Nashville IndyCar: Herta dominates FP2 which ends in chaos

Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s Scott Dixon spun on his out lap at Turn 4 – where the track’s major bump had been ground down overnight – bringing out the red flag.

Action resumed with 38mins to go, and Alexander Rossi was the first to duck below, 1min17sec, his fifth lap yielding a 1min16.9814sec. Then Ganassi’s points leader Alex Palou delivered a 1min16.5879, just 0.0004sec off Colton Herta’s pace-setting time from Friday’s opening practice.

Pato O’Ward, who missed most of yesterday’s session after crashing on his eighth lap delivered a 16.6 to move into second.

Rossi then set the fastest lap of the weekend with a 1min16.3095 – an average speed of 99.070mph around the 2.17-mile course, while Dixon sprung up to fourth, and Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda) into fifth, before they were split by Simon Pagenaud and shaded by Will Power.

Their Team Penske-Chevrolet rookie teammate Scott McLaughlin vaulted into third, before Herta put everyone else in perspective with a mighty 1min15.6874sec – 0.6sec faster than anyone else at that point – an average of 99.885mph.

A slap against the wall ended Rahal’s session 15mins early, while Palou was the first to join Herta in the sub-76sec category, but Herta further improved his time with the first 100mph lap of the course – a 1min15.3529sec.

Teams started trying out their red-sidewalled softer compound Firestones with 10mins to go, but a couple minutes later McLaughlin spun into the tire wall at Turn 6 after locking his rear brakes. The rear wing was damaged but it made little difference as he’d have had to sit out for 5mins for causing a red flag.

When action resumed, Rossi understeered into the wall at Turn 10, breaking his right front suspension, bringing out another red. With time pinched, IndyCar granted the drivers one last timed lap but it all turned farcical, with Max Chilton (Carlin), Dixon and Pagenaud all dropping the ball. Dixon earned points for style, however, as he spun-turned to resume at Turn 4 and clipped the wall hard enough to break off his rear wing.

So Herta finished the session 0.48sec clear of his teammate Rossi, with Dixon and Palou in third and fourth, with Sebastien Bourdais of AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet being one of few drivers to set a representative time on reds with fifth fastest.

Rosenqvist was an encouraging quarter-second ahead of Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet teammate O’Ward but neither got a chance to lay down a red-tire time.