Kirkwood lapped the 17-turn 3.076-mile course in 1min38.8279sec, an average speed of 111.721mph, but it fell 0.4sec short of Ericsson’s benchmark for Ganassi from this morning’s session. The series sophomore, who is about to embark on his first season with Andretti Autosport-Honda, might have improved still further, had he not suffered a brake fire after a mild off-course excursion.
That caused one of five red flags, with both Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske-Chevrolet falling off the asphalt, along with Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren-Chevrolet and Christian Lundgaard of Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda.
