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David Malsher-Lopez

Nashville IndyCar: Dixon, Herta lead race day warm-up

Josef Newgarden ran new alternate tires to become the first driver to duck into the 1min16s, a 1min16.4338sec putting him at the top of the times, until being eclipsed by 0.4sec by teammate Scott McLaughlin, who will start the race from his second IndyCar pole position.

Dixon and Marcus Ericsson of Ganassi Racing got in the top-four mix, too, while Dixon was running on primaries.

With 16mins remaining in the 30min session, Dalton Kellett went long at Turn 9 and stalled his AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet, bringing out the red flag.

Graham Rahal, on what has been one of the strongest weekends this year for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda team, moved into the top five when running primaries, while Colton Herta’s Andretti Autosport-Honda – starting 23rd today – ran a barely used set of alternates to deliver a 1min15.6760sec.

The alternates are green-sidewalled this weekend, to signify Firestone’s use of rubber from the guayule shrub, a more sustainable source.

Rahal ran long at Turn 9 and needed a restart but managed to avoid causing a red flag. His teammate Christian Lundgaard, starting third today, made a late improvement on green tires to move into the top five, as did the Foyt car of Kyle Kirkwood.

Splitting these two with his final lap was defending champion Alex Palou, whose teammate Dixon then sprang to the top (on greens) with a 1min15.6050sec.

The session ended in somewhat limp manner, as David Malukas’ Dale Coyne Racing w/HMD-Honda rolled to a halt on track, bringing out local yellows.

To help deal with the heat and humidity in Nashville, IndyCar has mandated the air scoops on top of the aeroscreens for this afternoon’s race which starts at 2.30pm local (Central) time.

Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Mph
1 New Zealand Scott Dixon United States Chip Ganassi Racing 16 1'15.6050   99.993
2 United States Colton Herta United States Andretti Autosport 20 1'15.6760 0.0710 99.900
3 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin United States Team Penske 20 1'16.0134 0.4084 99.456
4 United States Kyle Kirkwood United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 16 1'16.1015 0.4965 99.341
5 Spain Alex Palou United States Chip Ganassi Racing 18 1'16.2629 0.6579 99.131
6 Denmark Christian Lundgaard United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 16 1'16.3255 0.7205 99.049
7 United States Josef Newgarden United States Team Penske 20 1'16.4338 0.8288 98.909
8 United States Graham Rahal United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 17 1'16.4364 0.8314 98.906
9 Australia Will Power United States Team Penske 21 1'16.4525 0.8475 98.885
10 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist United States Arrow McLaren SP 18 1'16.5822 0.9772 98.717
11 Mexico Patricio O'Ward United States Arrow McLaren SP 20 1'16.6675 1.0625 98.608
12 Sweden Marcus Ericsson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 17 1'16.8581 1.2531 98.363
13 France Simon Pagenaud United States Meyer Shank Racing 19 1'16.8584 1.2534 98.363
14 Japan Takuma Sato United States Dale Coyne Racing 15 1'16.9031 1.2981 98.306
15 Canada Devlin DeFrancesco United States Andretti Autosport 9 1'17.0714 1.4664 98.091
16 United Kingdom Callum Ilott United States Juncos Hollinger Racing 18 1'17.1388 1.5338 98.005
17 United States David Malukas United States Dale Coyne Racing 19 1'17.2301 1.6251 97.889
18 France Romain Grosjean United States Andretti Autosport 21 1'17.3710 1.7660 97.711
19 United States Alexander Rossi United States Andretti Autosport 14 1'17.3767 1.7717 97.704
20 United Kingdom Jack Harvey United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 19 1'17.5928 1.9878 97.432
21 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout United States Ed Carpenter Racing 17 1'17.9180 2.3130 97.025
22 Brazil Helio Castroneves United States Meyer Shank Racing 16 1'17.9617 2.3567 96.971
23 Canada Dalton Kellett United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 16 1'18.3315 2.7265 96.513
24 United States Conor Daly United States Ed Carpenter Racing 18 1'18.3786 2.7736 96.455
25 United States Jimmie Johnson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 19 1'18.5407 2.9357 96.256
26 Switzerland Simona de Silvestro Paretta Autosport 17 1'18.5601 2.9551 96.232

 

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