SECOND DAY OF INDY PRACTICE: HUNTER-REAY TOPS 220 MPH

INDIANAPOLIS-  The first rudimentary steps of driving in the Indianapolis 500 having been completed yesterday, the Rahal Letterman Racing/Chip Ganassi duo of Ryan Hunter-Reay (#17 Ethanol Dallara/Honda/Firestone) and Alex Lloyd (#16 Rahal Letterman Chip Ganassi Dallara/Honda/Firestone) got down to business on a Chamber-of-Commerce weather Monday in Central Indiana.

Lloyd and Hunter-Reay took advantage of the final day of rookie practice and made big gains in speed from yesterday’s tentative ROP program. Hunter-Reay kept pace all day despite running in his backup #17 machine, turning his best lap of 220.839 mph (40.7537 seconds) on his final flying lap of the afternoon.

“We are just going through our checklist, our second day on the track,” Hunter-Reay said. “We’d like to be faster but we have steadily improved the car over the day and ran our best time on our last lap so that is something positive to build on for tomorrow.”

The RLR squads both did their first full-speed pit-stop practices at the end of the day, with each team doing a handful of simulated stops as the clouds rolled in at the end of the day. Things will pick up tomorrow as the entire prospective field will start practicing on the 2.5-mile Indianapolis oval and teams begin the quest for speed.

The pole for the 92nd Indianapolis 500 will be determined during Saturday’s qualifying, along with the first eleven spots on the grid. Positions 12-22 will be locked in on Sunday, with the rest of the field to be determined next weekend.