Josef Newgarden fastest again in Indy 500 practice. Scott Dixon jumps to the second on the velocity card

INDIANAPOLIS (AP)-The two-time defensive Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden was back on top of the last exercise on Thursday before cars get a boost for ‘Fast Friday’ for the qualifying weekend on Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Newgarden was the fastest among the 34 cars that tried to make the 33 car field when the exercise opened Tuesday, just to see the best place Indycar champion Alex Palou the next day. Newgarden was again to set the pace on Thursday and turned only 35 rounds, but with a fastest of 226.632 km / u-per-mile per hour better than Scott Dixon and someone else. “A lot of things can change,” says Dixon, who is trying to tie Rick Mears’ record with his sixth Indy 500 pole. “The Penke teams look strong, there is no doubt about it. They have some large rounds. There can always be some kind of strange twist. ” Dixon was the lonely Honda-powered car among the top five Thursday with a best round of 225.457 km / h for Chip Ganassi Racing. Conor Daly was third, Pato O’Ward was fourth on a good day for Arrow McLaren, and Ryan Hunter-Ray was fifth. “These are two different animals you try to go fast, to be quite honest with you. Just because you have a good traffic car doesn’t mean you have a good qualifying car, and vice versa, ‘O’Ward said. “In traffic, I think we got better, but there are another handful of other cars that I think are much stronger than we are, so still work to do.” Palou turned 112 rounds on Thursday, second just to Kyfin Simpson, and had a best round of 223,456 km / h. Honda was planning to change the engines late Thursday on all its full -time entries before qualifying the weekend. This will be the second engine change for Dixon, the 2008 Indy 500 winner. His initial engine was changed on Wednesday night, and Honda plans to send one back to California to investigate what was wrong with it. Dixon will be penalized for the change during the next race on June 1, while the rest of the Honda engine changes are allowed under Indy 500 rules. “I think we’ll see what tomorrow brings,” Dixon said. Chevrolet, meanwhile, did not intend to exchange its engines until the qualification. Christian Rasmussen, who was eighth on the rapid card, survived a scare with just under two hours left in the six -hour workout. He came out of Turn 2 in front of Kyle Larson, but he managed to brush the wall just with the back wing of Ed Carpenter Racing entrance to show the car straight in the back. “That’s what happens,” Rasmussen said. “Of course this is not where you want it to be, but I think we have quick cars here, so it’s still a positive day. I got it out of the way and we’re going on. ‘ Larson, the Nascar Cup series, takes his second shot at “The Double” by trying to run the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte on the same day. Larson turned 61 laps in practice and felt more comfortable in the car. “We get our car better,” he added. “There is still a little space to improve, but generally a better Thursday than Wednesday.” ___ AP AUT AUTO RACING WRITER Jenna Fryer contributed to this report. ___