INDIANAPOLIS >> Team Penske was fast for a second straight day in Indianapolis 500 practice but didn’t top the board as Alex Palou, the driver everyone has been chasing this season, posted the best lap Wednesday.

Will Power and two-time defending winner Josef Newgarden were second- and third-fastest for Penske, which is finally showing some speed with its Chevrolet engines. Palou has won four of five races this season powered by Honda, with Kyle Kirkwood the only other winner this season, also in a Honda.

Seven of the top eight speeds Wednesday were from either Penske, Chip Ganassi Racing, or affiliates of those teams.

Palou, winner of the last two IndyCar championships and three of the last four, was fastest at 227.546 mph. Power’s lap was 225.584 and Newgarden went 225.545 before calling it a day early and watching the end of practice from his motorhome.

Scott Dixon of Ganassi was fourth-fastest and followed by Conor Daly in a car for Juncos Hollinger Racing. David Malukas, whose A.J. Foyt Racing team is aligned with Penske, was sixth-fastest and followed by Meyer Shank Racing drivers Marcus Armstrong and Helio Castroneves. MSR has an alliance with Ganassi.

For the Penske drivers, their two days of speed were encouraging considering Honda has swept the first five races of the season.

The other double

While the Gasoline Alley chatter still focuses on Kyle Larson’s second straight quest to complete racing’s Memorial Day weekend double, Team Penske added a new twist to the conversation Wednesday — the Pennzoil Double.

Team officials announced three-time Cup champ Joey Logano and IndyCar driver Scott McLaughlin would use the same “Yellow Submarine” paint schemes in their respective May 25 races — the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600.

“Everybody knows the ‘Yellow Submarine’ paint job and how iconic that is to the IndyCar Series, to Rick Mears,” Logano said. “To be able to transition that into stock cars, there’s not many ways you can do that in such a seamless way like we’re able to do at Penske. To be able to switch from IndyCar to NASCAR is pretty neat.”

Mears, one of four four-time Indy winners, drove the “Yellow Submarine” to victory lane in 1984 and 1988. Three-time Indy winner Johnny Rutherford also won with the same yellow-and-red paint scheme in 1980. Pennzoil brought it back to Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1984 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Mears’ second 500 win.

Now Team Penske is giving NASCAR fans a glimpse of the famous car. At the Daytona 500, Logano’s No. 22 car also featured Josef Newgarden’s paint job from his winning Indy runs in 2023 and 2024.

He’s back, maybe

Tony Kanaan has endured some hard knocks in more than two decades of racing at Indianapolis. Now that the 2013 race winner could be back, so is the bad luck.

The seemingly ageless Kanaan has been designated as Larson’s backup driver as Larson tries to compete the double, something rain delays in Indy and Charlotte made impossible last year. He didn’t even get to turn a lap in Charlotte in 2024.

This year, NASCAR has made it clear Larson must be at the 600 or it will cost him dearly in his pursuit of a second Cup Series title.