Newgarden put his car to the top of the timesheets early and held the advantage. Photo: Kevin Dejewski
IndyCar took to the banked oval of World Wide Technology raceway on Saturday evening for the weekend’s lone practice session, which was delayed due to rain throughout the afternoon.
The one-hour session got under way just as the sun was going down, and all 28 drivers took to the track to get as many laps in as possible.
From the outset, Josef Newgarden set himself apart from the rest of the field. He set his fast lap of 24.9944 seconds on just his 12th circuit, and nobody was able to catch him the rest of the time.
The current oval king set the fastest time on the new alternate tires, which were in use on an oval for the first time during the session.
As time was winding down, an incident involving three cars brought out the red flag and the session was not able to be resumed.
It all started when Scott McLaughlin lost control in turn 1 and came to a stop on the bottom line as other drivers came through.
His team-mate Will Power was the first on the scene and had to move up the banking in order avoid a collision, but the marbles that had built up meant he could not stop his #12 Chevy from drifting into the outside wall.
As he spun back across the track at the exit of Turn 2, Marcus Ericsson had nowhere to go and his car speared into the nose of Power’s car at nearly full speed.
Both drivers were able to climb from their cars uninjured, but their crews will have a lot of work ahead of them before Sunday morning’s qualifying session.
McLaughlin and Power each set strong lap times before the incident to end the session, with the two drivers putting in the second and fourth fastest times respectively.
The results show that Team Penske continues to possess the magic setup needed to pace the field on the banking.
A pleasant sunset as the backdrop of the evening practice session. Photo: Kevin Dejewski
Takuma Sato put in the third fastest time, setting his fast lap on the primary tires. He also had a scare when he brushed the wall at the exit of Turn 4, but was able to continue back to the pits with minimal damage.
Graham Rahal was the most frustrated driver at the track after the session was done, as a setup mistake by his RLL crew led to him sitting on pit lane for a majority of the evening.
He only completed 29 laps, and was not even able to get a qualifying simulation under his belt.
The next time drivers will be on track will be for qualifying, which was moved to Sunday morning on account of the weather delays. The race is still scheduled for its original time at 2:30 PM Central Time.
Keyword: Newgarden tops IndyCar practice as Power, Ericsson crash