IndyCar GP Indy: Newgarden edges VeeKay, Power in FP2

With track temperatures some 30degF higher than this morning, times on the primary Firestone tires initially didn’t dip beneath 70.4sec – a 70.4346 / 124.660mph lap being set by Josef Newgarden in the #2 Team Penske-Chevrolet some 20mins into the session.

At that point, Meyer Shank Racing-Honda’s Jack Harvey was second fastest, ahead of the second Penske of Will Power, which had taken an off-course excursion at Turn 7. Others to have spins or escape-road visits included Felix Rosenqvist of Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy, Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing and Sebastien Bourdais of AJ Foyt Racing.

However Rosenqvist recovered quickly to bounce into the top three, while Colton Herta – who has re-signed with Andretti Autosport through 2023 – also made it into the Top 3.

However, he was then bumped down by teammate Rossi, and the Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda of rookie Romain Grosjean who, like the improving Newgarden, got into the 70.2sec zone.

Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s rookie Jimmie Johnson had been the first driver out on the Firestone ‘red’ alternate compound, but AJ Foyt Racing’s Dalton Kellett sprung to the top on his soft tires with 15mins left to run.

Then the leading runners put on the reds, and Will Power ducked down to 69.4999sec / 126.337mph to go top, ahead of Harvey and Herta. Remarkably, when Herta improved still further he matched Power’s time to the 10,000^th of a second.

Then VeeKay, who took his first pole here at the Harvest GP last fall, edged them both by 0.0979 to go fastest for Carpenter, before Newgarden dug deep trimmed a further 0.07sec off the top time, lapping in 69.3323sec. Power tried again but came up 0.14sec short to remain third despite lightly grazing the wall at the entry of Turn 1.

Herta wound up fourth, half a tenth clear of Scott McLaughlin, Penske’s star rookie who nudged Harvey down by 0.06sec.

Grosjean’s best effort remained good enough to edge compatriot Simon Pagenaud in the fourth Penske, while Arrow McLaren SP pair Pato O’Ward and Rosenqvist completed the Top 10.

Their temporary teammate Juan Pablo Montoya’s return to IndyCar road course action – first time since Sonoma in 2016 – continued to be troubled. He spun on his set of Firestone reds, then spun again after reverting to the primaries and finished up last.

His main 2015 title rival Scott Dixon also suffered a poor showing for Chip Ganassi Racing, ending the session in 23^rd after completing just 11 laps. He suffered an apparent clutch issue when trying to pull away from his pitbox.

His teammate Alex Palou, who missed the morning session due to a water leak, got up to speed relatively swiftly on primaries, but was 13^th after everyone had switched to reds.

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Mph
1	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	20	1'09.332		126.642
2	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	17	1'09.402	0.069	126.515
3	Will Power	Team Penske	21	1'09.474	0.142	126.383
4	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	19	1'09.499	0.167	126.337
5	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	18	1'09.551	0.219	126.243
6	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing	17	1'09.619	0.286	126.121
7	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing with RWR	21	1'09.621	0.289	126.116
8	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	19	1'09.737	0.405	125.906
9	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	20	1'09.739	0.407	125.903
10	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	17	1'09.774	0.442	125.839
11	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	18	1'09.778	0.446	125.832
12	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	18	1'09.784	0.452	125.821
13	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	22	1'09.845	0.513	125.711
14	Ed Jones	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan	12	1'09.906	0.574	125.602
15	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	19	1'09.921	0.589	125.575
16	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	21	1'09.972	0.640	125.484
17	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport	18	1'09.978	0.646	125.472
18	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	20	1'09.987	0.655	125.456
19	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	22	1'10.118	0.786	125.222
20	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	19	1'10.135	0.803	125.192
21	Sébastien Bourdais	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	20	1'10.349	1.017	124.811
22	Charlie Kimball	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	17	1'10.683	1.351	124.222
23	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	11	1'10.777	1.444	124.057
24	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	16	1'10.975	1.642	123.711
25	Juan Pablo Montoya	Arrow McLaren SP	14	1'11.808	2.475	122.276
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