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Howard Tops Speed Charts On Windy Day At Indy

Jay Howard meets with the press after his quick day. [Russ Lake Photo]

By Joe Jennings

INDIANAPOLIS – On a typical day weather-wise at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Thursday, Jay Howard drove like the prevailing wind to score the fastest lap this week with a speed of 226.744 miles per hour.

The Brit drove the Lucas Oil/Team One Cure Honda for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Howard finished ahead of three drivers from the Andretti Autosport camp; namely, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti and Fernando Alonso.

The Howard car is fielded as a partnership with the Tony Stewart Foundation’s newest effort the Team One Cure, an animal cancer philanthropy. And Stewart was at the track today to witness his driver’s run.
“This is like a dream right now,” Howard said of his speed. “I don’t know if I’m going to wake up tomorrow and it’s all gone. I still can’t believe we’re top of the charts; feels good.

“We all had confidence coming into this, but this is obviously a very good start,” he added. “We still have a lot of work to do.”

Josef Newgarden timed fifth to give Chevrolet its fastest car but the Team Penske driver also was involved in an incident that caused minor damage to his car.

In total, 33 drivers completed 2,362 laps with Helio Castroneves leading the way with 117 circuits. He was trailed closely by teammate Will Power with 103.

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