In the cool of the morning – the session ran from 8.00-9.00am local time – and with IndyCar having allowed extra downforce components this weekend, and drivers able to catch some strong tows, speeds looked startlingly good in the opening session.
Scott McLaughlin, who qualified and finished second in last year’s IndyCar round at TMS, was swiftly up to speed, clocking a 223.747mph lap in the #3 Team Penske entry, which equates to 23.169sec around the 1.5-mile oval in Fort Worth.
Chevrolet looked strong at this stage, with Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi also turning 223mph laps in their Arrow McLarens to run second and third, ahead of Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport-Honda.
Josef Newgarden, Penske’s defending Texas winner, was also looking strong, just ahead of Takuma Sato – in his first outing for Chip Ganassi Racing – and Ganassi’s five-time Texas winner, Scott Dixon.
Dixon briefly vaulted his part-time teammate but then Sato moved up to fifth, second fastest Honda driver, before pitting.
Also impressing at this stage was rookie Benjamin Pedersen, who with 15mins remaining, was in 11th for local team, AJ Foyt Racing. He eventually fell to 18th, but teammate Santino Ferrucci took twelfth.
With 12mins to go, Felix Rosenqvist, last year’s Texas polesitter, made it three Arrow McLarens in the top five. Then with under five minutes to go, series sophomore Callum Ilott sprung his Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevrolet into sixth, until Devlin DeFrancesco pushed him down with fifth best time.
The next time the cars are on track will be 11.15am local (Central) time for qualifying. There will then be a “high-line” practice to try and open up more grooves for tomorrow’s race, followed by an hour’s final practice.
P |
Name |
FTime |
Diff |
Gap |
FL |
Laps |
FSpeed |
Engine |
Team |
1 |
Scott McLaughlin |
23.1690 |
23.1690 |
--.---- |
14 |
40 |
223.747 |
Chevy |
Team Penske |
2 |
Pato O'Ward |
23.1928 |
0.0238 |
0.0238 |
5 |
32 |
223.518 |
Chevy |
Arrow McLaren |
3 |
Alexander Rossi |
23.1980 |
0.0290 |
0.0052 |
5 |
34 |
223.468 |
Chevy |
Arrow McLaren |
4 |
Colton Herta |
23.2135 |
0.0445 |
0.0155 |
34 |
35 |
223.318 |
Honda |
Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian |
5 |
Devlin DeFrancesco |
23.2232 |
0.0542 |
0.0097 |
34 |
34 |
223.225 |
Honda |
Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport |
6 |
Felix Rosenqvist |
23.2557 |
0.0867 |
0.0325 |
39 |
50 |
222.913 |
Chevy |
Arrow McLaren |
7 |
Callum Ilott |
23.2586 |
0.0896 |
0.0029 |
44 |
44 |
222.885 |
Chevy |
Juncos Hollinger Racing |
8 |
Takuma Sato |
23.2665 |
0.0975 |
0.0079 |
30 |
43 |
222.810 |
Honda |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
9 |
Josef Newgarden |
23.3005 |
0.1315 |
0.0340 |
12 |
24 |
222.484 |
Chevy |
Team Penske |
10 |
Scott Dixon |
23.3205 |
0.1515 |
0.0200 |
19 |
34 |
222.294 |
Honda |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
11 |
Simon Pagenaud |
23.3474 |
0.1784 |
0.0269 |
30 |
47 |
222.038 |
Honda |
Meyer Shank Racing |
12 |
Santino Ferrucci |
23.3516 |
0.1826 |
0.0042 |
35 |
37 |
221.998 |
Chevy |
AJ Foyt Enterprises |
13 |
Alex Palou |
23.3638 |
0.1948 |
0.0122 |
34 |
37 |
221.882 |
Honda |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
14 |
Will Power |
23.3792 |
0.2102 |
0.0154 |
24 |
33 |
221.736 |
Chevy |
Team Penske |
15 |
David Malukas |
23.3798 |
0.2108 |
0.0006 |
37 |
39 |
221.730 |
Honda |
Dale Coyne Racing with HMD |
16 |
Romain Grosjean |
23.3873 |
0.2183 |
0.0075 |
32 |
36 |
221.659 |
Honda |
Andretti Autosport |
17 |
Helio Castroneves |
23.3949 |
0.2259 |
0.0076 |
33 |
35 |
221.587 |
Honda |
Meyer Shank Racing |
18 |
Benjamin Pedersen |
23.4054 |
0.2364 |
0.0105 |
14 |
38 |
221.487 |
Chevy |
AJ Foyt Enterprises |
19 |
Marcus Ericsson |
23.4907 |
0.3217 |
0.0853 |
34 |
36 |
220.683 |
Honda |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
20 |
Conor Daly |
23.5082 |
0.3392 |
0.0175 |
38 |
38 |
220.519 |
Chevy |
Ed Carpenter Racing |
21 |
Rinus VeeKay |
23.5164 |
0.3474 |
0.0082 |
32 |
33 |
220.442 |
Chevy |
Ed Carpenter Racing |
22 |
Sting Ray Robb |
23.5230 |
0.3540 |
0.0066 |
9 |
41 |
220.380 |
Honda |
Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR |
23 |
Kyle Kirkwood |
23.5449 |
0.3759 |
0.0219 |
37 |
38 |
220.175 |
Honda |
Andretti Autosport |
24 |
Agustin Canapino |
23.5452 |
0.3762 |
0.0003 |
19 |
30 |
220.172 |
Chevy |
Juncos Holling Racing |
25 |
Ed Carpenter |
23.5610 |
0.3920 |
0.0158 |
17 |
29 |
220.025 |
Chevy |
Ed Carpenter Racing |
26 |
Graham Rahal |
23.6066 |
0.4376 |
0.0456 |
39 |
45 |
219.600 |
Honda |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
27 |
Jack Harvey |
23.6121 |
0.4431 |
0.0055 |
40 |
40 |
219.548 |
Honda |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
28 |
Christian Lundgaard |
24.0019 |
0.8329 |
0.3898 |
29 |
42 |
215.983 |
Honda |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |