The final Indianapolis 500 practice session took place on Friday, with the critical track time affectionately known as Carb Day.
Drivers diced and sliced throughout the two hour session, practicing for race strategies and also getting a head start on their grudges before the race even begins.
When time ran out on the session, Takuma Sato found his way to the top of the timesheets with a lap of 227.855 MPH.
The Japanese driver has been near the top of the charts for the entire Month of May, and it was no surprise to see him at the front again.
His team-mate Scott Dixon was second in line, lapping just slower on his own fastest lap, which was helped by a tow from other drivers.
Will Power slotted into the third spot, and another Chip Ganassi driver Alex Palou was fourth. Rounding out the top five was Kyle Kirkwood in the top Andretti Autosport entry.
Josef Newgarden and Rinus VeeKay both set the mark for the most laps run, with each driver completing 89 laps and getting valuable practice under their belts.
Small, but consequential problems worked their way up and down the pit lane, with all kinds of issues cropping up that each nearly caused disaster for one of the 33 drivers.
The session started off with a caution period just as drivers left pit lane at the start of practice.
Race control noticed some fluid coming out of Marco Andretti’s #98 car as he pulled away, and wanted to make sure that it evaporated quickly rather than causing a larger issue for the rest of the field.
Ryan Hunter-Reay had a fluid leak as well later on, with a gearbox seal dripping just a bit of oil onto the back portion of his car.
He was allowed back on track because the leak was minimal, but his crew noticed that it was still leaking after further running and was forced to dive into the issue on pit road.
Katherine Legge also had a bit of trouble and had to stop her #44 RLL entry at the exit of the warm up lane after she noticed her right rear wheel was loose.
Luckily she and her team found the issue just as she left pit lane and before she got up to speed, allowing her to safely pull off to the side of the road without crashing and damaging her car for a second time within a week.
With 23 minutes remaining, Devlin DeFrancesco brought out the next stoppage of the day when he slowed on the back stretch with a flat right front tire
It appeared that the tire just lost pressure in the middle of turn 1, and the sophomore driver did a magnificent job to keep his Andretti Autosport Honda under control and out of the wall.
Even among tires that held up, multiple teams continued to suffer unexplained vibrations and blistering with their Firestones which threaten to cause real issues on race day.
The 500 mile race itself is the next time drivers will be able to take the track, with the green flag flying just after noon Eastern time on Sunday.
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