By Austin Lawton, Staff Writer

The second day of Indianapolis 500 practice saw speeds increase and Conor Daly as the driver who ended the day on top. Daly benefitted from Wednesday’s cooler temperatures to lay down a 228.080mph lap early on in the six-hour session, where 2,542 laps were turned around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 

The Noblesville, IN native has shown consistent speed in his Dreyer and Reinbold Chevrolet, dating back to April’s Open Test. Daly, who has focused on race setup during the first two sessions, felt confident about the No.23 car and its handling through two sessions. 

“Really solid day for us,” Daly said. “The car in race trim just feels fantastic. We were at full tanks of fuel, half tanks, heavy fuel and it felt good. I feel like we can kind of pass anyone and there’s a couple of other good cars out there as well.” 

Closely behind Daly on the charts, was the fastest driver on Tuesday, Alex Palou (228.026mph). Palou was the only driver to join Daly in the 228mph-bracket, effectively erasing any questions regarding the Spaniard’s lack of pace. David Malukas ended the day in third at 227.139mph, just 0.941mph behind Daly.

Two drivers who continued to show improvement despite expectations are Graham Rahal and Romain Grosjean. Rahal (226.835mph), jumped to fourth at the end of Wednesday, improving on a sixth place standing from Tuesday. Grosjean (226.591mph) brought the No.19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda home in fifth, jumping up from ninth on Tuesday. 

A lot of familiar faces closed out the top 10, with Scott Dixon (226.572mph) in sixth, followed by Scott McLaughlin (226.173mph), Josef Newgarden (225.964mph), Santino Ferrucci (225.594mph) in ninth and Kyle Kirkwood in 10th at 225.542mph. 

SEE: Indianapolis 500 Practice Two Results

Ferrucci, who is driving the famed No.14 for A.J. Foyt Racing, was proud of the progress his crew made from Tuesday, applauding the baseline setup they have for their Chevrolet. 

“Car has been awesome,” Ferrucci said. “They’ve just been tuning little things yesterday and more little things today, just trying to find a little bit here and there. I think the baseline car has got a lot of pace. It’s really fast. I think we’re one of the few cars who can make it through the pack, so that’s a positive.” 

At the top of the no-tow charts was Pato O’Ward at 221.409 mph. The lap set during the afternoon is the third fastest no-tow speed through the first two sessions. One driver who has shown consistency on the no-tow charts, is Daly’s DRR teammate, Jack Harvey. 

Harvey was the fastest on the no-tow charts during the April Open Test, and continues to show the consistency so far in practice. The No.24 crew has put a heavy focus on single-car running, but with a two-car, “500” only operation at DRR, everything is going to plan. 

“For a two-car team before the month started, if you said that one guy was going to get to focus on this, another team is going to focus on that, it’s kind of the dream scenario, especially on all the ovals and everything like that, just Conor’s feedback because of what he’s able to do with the car.”

Harvey mentioned that his car was suffering from understeer exiting Turn 4, but has faith in the crew to investigate and fix the issue. 

“That was more so affecting my runs,” Harvey said regarding the understeer on Wednesday. “Turns 1 and 2 looked like, for most people, a bit more comfortable today in general, I would say. So pretty clear issue that we’re trying to fix, and I think we made a lot of progress and headway into actually working on that issue.”