Team Penske completes strong spring training test at Barber

LEEDS, Ala. – Team Penske wrapped up the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series Spring Training pre-season test in impressive fashion on Tuesday. Will Power, the three-time series road course champion, finished the two-day test at Barber Motorsports Park with the fastest lap time each day in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet. His top overall time around the 2.3-mile road course was 1:07.0608. Power was on track for a total of 110 laps over the course of the two days of pre-season action at Barber.

Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya, who both produced top-three times in the Monday practice session, continued to show speed one week before the first race of the 2014 season. Each driver posted top-10 lap times in Tuesday testing. Castroneves, the winner of the first Verizon IndyCar Series race at Barber in 2010, clocked in with the sixth-fastest overall lap of 1:07:4004 in the No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet after turning a total of 105 laps. Montoya, driving the No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet, toured the course a total of 116 times overall. His lap of 1:07:4764 was good for the ninth-fastest combined time for the test.

“Coming back to Barber, hopefully we found a happy place,” said Power, a two-time winner on the Barber circuit. “Obviously the temperature will be a lot different, and I think that brings out imbalances in the car. It was so cold today and there was so much grip, I think it was hard to get good reads on changes. We’ll see where we go and head to St. Pete. It’s going to be really tight this year.”

Precipitation and cold temperatures again forced the cancellation of the first session of the day Tuesday, similar to the first day of the test. However, when the track was deemed ready for action, the Team Penske drivers made the most of the remaining time. Power turned 62 laps on day two, with Castroneves and Montoya completing 54 laps and 61 laps, respectively.

The Verizon IndyCar Series begins next weekend, March 30, at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The race will air live on ABC beginning at 3 pm ET.

Team Penske