers solidly into the top 10.

Numerous issues for others

There were a few stoppages during the session, one of which was for a dramatic fire that poured out of the back of Ryan Hunter-Reay’s #23 Dreyer and Reinbold Racing Chevy.

Hunter-Reay had set the eighth best lap, but then pulled into pit lane and stopped quickly when he saw smoke in the cockpit.

He climbed deftly from the cockpit and fire safety crews arrived at the scene quickly.

The amount of flames coming from the engine indicate that the team will have a large job ahead of them to get their strong-performing car back into the same condition before race day.

There was a second yellow flag due to a problem on Graham Rahal’s #15, which was trailing smoke from the tailpipe down the back stretch.

The veteran, who has had a run of poor luck at the speedway in recent years, was able to drive back to the pits but was not able to complete any more laps on Friday. His RLL team will likely need to completely replace his Honda engine before Sunday’s race.

Ed Carpenter Racing suffered through a couple minor issues, including a hybrid change on Ed Carpenter’s #33 entry and a water pump issue on Alexander Rossi’s machine after he had only completed five laps.

Rossi’s car was wheeled back to the garage for quick repairs, but ultimately remained there as the team learned how big the problem actually was.

The end of Friday’s practice marks the end of all running until the race itself, which gets underway just after noon on Sunday, May 25.

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During Top 12 qualifying for the Indianapolis 500, two Team Penske drivers were pulled out of line and not allowed to make their qualifying runs.

It was discovered that the rear attenuator on the #2 of Josef Newgarden and the #12 of Will Power were not in a legal configuration.

The team attempted to make fixes on pit lane, but it was too late by that point and they were excluded from the qualifying round altogether.

The team got ahead of the story by explaining the situation to FOX Sports shortly after the incident.

“There’s a seam on the attenuator,” explained Team Penske’s IndyCar president Tim Cindric. “We filled that seam on evidently some of attenuators. I think it’s an arbitrary thing. Once I knew the #2 and #12 cars were the same, no need to put our cars at risk.

“Essentially the #12 car had actually passed inspection. “As the #2 car went through inspection, it was pointed out that the officials didn’t like the blending on the attenuator.

“We decided the #12 car, let’s go look at that. And the #12 car was the same way. There was no reason to run the #12 car knowing it was like the #2 car. I went back and looked at the #3 car, and it didn’t have that.

“There’s a bit of randomness internally that we need to sort out. It’s a shame we didn’t give our guys a chance to go for it.”

IndyCar technical director Kevin Blanch also confirmed the reason for the failed inspection.

“There was a body fit violation on the rear attenuator. As quick as this process happens, we ran them through tech, we got everybody in line. Prior to qualifying, they decided to pull out of line.”

The three Team Penske cars will start 10th, 11th, and 12th, with none taking part in the Top 12 session.

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The Top 12 qualifying session for the Indianapolis 500 was much more dramatic than it was meant to be on account of a couple high profile disqualifications.

As the cars were lined up in pit lane preparing to qualify, the Team Penske crew had the rear wing of Will Power’s car removed.

The team was doing emergency work on the rear attenuator, which supports the uprights and rear wing assembly.

According to those on the ground, it seems the team had made illegal modifications to the attenuator.

Other team members were justifiably angry to see such large-scale work being done on pit lane, and complained to IndyCar officials.

The crew worked quickly on pit lane with angle grinders among other tools to attempt quick fixes to bring the car into compliance, but it was too late by that point.

IndyCar refused to let Power’s #12 and Josef Newgarden’s #2 entry take the track after making such adjustments after technical inspection.

The two drivers will join their team-mate Scott McLaughlin on the fourth row, after the driver of the #3 suffered a hard crash in practice and did not have a backup car ready to go in time.

It is not understood how the cars initially were released from technical inspection and allowed to join the others on pit lane.

Nor is it yet understood how the modifications were discovered on pit lane.

McLaughlin will start from tenth for next weekend’s race, alongside Newgarden and Power in 11th and 12th.

The other nine cars in the Top 12 session were allowed to complete their runs as scheduled, with David Malukas, Christian Lundgaard, and Marcus Ericsson failing to advance and locking in the seventh, eighth and ninth positions respectively.

Felix Rosenqvist posted the fastest four-lap average of the group at 232.523 MPH. He will return with five others for the Fast 6 shootout for pole in just over an hour.

Update: Team Penske president Tim Cindric explained the issue and how it was discovered.

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The third Indy 500 practice day was completed on Thursday, with all 34 drivers gaining even more valuable track time leading up to the biggest event of the year.

Team Penske continued its strong showing, with nearly every driver interviewed noting that the powerhouse team appeared to be one of the best on track.

After nearly six hours of open testing, Josef Newgarden set the fastest overall time of the day and completed a lap at 226.632 MPH.

The two-time and defending Indy 500 winner has been locked in at IMS so far this year, and was satisfied with only 35 laps turned on the day.

Warm temperatures made the track surface a slick throughout the afternoon, which pushed speeds a bit slower than the previous two days.

The winds were much stronger than days before, which pushed drivers into Turn 3 with a tail wind all afternoon. Wednesday’s fastest trap speed was 235.107 MPH, while Newgarden clocked 238.118 during one entry off the back stretch.

Scott Dixon was second fastest on the time sheets, and Juncos Hollinger Racing driver Conor Daly was third fastest.

Wednesday’s fast driver Alex Palou was sixth on the charts for Thursday, indicating that he has a fast car in multiple different scenarios.

A couple drivers were not happy, however. Graham Rahal was one, and his radio communications confirmed that he was upset at how uncomfortable he was after his tires were subjected to just a few laps of wear.

Santino Ferrucci also struggled to get his #14 AJ Foyt entry into a good window despite making wholesale changes overnight.

Close call for Rasmussen

There was one incident during the day, and with it Christian Rasmussen became the luckiest driver in the field.

Rasmussen’s #21 drifted wide in Turn 2 and the Dane spun loose while trying to keep the car off the wall. His rear wing and right rear tire just scraped the outside wall as the car came around in a cloud of smoke, but no more damage was done.

Kyle Larson was on track just behind the spinning car, but kept his composure enough to avoid the incident and keep control of his own car.

Rasmussen rolled to a stop on the back stretch with seemingly only the tiniest bit of cosmetic damage, but his Ed Carpenter Racing crew will triple-check that fact throughout the night before sending him back out at speed.

Alex Palou also had a scare when heavy grease streaks were seen at the rear of the car early in the day. A quick trip to the garage confirmed it was just a leaky rubber boot and there were no concerns about larger issues.

On account of a consistently busy track, teams almost exclusively chose to focus on their race setups and handling in traffic.

Starting on Friday, the cars will have their turbo boost pressures increased to simulate qualifying conditions. That is the day that focus will shift to achieving the absolute fastest speeds of the season.

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