Defending IndyCar champion Alex Palou topped the opening day of practice for the 2026 Indianapolis 500 with a late 225.937mph flyer beating Marcus Armstrong by just 0.0074 seconds.
The Spaniard had initially struggled to bring his No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to pace due to reported “balancing issues”, but returned to action with less than 15 minutes remaining to clock a 39.8342s lap that stood as the session benchmark.
Palou completed just 28 laps, tied for the third fewest laps among the 33 drivers on track—showing that his group focused on short, high-speed runs to validate aero balance and top-speed behavior rather than extended race simulations in the six-hour practice window at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“The car is good,” Palou said. “We had a couple of issues, but we fixed them. It wasn’t a mechanical issue or anything, it was just balance, not being super-happy with it. We found something that explained what I was feeling, and it was good to go back out today before we go to sleep so we can be a bit happier.
“The No. 10 DHL Honda feels good now. It’s just a shame the session is already over. You always want to do a lot more. We didn’t do many laps today. But still, we learned a lot of stuff.
“This is a different car than we had at the Open Test. It was very important just to see how it felt, if I was confident or not. But yeah, feeling much better than this morning.”
Armstrong had led much of the day with a best of 225.895 mph in the No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda until Palou’s late flyer relegated him to second, while hometown hero Conor Daly finished third-fastest at 225.838 mph in the No. 23 Dreyer & Reinbold Chevrolet.
Two-time Indy 500 winner Joséf Newgarden posted a best of 225.121 mph to take fourth in the No. 2 Shell Fuel Rewards Team Penske Chevrolet, while six-time series champion Scott Dixon turned a best lap of 225.087 mph in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to round out the top five.
Graham Rahal, Kyle Kirkwood, Scott McLaughlin, Romain Grosjean and David Malukas wrapped up the top ten fastest drivers in Day 1.
Kirkwood led on the no-tow list with 222.062mph, followed by Andretti Global teammate Will Power (221.455mph) and DRR’s Jack Harvey (220.853mph).
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Full 2026 Indy 500 Practice Day 1 Results
| Pos | No. | Driver | Team | Laps | Time/Gap | mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi Racing | 28 | 39.8342 | 225.937 |
| 2 | 66 | Marcus Armstrong | Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | 46 | 0.0074 | 225.895 |
| 3 | 23 | Conor Daly | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | 89 | 0.0174 | 225.838 |
| 4 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 71 | 0.1443 | 225.121 |
| 5 | 9 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 61 | 0.1503 | 225.087 |
| 6 | 15 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 47 | 0.2069 | 224.769 |
| 7 | 27 | Kyle Kirkwood | Andretti Global | 47 | 0.2580 | 224.483 |
| 8 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | Team Penske | 28 | 0.2726 | 224.401 |
| 9 | 18 | Romain Grosjean | Dale Coyne Racing | 58 | 0.3621 | 223.901 |
| 10 | 12 | David Malukas | Team Penske | 53 | 0.3722 | 223.845 |
| 11 | 24 | Jack Harvey | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | 58 | 0.3905 | 223.743 |
| 12 | 5 | Pato O’Ward | Arrow McLaren | 78 | 0.3910 | 223.740 |
| 13 | 20 | Alexander Rossi | Ed Carpenter Racing | 116 | 0.4189 | 223.585 |
| 14 | 75 | Takuma Sato | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 36 | 0.4476 | 223.426 |
| 15 | 06 | Helio Castroneves | Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | 55 | 0.4646 | 223.332 |
| 16 | 33 | Ed Carpenter | Ed Carpenter Racing | 56 | 0.4709 | 223.297 |
| 17 | 51 | Jacob Abel | Abel Motorsports | 63 | 0.4966 | 223.155 |
| 18 | 14 | Santino Ferrucci | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 53 | 0.5372 | 222.930 |
| 19 | 76 | Rinus VeeKay | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 82 | 0.5578 | 222.816 |
| 20 | 8 | Kyffin Simpson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 80 | 0.5661 | 222.771 |
| 21 | 21 | Christian Rasmussen | Ed Carpenter Racing | 89 | 0.5930 | 222.622 |
| 22 | 60 | Felix Rosenqvist | Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian | 84 | 0.5957 | 222.608 |
| 23 | 28 | Marcus Ericsson | Andretti Global | 45 | 0.6509 | 222.304 |
| 24 | 6 | Nolan Siegel | Arrow McLaren | 82 | 0.6754 | 222.170 |
| 25 | 77 | Ray Robb Sting | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 70 | 0.7160 | 221.947 |
| 26 | 19 | Dennis Hauger | Dale Coyne Racing | 12 | 0.7827 | 221.583 |
| 27 | 26 | Will Power | Andretti Global | 44 | 0.8061 | 221.455 |
| 28 | 7 | Christian Lundgaard | Arrow McLaren | 68 | 0.8685 | 221.116 |
| 29 | 31 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Arrow McLaren | 27 | 0.8829 | 221.037 |
| 30 | 4 | Caio Collet | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 59 | 0.9071 | 220.906 |
| 31 | 45 | Louis Foster | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 76 | 0.9231 | 220.819 |
| 32 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 84 | 1.0228 | 220.280 |
| 33 | 11 | Katherine Legge | HMD Motorsports with A.J. Foyt Racing | 51 | 1.3927 | 218.304 |
