What a difference a day made for Marcus Armstrong.
Twenty-four hours ago, Armstrong’s No. 11 IU Simon Cancer Center Honda of Chip Ganassi Racing was stopped on track during practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after a mechanical malfunction. This morning, Armstrong led the warmup for the Sonsio Grand Prix on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course.
SEE: Warmup Results | Starting Lineup/Tire Choice
Armstrong paced the 30-minute session with a top lap of 1 minute, 9.8485 seconds. He will start eighth in the 85-lap race today (3 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, INDYCAR Radio Network).
Colton Herta also pulled off a salvage job in the final practice. He was second at 1:10.2314 in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda fielded by Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian after qualifying 24th when his car ran out of fuel on its final hot lap during the first round of NTT P1 Award qualifying Friday afternoon.
Rinus VeeKay ended up third at 1:10.3889 in the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, followed by pole sitter Alex Palou at 1:10.4222 in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
Graham Rahal, plagued by mechanical problems Friday, rallied to round out the top five in the warmup at 1:10.4573 in the No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Honda of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
The Arrow McLaren crew will face a thrash to repair the No. 5 Chevrolet of Pato O’Ward before the race after thick clouds of white smoke and flames erupted from the rear of O’Ward’s car with less than two minutes remaining in the session.
This short session still had a bit of everything, including aggravation between Santino Ferrucci of AJ Foyt Racing and Romain Grosjean of Juncos Hollinger Racing. Ferrucci dove under Grosjean early in the session in a corner, with the two cars nearly making contact.
The fracas continued a clash between the two that started at the last event in late April at Barber Motorsports Park, and Ferrucci responded today with a middle-finger salute on the front straightaway after the incident.
“He drove into me in the warmup at Barber for no reason, and I’m simply returning the favor, my friend,” Ferrucci said. “You want to turn into me when I have the inside, I’m not lifting – I’m sorry. I had the corner. If he doesn’t like it, come over here and talk to me about it.”
For this and many other reasons, expect 85 laps of spicy competition this afternoon at the Racing Capital of the World. The Month of May is truly underway.