Cold and snow ends hopes of IndyCar test at IMS

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From an original line-up of 20 cars, only Andretti Autosport-Honda, Meyer Shank Racing-Honda and Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevrolet had remained hopeful of squeezing in some track time around the 2.439-mile 14-turn road course. Doom-laden weather forecasts persuaded others to pull out ahead of time, and when yesterday’s action was called off for unsuitable weather, Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet also called it quits.

Overnight there was snow in Speedway, Indiana, and while it was too warm to settle, the temperature is still only around 40degF in the region. For IndyCar’s sole tire supplier, Firestone, to give the green light to any track action, the combined track and ambient temperatures must add up to 100, and there is no chance of that today.

Andretti’s Alexander Rossi, Colton Herta, Romain Grosjean and Devlin DeFrancesco were always set to test at Barber Motorsports Park, next Monday before heading west for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s Alex Palou, Scott Dixon, Marcus Ericsson and Jimmie Johnson will also be testing there, as will Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy (Rinus VeeKay and Conor Daly).

Now Motorsport.com has confirmed that Meyer Shank Racing and Juncos will be joining the Barber line-up to test around the 16-turn 2.366-mile road course that will host IndyCar’s fourth round this year.