McElrea jumped out to the early lead and began gapping the field to a 2.7s lead around the 11-turn, 2.238-mile natural terrain road course after the opening two of 35 laps.
The rivalry of Jacob Abel (Abel Motorsports) and Louis Foster (Andretti Autosport) continued with the two battling in close quarters early on for sixth, which led to clear contact on the nose of Abel’s No. 51 entry shortly after the start. Abel called over the radio accusing Foster of blocking, but no penalty came from it.
