Barber IndyCar: Rossi tops disrupted second practice

Ex-F1 driver and IndyCar rookie Romain Grosjean was the first of the runners to duck under the 67sec barrier, with a 66.9421sec lap in his Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda, despite flirting with the dirt exiting Turn 13.

Fellow rookie, Jimmie Johnson, was the first to take on the softer Firestone tires but hit traffic so didn’t get the full benefit.

Soon after Colton Herta moved to the top for Andretti Autosport-Honda and Scott McLaughlin on alternates took P3 for Team Penske-Chevrolet, there was a brief red to retrieve Dalton Kellett’s spun and stalled AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy from the exit of Turn 5.

Then on his 12^th lap, after making an adjustment in the cockpit, Herta understeered off the track at Turn 2, traversed the gravel trap and smacked the Armco barrier with his left front wheel, breaking the suspension and front wing. He admitted afterward that he went too fast with tires not yet up to temperature, commenting: “It was a silly move by me, it bit me and that sucks because I won’t get to try the red tires [before qualifying] now.”

With just nine minutes to go, the green waved again, and almost everyone hit the track on the alternate compound tires. Pato O’Ward’s Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet hit the top spot despite encountering two batches of traffic. In backing off to get some clear track, he accidentally blocked Will Power’s Team Penske-Chevrolet, and then his teammate Felix Rosenqvist jumped to the top of the times with a 66.3948sec.

This morning’s pacesetter Alex Palou edged his Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda into P1 by mere hundredths before the third red flew for Newgarden trickling down the main straight after a major fishtail moment exiting the final turn after the engine burped with an overboost. The three-time Barber winner had already had an alarming moment on his very first lap of the session when his steering wheel came fully detached from its spindle.

The cars were allowed out for one last flyer and Ganassi’s six-time and reigning champion Scott Dixon bounced to the top, but was then displaced by Rossi and his own teammate Marcus Ericsson.

Said Rossi: “It’s good, it was difficult there, every new tire run, on blacks or reds, got interrupted [by red flags], so all good right now, when we rolled off I was good with car. Obviously it’s hotter now than this morning. Overall we’re in the decent position for this afternoon.”

Palou completed a Ganassi 2-3-4, ahead of Rosenqvist, with Ed Jones slotting into sixth for Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan Honda. O’Ward was seventh, just ahead of Power who ran off the track at Turn 5.

Conor Daly was an impressive ninth for Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet, just ahead of Meyer Shank Racing-Honda’s Jack Harvey.

Newgarden’s troubled session left him 14^th, but in worse shape still were Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda – the team that dominated the last event here – with Takuma Sato and Graham Rahal only 20^th and 23^rd.

Impressively, despite his relative lack of knowledge of the Firestone reds, Jimmie Johnson was just 1.8sec from top spot.

Qualifying begins at 4.55pm local (Central) time.