IndyCar Harvest GP: Palou tops practice on IMS road course

With temperatures some 30degF cooler than when the teams last raced here on July the Fourth weekend, Palou turned a lap of 1min10.178sec, an average speed of 125.117mph, to head Meyer Shank Racing Honda’s Jack Harvey by 0.0996sec.

It was a somewhat inconclusive session because Marcus Ericsson spun his Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda with fewer than five minutes to go, before many of the team had tried out their red-sidewalled softer-compound Firestones.

Nonetheless, Palou’s speed was impressive as it virtually equaled Will Power’s pole position time from July. The Team Penske-Chevrolet driver was unable to set a representative time on reds as he and Andretti Autosport-Honda driver Alexander Rossi had a feather-light rub together at the end of the back straight when the field made a dash for the track in the closing three minutes. The silver #12 looped into a spin, and Rossi himself was delayed enough that he too missed setting a time.

Thus it was Colton Herta who upheld Andretti Autosport honor with third fastest time ahead of champion elect Scott Dixon of Ganassi.

Max Chilton, who shone here at IMS road course in July, looked impressive again, finishing fifth ahead of defending champion Josef Newgarden in the fastest of the Penske cars, Graham Rahal of Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda, Patricio O’Ward of Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy, Felix Rosenqvist (Ganassi) and Simon Pagenaud (Penske).

Prepping for his first IndyCar race of the year, Sebastien Bourdais was 22^nd for AJ Foyt Racing, just ahead of Helio Castroneves. The Brazilian 45-year-old hasn’t competed on a road course in an IndyCar since this same venue in May 2019, and as an Arrow McLaren SP driver, standing in for medically unfit rookie Oliver Askew, he hasn’t driven a non-Penske IndyCar for 21 years!

James Hinchcliffe, replacing Zach Veach in the #26 Gainbridge Andretti car, was 24^th fastest.

Qualifying begins at 6.20pm local (Eastern) time, and – as with all road/street course double-headers – will see the field divided in half, and the fastest driver taking pole and earning his group the odd-numbered side of the grid.

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Mph
1	55	Alex Palou	Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh	25	1'10.177		125.117
2	60	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing	22	1'10.277	0.099	124.939
3	88	Colton Herta	Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport	23	1'10.385	0.208	124.747
4	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	22	1'10.432	0.255	124.664
5	59	Max Chilton	Carlin	27	1'10.463	0.285	124.609
6	1	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	23	1'10.530	0.353	124.490
7	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	29	1'10.629	0.451	124.317
8	5	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	29	1'10.630	0.453	124.314
9	10	Felix Rosenqvist	Chip Ganassi Racing	29	1'10.633	0.455	124.310
10	22	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	23	1'10.636	0.459	124.304
11	98	Marco Andretti	Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani	30	1'10.753	0.575	124.099
12	27	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	23	1'10.758	0.580	124.090
13	21	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	27	1'10.824	0.647	123.974
14	12	Will Power	Team Penske	25	1'10.838	0.660	123.950
15	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	25	1'10.847	0.669	123.935
16	18	Santino Ferrucci	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan	15	1'10.970	0.792	123.720
17	41	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	26	1'11.136	0.958	123.431
18	20	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	25	1'11.145	0.967	123.415
19	8	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	26	1'11.191	1.013	123.335
20	30	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	28	1'11.382	1.205	123.004
21	4	Charlie Kimball	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	26	1'11.453	1.276	122.882
22	14	Sébastien Bourdais	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	26	1'11.479	1.302	122.837
23	7	Helio Castroneves	Arrow McLaren SP	26	1'11.626	1.449	122.585
24	26	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Autosport	23	1'11.657	1.479	122.533
25	24	Sage Karam	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	11	1'12.097	1.919	121.785
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