Iowa IndyCar: Newgarden leads Penske 1-2-3 in first practice
Defending racewinner Josef Newgarden proved he hadn’t lost his Iowa Speedway setup knowledge despite his offseason move to Team Penske, as he topped the 75-minute opening practice session.
Photo by: Scott R LePage / Motorsport Images
Newgarden lapped the 0.894-mile oval in just 17.3397sec, an average speed of 185.609, as last year’s second- and fourth-placed finishers, his teammates Will Power and Simon Pagenaud, finished 0.4 and 1.0mph in arrears in second and third.
Ed Carpenter finished fourth, having spent almost the entire session at the top of the sheets, until a late-session yellow – caused by a crash for his teammate JR Hildebrand – provided everyone with the ideal opportunity to try a qualifying simulation on fresh tires.
Hildebrand lost the tail of the car when he ran over the line at the bottom of the track and backed up the track and into the wall, taking an apparently sizeable bang to his helmet on the car’s headrest.
Marco Andretti, whose last win came here six years ago, finished as top Honda driver in fifth, ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s Tony Kanaan, Mikhail Aleshin’s Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Honda, Alexander Rossi’s Andretti Autosport entry, James Hinchcliffe in the second SPM car, and Graham Rahal in the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda.
Esteban Gutierrez, in his first oval qualifying session, finished 19th, 1.15mph and six places behind Dale Coyne Racing-Honda teammate Ed Jones.
Dixon and the Ganassi #9 team were forced to miss the last 20 minutes of the session, as a penalty for transgressions at Road America, where the four-time series champion scored his first win of the session.
Following fuel pump issues that afflicted it in raceday warm-up, the team was cited for Dixon driving from the paddock to the pitlane under power (as opposed to being towed or pushed), for starting an installation lap 56sec after the checkered flag fell on the session, and for failing to obey the direction of IndyCar.
A five-figure fine was added to the time loss, with Dixon finishing the session in 16th.
Practice results:
Pos. | # | Driver | Time | Gap | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | 17.3397 | 185.609 | |
2 | 12 | Will Power | 17.3723 | 0.0326 | 185.260 |
3 | 1 | Simon Pagenaud | 17.4533 | 0.1136 | 184.401 |
4 | 20 | Ed Carpenter | 17.4783 | 0.1386 | 184.137 |
5 | 27 | Marco Andretti | 17.4937 | 0.1540 | 183.975 |
6 | 10 | Tony Kanaan | 17.5133 | 0.1736 | 183.769 |
7 | 7 | Mikhail Aleshin | 17.5160 | 0.1763 | 183.741 |
8 | 98 | Alexander Rossi | 17.5232 | 0.1835 | 183.665 |
9 | 5 | James Hinchcliffe | 17.5240 | 0.1843 | 183.657 |
10 | 15 | Graham Rahal | 17.5250 | 0.1853 | 183.646 |
11 | 83 | Charlie Kimball | 17.5621 | 0.2224 | 183.258 |
12 | 8 | Max Chilton | 17.6044 | 0.2647 | 182.818 |
13 | 19 | Ed Jones | 17.6267 | 0.2870 | 182.587 |
14 | 14 | Carlos Munoz | 17.6369 | 0.2972 | 182.481 |
15 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 17.6522 | 0.3125 | 182.323 |
16 | 9 | Scott Dixon | 17.6554 | 0.3157 | 182.290 |
17 | 21 | J.R. Hildebrand | 17.6994 | 0.3597 | 181.837 |
18 | 3 | Helio Castroneves | 17.7076 | 0.3679 | 181.752 |
19 | 18 | Esteban Gutierrez | 17.7369 | 0.3972 | 181.452 |
20 | 26 | Takuma Sato | 17.7555 | 0.4158 | 181.262 |
21 | 4 | Conor Daly | 17.9606 | 0.6209 | 179.192 |
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