All three members of Ed Carpenter Racing joined Andretti Autosport at the test. Photo: Ed Carpenter Racing
Drivers from Andretti Autosport and Ed Carpenter Racing spent Thursday at a private test session familiarizing themselves with the short oval in Newton, Iowa.
The two teams present were the only ones that did not take part in the test at the same location last month, which hosted a large portion of the field.
Seven drivers in total drove on the 12 degree banking, and put in over 1,400 laps before heading home and preparing for next weekend’s race in Toronto.
Conor Daly set the outright fastest lap of the day, completing a circuit of the shortest track on the calendar in a scant 18.2497 seconds.
The 30-year-old driver traditionally does well at Iowa Speedway, and finished in eighth place while driving for Carlin the last time the series visited in 2020.
Alexander Rossi was the next fastest on the timesheets, followed by the other two members of ECR, Ed Carpenter and Rinus VeeKay.
VeeKay was the driver that completed the most laps over the course of the day, running a full race distance of 281 laps.
All four members of the Andretti team were at the track testing, meaning that the drivers had to work together following a contentious race weekend at Mid-Ohio that saw each have at least one incident with a team-mate.
Iowa is the next oval on the schedule and is one of two short ovals coming up in the next few weeks for IndyCar, with Gateway scheduled to be run in mid August.
But first, the series will head to the streets of Toronto before taking on the 7/8-mile track in anger on July 23 and 24 for two races in as many days.
Keyword: Andretti and ECR lap Iowa Speedway in private test session