Texas IndyCar: Herta leads, Rossi and Dixon looking strong in FP2

Herta lapped the 1.5-mile oval in 23.304sec, an average speed of 222.451mph to lead Takuma Sato’s best effort for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda by 1.5mph.

However, Herta admitted he was aided by a tow, despite running qualifying-simulation low-drag setup, so he’s not expecting his speed to be meaningful. His fastest no-tow lap was 216.132mph, putting him 13^th fastest.

However, Honda have reasons to be cheerful in that they owned the top eight speeds, with Alex Rossi (third overall) and Scott Dixon (sixth overall), the only drivers to break the 219mph barrier without drafting anyone.

Takuma Sato was third fastest, while Team Penske’s Will Power was fastest Chevy driver overall (fourth) and also in the no-tow laps (ninth, some 2.4mph slower than Dixon).

Marcus Ericsson was fifth overall (seventh no-tow) for Arrow Schmidt Peterson-Honda, with Graham Rahal (sixth no-tow) making it two RLLR cars in the top 10.

Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti), Josef Newgarden (Penske) and Sebastien Bourdais (Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan) complete the top 10.

Power appeared to have a strong race setup, able to set 212mph speeds even after 35 laps on a stint. He also turned more laps than anyone else in the session.

The tire blistering problem appears to have been cured for all but a couple of drivers, so Firestone has elected to not use the back-up compound it brought should the newer softer right-side tires not hold up. Track temperatures were an average of 118degF.

Qualifying begins at 5.45pm local (Central) time with cars going out according to reverse entrant points.

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	Colton Herta	Harding Racing	71	23.3040			222.451
2	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	62	23.4598	0.1558	0.1558	220.974
3	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	77	23.4853	0.1813	0.0255	220.734
4	Will Power	Team Penske	106	23.5196	0.2156	0.0343	220.412
5	Marcus Ericsson	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	73	23.5277	0.2237	0.0081	220.336
6	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	103	23.5662	0.2622	0.0385	219.976
7	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	70	23.5710	0.2670	0.0048	219.931
8	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	55	23.5737	0.2697	0.0027	219.906
9	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	86	23.6042	0.3002	0.0305	219.622
10	Sébastien Bourdais	Dale Coyne Racing	74	23.6172	0.3132	0.0130	219.501
11	Santino Ferrucci	Dale Coyne Racing	76	23.6196	0.3156	0.0024	219.479
12	Zach Veach	Andretti Autosport	74	23.6492	0.3452	0.0296	219.204
13	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	76	23.6807	0.3767	0.0315	218.912
14	Charlie Kimball	Carlin	74	23.7074	0.4034	0.0267	218.666
15	Spencer Pigot	Ed Carpenter Racing	75	23.7174	0.4134	0.0100	218.574
16	Tony Kanaan	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	70	23.7178	0.4138	0.0004	218.570
17	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	67	23.7302	0.4262	0.0124	218.456
18	James Hinchcliffe	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	68	23.7459	0.4419	0.0157	218.311
19	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	65	23.7503	0.4463	0.0044	218.271
20	Felix Rosenqvist	Chip Ganassi Racing	94	23.8282	0.5242	0.0779	217.557
21	Conor Daly	Carlin	91	23.8920	0.5880	0.0638	216.976
22	Matheus Leist	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	74	23.9017	0.5977	0.0097	216.888
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