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Castroneves Leads The Way In Final Tune-up Before Indianapolis 500

Helio Castroneves was quickest on Carb Day at Indianapolis. [John Wiedemann Photo]

Helio Castroneves was quickest on Carb Day at Indianapolis. [John Wiedemann Photo]

by Joe Jennings

INDIANAPOLIS – With the sun shining brightly, three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves outshined the competition during Carb Day action at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway mid-day on Friday. Carb Day, a one-hour of track time, represents the final tune-up prior to Sunday’s 101st running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

Castroneves buzzed around the 2.5-mile oval at a speed of 227.377 miles per hour. On Sunday, the Brazilian ace starts 19th in his Team Penske Chevrolet.

Said Castroneves, “While we didn’t qualify the way we wanted, we are continuing to dig, finding our way, and fighting extremely hard out there. Today, showing a little speed helped us, and it showed we have a good car and a good balanced one and (ready to) go for the big one on Sunday.”

Trailing Castroneves were six Honda-powered entries driven by Takuma Sato, Tony Kanaan, pole winner Scott Dixon, F1ace Fernando Alonso, Graham Rahal and 2016 victor Alexander Rossi.

Josef Newgarden and former winners Juan Pablo Montoya and Ryan Hunter-Reay rounded out the top-10 on the speed charts.

In total, the 33 drivers ran 960 laps with Charlie Kimball completing the most laps with 41 and Ed Carpenter the least with 21.

The only notable caution flag came out for the engine failure on James Hinchcliffe’s Honda.

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