IndyCar Road America: Power leads Harvey, Newgarden in practice

Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Will Power left it until his last lap to vault from midfield into top spot to eclipse the Meyer Shank Racing-Honda of Jack Harvey and the second Penske of Josef Newgarden in the only practice session for this weekend’s double-header at Road America.

Power lapped the 4.014-mile course in 1min46.002sec, an average speed of 136.322mph, to beat Harvey by 0.1585sec in an incredibly tight 75-minute session that, despite this being by far the longest course on the schedule, saw the top 18 cars covered by just one second.

Power will be well aware, however, that while Harvey – the man who ran him closest for pole position at the GP of Indianapolis – appears to have been his biggest threat again, in fact Newgarden, the 2018 polesitter here, has an ace up his sleeve. The two-time and reigning champion set his best time far earlier in the session, on only his seventh lap, and before the track rubbered in.

Felix Rosenqvist was fourth fastest for Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda, ahead of the top Andretti Autosport entry, that of 2012 champion Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh’s rookie Alex Palou bounced back from a disappointing GP of Indy to run sixth fastest in his first encounter with the magnificent course in Elkhart Lake, WI, and went faster than last year’s polesitter Colton Herta (Andretti) and Graham Rahal in the Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda.

Alexander Rossi, who dominated this race last year, was ninth, just ahead of Arrow McLaren SP’s pacesetter Patricio O’Ward. 

Although Rossi, Hunter-Reay and Herta all had off-course excursions, there were no session stoppages. 

Qualifying begins at 2.15 local (Central) time.

How to watch all the IndyCar action this weekend.

IndyCar schedule, facts and figures for Road America.

ClaDriverTeamTimeIntervalMph
1 Will Power Team Penske 1’46.002  136.316
2 Jack Harvey Meyer Shank Racing 1’46.160 0.158 136.112
3 Josef Newgarden Team Penske 1’46.191 0.030 136.073
4 Felix Rosenqvist Chip Ganassi Racing 1’46.231 0.040 136.021
5 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport 1’46.251 0.020 135.995
6 Alex PalouDale Coyne Racing with Team Goh 1’46.254 0.002 135.992
7 Colton HertaAndretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport 1’46.294 0.039 135.942
8 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 1’46.360 0.066 135.857
9 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport 1’46.373 0.013 135.840
10 Patricio O’WardArrow McLaren SP 1’46.386 0.013 135.823
11 Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing 1’46.395 0.008 135.812
12 Marco AndrettiAndretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani 1’46.502 0.106 135.676
13 Oliver AskewArrow McLaren SP 1’46.512 0.010 135.662
14 Zach Veach Andretti Autosport 1’46.526 0.013 135.645
15 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 1’46.526 0.000 135.645
16 Santino FerrucciDale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan 1’46.634 0.108 135.507
17 Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 1’46.959 0.324 135.096
18 Max Chilton Carlin 1’47.001 0.042 135.043
19 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske 1’47.072 0.071 134.953
20 Rinus van Kalmthout Ed Carpenter Racing 1’47.079 0.006 134.944
21 Conor Daly Ed Carpenter Racing 1’47.093 0.013 134.927
22 Charlie Kimball A.J. Foyt Enterprises 1’47.160 0.067 134.842
23 Dalton Kellett A.J. Foyt Enterprises 1’49.081 1.921 132.468

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