The IndyCar IR-28 has completed its first oval running, Alex Palou wrapping up a two-day validation test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway 15 minutes early on Thursday after ticking off his team’s entire checklist.
IndyCar IR-28 covers 151 laps in first speedway test
Palou, the five-time IndyCar Series champion and 2025 Indianapolis 500 winner, ran for Honda’s teams with Chip Ganassi Racing. He took over from Ed Carpenter Racing’s Alexander Rossi, who represented Chevrolet on Wednesday in the first oval laps ever turned by the Dallara-built car’s superspeedway configuration. Across the two days the 2028-spec machine covered 151 laps and touched a peak of nearly 218mph.
The brief was aero configurations and extreme ride-height settings rather than speed, yet the car improved anyway. “We got a lot more laps than I expected with the weather, and the car felt good,” Palou said. “We actually got quite a lot of speed. We improved over 2 miles an hour throughout the day, and we didn’t really work too much to get it.”
Palou: oval feels closer to the current car
A cold front dropped temperatures by almost 10 degrees on day two, handing Dallara a wider spread of data after Rossi’s runs in the low 90s. Palou found the car more familiar on the banking than on its road-course debut last month. “On the road course, like you’re battling a lot more with the car and it was quite different,” he said. “Here, although it felt smooth, I feel like it’s very similar to our current car.”
Engineered lighter than the current chassis, with revised aerodynamics intended to cut the turbulence that punishes cars running in traffic, the IR-28 now shifts from baseline-setting to fine detail. See our report on Rossi’s first oval laps. Full test detail via Motorsport.com and RACER.
