Howard, Dixon Head Honda Attack as Indianapolis 500 Practice Opens

• Jay Howard, Scott Dixon move to the top of the Honda speed chart in afternoon session
• Marco Andretti tops Honda effort in opening practice
• Tuesday the first of four practice days prior to Indianapolis 500 qualifying this weekend

Returning veteran Jay Howard led the way for Honda Tuesday in Opening Day practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in preparation for the May 27 102nd running of the Indianapolis 500. 

Joining the Honda-powered Schmidt Peterson Motorsports effort again this year in a one-off effort, Howard posted a best lap speed of 224.518 miles per hour in warm and humid conditions during the second of two full-field practice sessions today.  Marco Andretti led the way for Honda in the opening practice, from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m., and finished the day sixth overall.

Scott Dixon, pole qualifier for last year's "500", slotted in between Howard and Andretti on the speed chart, fifth.  In all, 34 of the 35 drivers in the field took to the 2.5-mile oval today in an incident-free day halted for 30 minutes by a passing rain shower just after 4 p.m. 

Practice activities continue through Friday, with qualifying action to set the field of 33 on the historic 2.5-mile oval scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) 5th on the Opening Day speed chart: "I think it was a good first day in the PNC Bank car. Opening Day here at Indianapolis is always such a cool deal. The track gets turned over from the road course to the oval, and then you know it's time to go to work for the 500. We spent the majority of the time today making changes, going out, coming in, and working on the balance of the car."

Marco Andretti (Andretti Autosport Honda) 6th fastest in Tuesday practice: "To be honest, we still have a lot of work to do on the 98 car. The car has an imbalance at the moment. We need to resolve that issue before we can be satisfied, but I have a good crew behind me and I know they'll be able to listen to my feedback and give me a more comfortable car tomorrow. Luckily it's only day one and we have three more days of practice before we qualify."

Indianapolis 500 Opening Day Practice Circuit:                             Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2.5-mile oval), Indianapolis, IN 2017 Winner:     Takuma Sato (Andretti Autosport) 156.395 mph average Weather:           Mostly cloudy, humid, 83 degrees F

Indianapolis 500 Opening Day Top-10 Results:

Ps.	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Best Speed	Notes
1.	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	Chevrolet	225,787
2.	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske	Chevrolet	224.665
3.	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	224.523
4.	Jay Howard	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Honda	224.518
5.	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	224.353
6.	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	Honda	224.217
7.	Sage Karam	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Chevrolet	223.998
8.	Charlie Kimball	Carlin Racing	Chevrolet	223.921
9.	Gabby Chaves	Harding Racing	Chevrolet	223.640
10.	Zach Veach	Andretti Autosport	Honda	223.551

Other Honda-powered Results:

11.	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	Honda	223.488
14.	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan	Honda	223.305
16.	Robert Wickens-R	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Honda	223.133
17.	Sebastien Bourdais	DCR with Vasser-Sullivan	Honda	222.960
18.	Ed Jones	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	222.848
21.	Carlos Munoz	Andretti Autosport	Honda	222.701
33.	Oriol Servia	Scuderia Corsa/RLLR	Honda	222.697
23.	Stefan Wilson	Andretti Autosport	Honda	222.524
24.	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	Honda	222.471
26.	James Hinchcliffe	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Honda	221.900
27.	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan	Honda	221.671
28.	Jack Harvey	Michael Shank Racing	Honda	221.500
31.	Zachary Claman De Melo-R	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	221.089
33.	Conor Daly	Dale Coyne/Thom Burns	Honda	215.926
34.	Pippa Mann	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda	214.731

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