Phoenix IndyCar: Newgarden tops windy first practice

Penske-Chevrolet’s latest winner Newgarden left it until his very last lap to hit the top of the times with a 192.108mph lap of the one-mile oval, 19.1517sec.

That was enough to edge his former teammate JR Hildebrand, making his series return after breaking a bone in his hand at Long Beach. The Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy driver’s best was 191.681mph, and he was chased by the other three Penske drivers – Helio Castroneves, Simon Pagenaud and Will Power.

Power, who finished third at PIR last year, completed the most laps in the session, at 79.

The only other driver to break the 190mph barrier was the top Honda driver and last year’s Phoenix winner, Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing.

Championship leader Sebastien Bourdais of Dale Coyne Racing-Honda was seventh fastest, while Charlie Kimball and Tony Kanaan made it three Ganassi machines in the Top 10.

Although the wind average for the session was 12mph, the gusts at the end of the session were around 35mph, and sent clouds of sand from the nearby dunes across the back straight. That suggests the early qualifiers in two hours’ time – Kimball, Power and Graham Rahal – will need to be somewhat tentative, despite vintage cars and the IndyCar 2-seater theoretically cleaning the track before then.

Owner/driver and oval specialist Ed Carpenter, due to make his first start of the year, had to duck out of the session after only 17 laps due to a fuel leak.