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Practice report

IndyCar Iowa: Herta leads Daly, Power in first practice

Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta topped the first practice sessopm for IndyCar’s Iowa 250s at Iowa Speedway, which put him just 0.0548sec ahead of Conor Daly, in the Carlin-Chevrolet, with Penske's Will Power in third.

Colton Herta, Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport Honda

Colton Herta, Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport Honda

Barry Cantrell / Motorsport Images

Herta, who lies second in the championship, lapped the 0.894-mile course in 18.713sec, an average speed of 171.990mph, on the 43rd of his 47 total laps. That usurped Daly who has switched to Carlin due to this being a non-Indy 500 oval, as his road course berth at Ed Carpenter Racing seat has been taken over by oval specialist team boss.

Most drivers squeezed in two laps on fresh tires to simulate their runs in qualifying which has a unique format for this weekend’s double-header. As usual on ovals, qualifying is a one-by-one affair, with each car running two consecutive flying laps. However, grid positions on this occasion will not depend on an average of these two laps. Instead, the first flying lap will set the grid for this evening’s race, and the second lap will set the grid for tomorrow evening’s race.

Will Power was fastest of the Team Penske-Chevrolet trio on 171.092mph, separated from his teammates Josef Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud by the Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan car of Santino Ferrucci.

Runaway points leader Scott Dixon was seventh, ahead of Rinus VeeKay in Carpenter’s #21 machine. That made the 2019 Indy Lights runner-up fastest of the rookies, who got an extra 30 minutes on track before the veterans came out for their hour-long session.

Marcus Ericsson, who finished fourth last Sunday, took ninth to outpace his teammate, compatriot and Road America winner Felix Rosenqvist.

Tony Kanaan in the newly Bryant-liveried #14 AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy was a fine 10th fastest in his return to the series.

Qualifying begins at 4.30pm local (Central) time/ 5.30pm ET, with tonight’s race due to start at 8.10pm CT / 9.10pm ET.

Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Mph
1 United States Colton Herta Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport 47 18.712   171.990
2 United States Conor Daly United Kingdom Carlin 60 18.767 0.054 171.488
3 Australia Will Power United States Team Penske 58 18.810 0.098 171.092
4 United States Santino Ferrucci Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan 72 18.812 0.099 171.080
5 United States Josef Newgarden United States Team Penske 72 18.812 0.099 171.077
6 France Simon Pagenaud United States Team Penske 73 18.850 0.137 170.733
7 New Zealand Scott Dixon United States Chip Ganassi Racing 54 18.919 0.206 170.111
8 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout United States Ed Carpenter Racing 123 19.004 0.291 169.353
9 Sweden Marcus Ericsson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 72 19.035 0.323 169.071
10 Brazil Tony Kanaan United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 48 19.036 0.323 169.066
11 Japan Takuma Sato United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 53 19.056 0.344 168.884
12 United States Oliver Askew Arrow McLaren SP 91 19.111 0.398 168.401
13 United States Zach Veach United States Andretti Autosport 64 19.132 0.419 168.216
14 United States Marco Andretti Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani 62 19.136 0.423 168.186
15 Mexico Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren SP 95 19.156 0.444 168.004
16 United States Ryan Hunter-Reay United States Andretti Autosport 51 19.162 0.450 167.950
17 Spain Alex Palou Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh 150 19.194 0.481 167.672
18 United States Charlie Kimball United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 55 19.247 0.534 167.210
19 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist United States Chip Ganassi Racing 72 19.314 0.601 166.631
20 United States Alexander Rossi United States Andretti Autosport 60 19.319 0.606 166.592
21 United States Ed Carpenter United States Ed Carpenter Racing 61 19.325 0.613 166.534
22 United Kingdom Jack Harvey United States Meyer Shank Racing 111 19.353 0.640 166.296
23 United States Graham Rahal United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 49 19.578 0.865 164.384

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