Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward led the headline action on Indianapolis 500 Practice Day 3 followed by Helio Castroneves as Takuma Sato topped the no-tow rankings.
O’Ward driving the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet delivered a 227.308 mph lap early in the six-hour session, as teams shifted from pure speed-hunting into more detailed qualifying and race preparation ahead of the 110th running of the race.
“It was a smooth day,” said O’Ward. “We got some race running, qualifying simulations in. The car is in a good balance window. Tomorrow when the boosts come up, it does change quite a bit. Yeah, so far it’s been very smooth.”
Helio Castroneves was the closest challenger to O’Ward in the overall speed chart, ending the session second at 226.977 mph in the No. 06 Meyer Shank Racing Honda as teammates Marcus Armstrong and Felix Rosenqvist completed a banner day for MSR by placing third and fourth, respectively.
“The 06 machine was running pretty comfortable,” Castroneves said. “Obviously the weather condition, you couldn’t ask for a better weather, not only in terms of the wind conditions, but the temperature, everything is just perfect. We know it’s not going to be like this on Saturday, but at the end of the day, we felt comfortable.”
The day’s top five was rounded out by Alexander Rossi, who turned 226.364 mph in the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet after recovering from an engine change late Wednesday.
Takuma Sato posted the fastest no-tow lap of the day at 223.828 mph in the No. 75 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda, followed by Scott McLaughlin at 223.738 mph in the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet, while David Malukas was third at 223.391 mph.
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Full 2026 Indy 500 Practice Day 3 Results
| Pos | No. | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/Gap | mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Pato O’Ward | Arrow McLaren | 43 | 39.5939 | 227.308 |
| 2 | 06 | Helio Castroneves | Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | 39 | +0.0577 | 226.977 |
| 3 | 66 | Marcus Armstrong | Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | 51 | +0.0814 | 226.841 |
| 4 | 60 | Felix Rosenqvist | Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | 43 | +0.1191 | 226.626 |
| 5 | 20 | Alexander Rossi | Ed Carpenter Racing | 68 | +0.1651 | 226.364 |
| 6 | 77 | Sting Ray Robb | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 42 | +0.2340 | 225.972 |
| 7 | 4 | Caio Collet | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 46 | +0.2656 | 225.793 |
| 8 | 18 | Romain Grosjean | Dale Coyne Racing | 64 | +0.2668 | 225.786 |
| 9 | 9 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 47 | +0.3100 | 225.542 |
| 10 | 33 | Ed Carpenter | Ed Carpenter Racing | 59 | +0.3953 | 225.061 |
| 11 | 76 | Rinus VeeKay | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 54 | +0.4071 | 224.994 |
| 12 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | Team Penske | 32 | +0.4099 | 224.979 |
| 13 | 31 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Arrow McLaren | 44 | +0.4754 | 224.611 |
| 14 | 27 | Kyle Kirkwood | Andretti Global | 49 | +0.5073 | 224.432 |
| 15 | 19 | Dennis Hauger | Dale Coyne Racing | 63 | +0.5136 | 224.397 |
| 16 | 28 | Marcus Ericsson | Andretti Global | 43 | +0.5678 | 224.094 |
| 17 | 75 | Takuma Sato | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 25 | +0.6069 | 223.876 |
| 18 | 6 | Nolan Siegel | Arrow McLaren | 51 | +0.6101 | 223.858 |
| 19 | 8 | Kyffin Simpson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 55 | +0.6270 | 223.764 |
| 20 | 12 | David Malukas | Team Penske | 26 | +0.6942 | 223.391 |
| 21 | 26 | Will Power | Andretti Global | 54 | +0.7221 | 223.236 |
| 22 | 10 | Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi Racing | 56 | +0.7232 | 223.230 |
| 23 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 32 | +0.7602 | 223.026 |
| 24 | 11 | Katherine Legge | HMD Motorsports with A.J. Foyt Racing | 45 | +0.7859 | 222.884 |
| 25 | 23 | Conor Daly | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | 39 | +0.8108 | 222.746 |
| 26 | 51 | Jacob Abel | Abel Motorsports | 58 | +0.8315 | 222.632 |
| 27 | 14 | Santino Ferrucci | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 32 | +0.8549 | 222.504 |
| 28 | 7 | Christian Lundgaard | Arrow McLaren | 57 | +0.8710 | 222.415 |
| 29 | 24 | Jack Harvey | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | 16 | +0.8734 | 222.402 |
| 30 | 45 | Louis Foster | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 21 | +0.8932 | 222.293 |
| 31 | 15 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 19 | +0.9405 | 222.034 |
| 32 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 54 | +0.9646 | 221.902 |
| 33 | 21 | Christian Rasmussen | Ed Carpenter Racing | 42 | +0.9668 | 221.890 |
