Indy 500 Carb Day: Mechanicals, pit stop party & Wienie 500
- Archie O’Reilly
- May 23
- 7 min read
Always one of the finest days of the year as the race weekend party gets underway for the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500, Carb Day delivered the action again at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2025.
It started with the final practice session - the next time cars are on track being the parade laps to the green flag on Sunday - but also featured the first-of-its-kind Wienie 500, the annual Pit Stop Challenge and concerts into the night.
For those happy with their cars, the list was short and only fine-tunings were required. For others, this was a critical final opportunity to dial in their machines. For all, it was a chance to refine their procedures - namely pit stops - and find any gremlins…
Mechanicals plague final practice running
It was a dramatic two hours of practice of frenetic traffic running and four cars suffering mechanical issues which ended their running.
Around the half-hour mark, Graham Rahal’s No.15 Honda-powered machine pulled onto the slow lane with a trail of smoke from the rear. It compounded what he has already described as a “brutal” month of inquests with the car having been uncomfortable across the fortnight. Rahal will hope at least some solutions were found in his 30 minutes of running.
Then inside the final hour, the Chevy-powered Dreyer & Reinbold Racing (DRR) entry of Ryan Hunter-Reay similarly produced a plume of smoke and, as it pulled into pit lane, burst into flames. In a cruel twist for the one-off outfit amid speed in their race cars, they are having to switch to a back-up chassis as a result of the fire damage.
A special 15-minute shakedown session has been granted for DRR on Saturday morning, with Hunter-Reay only permitted to run installation laps (in-laps and out-laps without crossing the start-finish line).
After a 20-minute delay after Hunter-Reay’s issue, there were only five minutes of running before the No.75 of Rahal’s Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) teammate and front-row starter Takuma Sato slowed to a halt with an undetermined issue.
Ed Carpenter Racing’s Alexander Rossi ran the fewest laps - only five - due to a water pump issue, which required a new part to be driven from Detroit. With no chance to shake the cars down pre-race, those impacted by issues will be anxiously hoping fixes are successful.
In terms of session results, Josef Newgarden, who will start 32nd in his pursuit of becoming the first driver to win three successive Indy 500s, showed his race car had speed in the tow by topping the speed charts with a 225.687 mph lap.
“Good final run here,” Newgarden said. “Excited to check the car off again and work with the team. I’m really excited for Sunday - the main show, everything we work for.”
Sato was second and Devlin DeFrancesco fourth in a strong showing for RLL, split by Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR)’s Scott Dixon. Starting from 33rd, Newgarden’s Penske teammate Will Power also showed speed for fifth.
“I would say we weren’t entirely happy with [car setup] yet but we were making good progress,” second-place starter Sato said. “We were pointing in the right direction.
“We had a mechanical failure on the last run and lost performance on one side of the car. It’s too early for me to say what that was until the team investigates it but I almost lost control in Turn 1. We are fortunate I didn’t hit anything.”
Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) pair Felix Rosenqvist and Hélio Castroneves, Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, AJ Foyt Racing’s David Malukas and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Conor Daly rounded out the top 10. DRR duo Hunter-Reay and Jack Harvey were solid in 11th and 12th.
Among the drivers piloting back-up cars after crashes over the qualifying weekend, MSR’s Marcus Armstrong was quickest in 18th. Colton Herta was 21st for Andretti Global, Scott McLaughlin 27th for Penske and Kyffin Simpson 31st for CGR.
Surprise PREMA Racing pole-sitter Robert Shwartzman ran 85 laps but had to work to find the right balance in traffic ahead of his first-ever oval race on Sunday, ending the session in 29th. His fellow Indy 500 rookies, RLL’s Louis Foster and Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel, were 22nd and 23rd.
Newgarden’s No.2 team go back-to-back
At least for two days, Roger Penske now has as many Pit Stop Challenge victories to his name as Indy 500 wins as Newgarden’s No.2 team became the first back-to-back winners of the competition since 2016.
In the face of a difficult week, Penske delivered on pit lane as their No.2 and No.12 entries - the two cars moved to the rear of the field for Sunday’s race - faced off in the final. It was one apiece after the first two runs before Newgarden’s No.2 crew got the better of the sister No.12 squad in a third battle. The pair were split by a matter of tenths throughout.
Both Newgarden and Power’s teams delivered multiple record-breaking efforts, with the No.2 crew producing a 10.263-second stop to seal the deal.
“It just fills you with so much confidence going into a race when you’ve got these guys behind you, just nailing stop after stop,” said strategist Luke Mason. “There’s a reason why they’re back-to-back pit stop champions. They just proved it there.
“I guarantee you they practice more than anyone back at the shop. They’re in the shop before I am - they’re already doing stops.
“Going into Sunday, it just fills you with so much confidence that we might be starting on the back row but these guys are going to get us fast bullets every time and we’re just going to creep our way forward and we’re going to have shot to win this thing.”
With the team rocked by three key firings in the leadership team this week, Newgarden’s chief mechanic Chad Gordon remarked about how the entire Penske squad has pulled together.
“It took the pressure off [being against teammates in the final] because at that point it’s fun, especially this week.” he said. “There’s been a pretty dramatic rise in team camaraderie, so when we got to the final round, we shook hands before every single stop with those guys down there because whichever car wins, we all win.”
Wienie 500 gets the party started
In partnership with Oscar Mayer, the fleet of six hot dog ‘Wienermobiles’ from throughout the United States faced off in a two-lap shootout at the Speedway after IndyCar practice.
Streamed by FOX with its Indy 500 broadcast team, the ‘Wienie 500’ was a hit. The sincerity from the broadcast, featuring a genuine pre-race show, grid walk and commentary, combined with puns aplenty, was a stroke of comedic genius.
The race delivered for over 70,000 fans at the track, who bought into the occasion - including the pre-race Oscar Mayer anthem - with rapturous ovations.
The Sonoran Dog delivered a stunning pass into Turn 1 on the final lap before smoke emerged from the 60 mph machine, triggering a heartbreaking loss of the lead through a mechanical issue.
The Chi Dog inherited the lead but the Slaw Dog fought to the death, tucking into the tow and breaking out to pass the helpless Chicago-based machine mere metres before the Yard of Bricks to seize victory. It was quite the show.
O’Ward delivered a cow to milk
A fun storyline from Thursday’s media day came from O’Ward, who never got to complete the traditional cow milking for his rookie Indy 500 due to COVID restrictions. He realised it may be a good omen to find a cow to milk.
“That’s maybe what you need to have a proper good luck for winning the Indy 500,” Shwartzman said. “The woman, she came to me and said: ‘The people who didn’t milk the cow, they never won Indy 500 and they were like DNF. It’s bad luck.’”
O’Ward responded that he was going to track down and find a cow to milk that night. And sure enough, the next morning, a cow was delivered to the Speedway for O’Ward to fulfil what he missed out on five years ago.
“Milking a cow this morning [was the highlight of the month],” O’Ward said. “Woke up for some morning milking and it was a really cool experience.
“I really did [love it]. The experience was great. Woke up, excited to wake up to milk a cow. Quite interesting. Very warm - got to warm her up. Her name was Rihanna. She was fabulous. [Succeeded] first try.”
Larson: “All vanilla” compared to O’Ward
Kyle Larson had high praise for his Indy 500 teammate O’Ward on Carb Day morning, also crediting the personalities in the IndyCar world compared to his NASCAR home.
“We’re all pretty vanilla at Hendrick [Motorsports],” Larson joked. “But he’s not. I feel like most of the IndyCar garage has got good personalities so we need more guys like Pato in NASCAR.”
Larson, attempting to become only the second person to complete the 1100 miles of the Indy 500 and NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 on the same day at his second attempt, has enjoyed somewhat of a step back in attention for this year’s effort.
“I actually like that a lot,” he said. “I feel like I get a lot of attention in everything that I do and race and I don’t really like that because I feel like it takes away from the spotlight of others. This year has been better because I feel like I’ve flown under the radar a little bit more.
“Still obviously an important thing and I have still got a lot of coverage. But last year felt crazy. It’s been good. It’s been more normal and I like it that way.”
Thompson & Wanser’s services recognised
Also on Carb Day, legendary IndyCar statistician Russ Thompson (now on the FOX Sports team) and Chip Ganassi Racing team manager Barry Wanser (also strategist for Álex Palou) were recognised with the Robin Miller Award in memory of the great journalist.
It was an emotional ceremony for two wholly deserving recipients who are not spotlighted enough for their services to IndyCar.
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