INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — It’s time to turn the horsepower up at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

There are just nine days until the 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500 and Fast Friday has finally arrived. It’s the last day teams can practice and work on their setups ahead of qualifications on Saturday and Sunday.

“The cool thing about the cars today is they get that extra 100 horsepower. The last few days, they’ve just really been working on race setups. Today, it will be all about qualifying. With an additional 100 horsepower, speeds could be 5, 6, or 7 miles per hour faster than what we’ve seen so far,” IMS President Doug Boles said Friday on Daybreak.

If speeds increase as much as Boles predicts, drivers at the top of Friday’s speed chart could easily eclipse 230 mph. The fastest driver in Thursday’s practice sessions was Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. O’Ward turned in a top speed of 228.861 but benefited from an aerodynamic tow.

The extra 100 horsepower O’Ward and his competitors will enjoy over the next three days will be throttled back down at the end of the weekend.

“Then we get back into race trim mode,” Boles explained. “Honestly, we don’t want those cars going that fast all together as all 33 are out there. So that’s part of the reason we’ve done that. Qualifying just makes it a little harder for these cars to drive, so it’s going to see how the drivers are in terms of how much they want to trim the car out, how much they want to be on edge. This will really highlight river talent as well as crew talent.”

The gates will be open on Fast Friday from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Practice is scheduled from noon to 6 p.m. (weather permitting), with the qualification draw set for 6:15 p.m. in IMS Pagoda Plaza.

The Month of May will kick into high gear on Saturday with Day 1 of PPG Armed Forces Qualifying, where positions 1-30 will qualify with positions 13-30 (or 13-33) set.

Qualifications will continue on Sunday, with Top 12 qualifying to determine the final order of positions 7-12 and the Firestone Fast Six to set the final order of positions 1-6.

Confused by the Indy 500 qualifying process? IMS lays it all out here: Indianapolis 500 Qualifying Format.