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Howard tops day four of Indy 500 practice as Newgarden crashes

Jay Howard led the way on day four of practice for the 2017 Indianapolis 500, with Fernando Alonso fourth fastest

Howard lapped at 226.744mph on the ninth of his 86 laps, eclipsing 2014 Indy 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay's speed of 225.826mph.

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports one-off entrant howard wound up 24th on the no-tow charts.

Marco Andretti grabbed third after recording a lap of 225.709mph, narrowly ahead of rookie team-mate and double Formula 1 world champion Alonso, who clocked 225.619mph.

Alonso, who completed an Andretti Autosport 2-3-4, was also into the top 10 without the aid of a draft, with a effort of 223.687mph to claim ninth.

Team Penske-Chevrolet driver Josef Newgarden, who crashed and only completed 35 laps, was fifth ahead of Sage Karam in the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing-Chevy.

Newgarden lost the rear of the car at the apex of Turn 1 and spun into the wall, twice making contact with the barrier on the way into Turn 2.

The 26-year-old, who finished third in last year's edition, stepped out of the wreckage unaided before attending the medical centre where he was cleared and released to drive by medics.

"I banged my foot a little bit, so it's going to be bruised for the next couple of weeks, but I'll get through that," said Newgarden.

"I'm totally fine, the car did its job like it always has. "It's obviously not something you want to do, especially on a day like today - a pretty nice day out, no big issues.

"I just got called into the pits, so I was coming in and I didn't want to check up too much for the guys behind me and cause a problem.

"It just seemed to get away from me. Until I get to look at everything, I'm not 100% sure what caused it.

"It was probably my mistake, but until I get to look at everything it's hard to tell - I feel bad for our guys that we've got extra work."

Oriol Servia was eighth fastest with Sebastien Bourdais of Dale Coyne Racing claiming the 10th fastest time, despite suffering an engine failure.

In the no-tow category, Takuma Sato put Andretti Autosport on top and led a quartet of Hondas of Charlie Kimball, Graham Rahal and Hunter-Reay.

Ed Carpenter, who topped the third day of practice, was fifth and the leading Chevrolet runner.

Penske duo Helio Castroneves and Will Power completed the most laps, clocking up 117 and 103 laps respectively.

THURSDAY PRACTICE RESULTS:

Pos Driver Team Car Time Speed Laps
1 Jay Howard Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 39.6924s 226.744 86
2 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 39.8537s 225.826 79
3 Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 39.8743s 225.709 77
4 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda-Andretti Dallara/Honda 39.8902s 225.619 96
5 Josef Newgarden Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 39.9193s 225.455 35
6 Sage Karam Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 39.9671s 225.185 64
7 Charlie Kimball Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 39.9750s 225.141 91
8 Oriol Servia Rahal Letterman Lanigan Dallara/Honda 40.0290s 224.837 74
9 Takuma Sato Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 40.0408s 224.771 99
10 Sebastien Bourdais Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 40.0490s 224.725 40
11 Mikhail Aleshin Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 40.0693s 224.611 90
12 Will Power Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 40.0779s 224.563 103
13 Alexander Rossi Andretti Herta Dallara/Honda 40.0885s 224.503 72
14 Juan Pablo Montoya Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 40.0942s 224.471 50
15 Helio Castroneves Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 40.1057s 224.407 117
16 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 40.1091s 224.388 87
17 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Dallara/Honda 40.1157s 224.351 92
18 Ed Jones Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 40.1193s 224.331 64
19 Carlos Munoz A.J. Foyt Enterprises Dallara/Chevrolet 40.1264s 224.291 71
20 Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 40.1695s 224.051 68
21 Max Chilton Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 40.2175s 223.783 53
22 J.R. Hildebrand Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 40.2487s 223.610 72
23 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 40.2793s 223.440 81
24 Tony Kanaan Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 40.3365s 223.123 58
25 Pippa Mann Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 40.3501s 223.048 54
26 James Hinchcliffe Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 40.4185s 222.670 100
27 Conor Daly A.J. Foyt Enterprises Dallara/Chevrolet 40.4277s 222.620 67
28 Zach Veach A.J. Foyt Enterprises Dallara/Chevrolet 40.4562s 222.463 37
29 Jack Harvey Michael Shank Racing Dallara/Honda 40.6727s 221.279 92
30 Gabby Chaves Harding Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 40.8411s 220.366 82
31 Spencer Pigot Juncos Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 40.8711s 220.204 73
32 Sebastian Saavedra Juncos Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 40.9910s 219.560 37
33 Buddy Lazier Lazier Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 17m39.6090s 8.494 1

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