Texas IndyCar: Kanaan leads O’Ward in practice

Tony Kanaan returned to NTT IndyCar Series action with top time in the only practice session ahead of tonight’s Genesys 300 at Texas Motor Speedway.

The Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda driver was the only driver to nudge past the 220mph barrier with his 16^th of 54 laps turned at the 1.5-mile oval near Fort Worth. This was a psychological boost for the Brazilian driver considering he will have to start from the 12^th and last row of the grid. Qualifying has been canned due to inclement weather compressing the schedule, and the grid will be set by entrant points, which leaves the 2004 champion and 2013 Indy 500 winner relying on Jimmie Johnson’s points accrued from the opening two rounds of the season.

Although most running was done in traffic, Kanaan was also top of the no-tow speeds.

Pato O’Ward, who topped the last test at TMS, was second fastest in the #5 Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet, ahead of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda’s Takuma Sato.

Four-time and defending Texas winner Scott Dixon, along with Marcus Ericsson ensured there were three Ganassi cars in the top six, while Alex Palou, points leader and therefore polesitter for tonight’s race, was 11^th.

Team Penske-Chevrolets were fifth, eighth, 16^th and 20^th in practice, with Simon Pagenaud – runner-up here last year – leading the quartet.

Befitting the race sponsor he shares, Genesys, James Hinchcliffe was fastest of the Andretti Autosport-Hondas.

Conor Daly, displaced by regular team owner, oval specialist Ed Carpenter, comfortably eclipsed his usual team boss with 12^th fastest in the Carlin-Chevy.

This evening's 212-lap race has been brought forward by 35mins to 6.10pm local (Central) time, and will see Palou leading Will Power, Scott Dixon, Colton Herta, Simon Pagenaud and Jack Harvey.

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Mph
1	Tony Kanaan	Chip Ganassi Racing	54	23.545		220.173
2	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	73	23.570	0.025	219.934
3	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	70	23.577	0.032	219.868
4	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	56	23.593	0.048	219.723
5	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	62	23.595	0.049	219.708
6	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	88	23.596	0.050	219.698
7	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	71	23.631	0.086	219.366
8	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	67	23.689	0.144	218.827
9	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport	87	23.702	0.157	218.707
10	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	81	23.707	0.162	218.668
11	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	86	23.768	0.223	218.105
12	Conor Daly	Carlin	55	23.778	0.233	218.010
13	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	37	23.811	0.266	217.707
14	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	47	23.891	0.346	216.982
15	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing	52	23.933	0.388	216.604
16	Will Power	Team Penske	56	23.937	0.392	216.560
17	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	42	23.938	0.393	216.558
18	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	39	23.977	0.432	216.201
19	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	55	23.986	0.441	216.118
20	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	83	24.039	0.494	215.647
21	Ed Jones	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan	79	24.105	0.560	215.056
22	Sébastien Bourdais	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	71	24.111	0.566	214.998
23	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	93	24.211	0.666	214.115
24	Pietro Fittipaldi	Dale Coyne Racing with RWR	85	24.292	0.747	213.401
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