IndyCar Harvest GP: Palou tops practice on IMS road course

Alex Palou put the Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh squad on top of the 75min practice session ahead of qualifying for Race 1 of the Harvest Grand Prix.

With temperatures some 30degF cooler than when the teams last raced here on July the Fourth weekend, Palou turned a lap of 1min10.178sec, an average speed of 125.117mph, to head Meyer Shank Racing Honda’s Jack Harvey by 0.0996sec.

It was a somewhat inconclusive session because Marcus Ericsson spun his Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda with fewer than five minutes to go, before many of the team had tried out their red-sidewalled softer-compound Firestones.

Nonetheless, Palou’s speed was impressive as it virtually equaled Will Power’s pole position time from July. The Team Penske-Chevrolet driver was unable to set a representative time on reds as he and Andretti Autosport-Honda driver Alexander Rossi had a feather-light rub together at the end of the back straight when the field made a dash for the track in the closing three minutes. The silver #12 looped into a spin, and Rossi himself was delayed enough that he too missed setting a time.

Thus it was Colton Herta who upheld Andretti Autosport honor with third fastest time ahead of champion elect Scott Dixon of Ganassi.

Max Chilton, who shone here at IMS road course in July, looked impressive again, finishing fifth ahead of defending champion Josef Newgarden in the fastest of the Penske cars, Graham Rahal of Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda, Patricio O’Ward of Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy, Felix Rosenqvist (Ganassi) and Simon Pagenaud (Penske).

Prepping for his first IndyCar race of the year, Sebastien Bourdais was 22nd for AJ Foyt Racing, just ahead of Helio Castroneves. The Brazilian 45-year-old hasn’t competed on a road course in an IndyCar since this same venue in May 2019, and as an Arrow McLaren SP driver, standing in for medically unfit rookie Oliver Askew, he hasn’t driven a non-Penske IndyCar for 21 years!

James Hinchcliffe, replacing Zach Veach in the #26 Gainbridge Andretti car, was 24th fastest.

Qualifying begins at 6.20pm local (Eastern) time, and – as with all road/street course double-headers – will see the field divided in half, and the fastest driver taking pole and earning his group the odd-numbered side of the grid.

Cla#DriverTeamLapsTimeGapMph
155 Alex PalouDale Coyne Racing with Team Goh25 1’10.177  125.117
260 Jack Harvey Meyer Shank Racing22 1’10.277 0.099 124.939
388 Colton HertaAndretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport23 1’10.385 0.208 124.747
49 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing22 1’10.432 0.255 124.664
559 Max Chilton Carlin27 1’10.463 0.285 124.609
61 Josef Newgarden Team Penske23 1’10.530 0.353 124.490
715 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing29 1’10.629 0.451 124.317
85 Patricio O’WardArrow McLaren SP29 1’10.630 0.453 124.314
910 Felix Rosenqvist Chip Ganassi Racing29 1’10.633 0.455 124.310
1022 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske23 1’10.636 0.459 124.304
1198 Marco AndrettiAndretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani30 1’10.753 0.575 124.099
1227 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport23 1’10.758 0.580 124.090
1321 Rinus van Kalmthout Ed Carpenter Racing27 1’10.824 0.647 123.974
1412 Will Power Team Penske25 1’10.838 0.660 123.950
1528 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport25 1’10.847 0.669 123.935
1618 Santino FerrucciDale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan15 1’10.970 0.792 123.720
1741 Dalton Kellett A.J. Foyt Enterprises26 1’11.136 0.958 123.431
1820 Conor Daly Ed Carpenter Racing25 1’11.145 0.967 123.415
198 Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing26 1’11.191 1.013 123.335
2030 Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing28 1’11.382 1.205 123.004
214 Charlie Kimball A.J. Foyt Enterprises26 1’11.453 1.276 122.882
2214 Sébastien Bourdais A.J. Foyt Enterprises26 1’11.479 1.302 122.837
237 Helio CastronevesArrow McLaren SP26 1’11.626 1.449 122.585
2426 James Hinchcliffe Andretti Autosport23 1’11.657 1.479 122.533
2524 Sage Karam Dreyer & Reinbold Racing11 1’12.097 1.919 121.785
View full results


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