Kyle Larson has completed Rookie Orientation with lots of time to spare. He got up to speed in just five laps and had a couple of laps faster than the required range in phase I.

Larson needed 72 laps to complete the 40 lap test. His best speed was 217.898 mph, Larson had a best turn 1 trap speed of 221.187.

“It was hard to go slow,” Larson said.

The Indycar drivers participating in the hybrid testing today spoke to the media during their brake. All had the sense that 2024 will be a learning year. Jay Frye said that the hybrid component is still evolving and will continue to evolve over the next few years.

Will Power likes the options that the drivers will have with the new system.

“You can play with it a lot,” he said.

Power thinks the new piece will not create more speed in 2024.

“No, not next year. It’s got more capability, but I think reliability to become creep up on the amount of power that we use. “

Power likes the options the hybrid gives the driver. He said that the deriver can decide how energy to use.

“You can play with that a lot. Actually, I mean, you can have very low power for a short time. Spread that out. You know, I think I’m trying three courses to pretty much get all the way to fifth gear still. Fine, which really are the key areas they need to get the tower a lot of times yeah, that’s all stuff you can really play with. The series can just depends how much they want to utilize.”

Jay Frye told me that he is not sure how fuel mileage will be affected by the hybrid system. The added weight is a factor, but the energy saving may cause mileage to be about the same. He expects the racing to be more competitive.