IndyCar Detroit: O’Ward fastest in first practice on new street track

Having raced on nearby Belle Isle Island from 1992, Penske Entertainment Corp decided to revive the downtown circuit for the IndyCar event with a new 1.7-mile, nine-turn layout in the shadow of the General Motors Renaissance Center.

It utilizes some sections of the 2.5-mile track used by Formula 1 between 1982 and 1988.

Teams and drivers got their first taste of the circuit in a 90-minute session on Friday afternoon, and from the get-go the bumps on Jefferson Avenue caused bottoming and braking instability issues into Turn 3 as well as the opening corner. The session was red-flagged early on for Agustin Canapino (Juncos Hollinger Racing) running long and stalling at Turn 1.

Kyle Kirkwood bounced back from his Indianapolis 500 inversion by setting the early pace for Andretti Autosport at 1m05.4753s but times tumbled as the racing line rubbered-in.

Team-mate Colton Herta then bested him just before the one-third point with 1m04.3840s.

Canapino was in the wars again when he clipped the wall on the inside of Turn 7 and pounded the outside barrier, damaging his car enough to put him out of the session.

Graham Rahal caused the second red flag, stalling as he tried to rejoin from the Turn 1 escape road, Marcus Ericsson brought out the third when he did likewise and the front brakes caught fire on his Chip Ganassi Racing entry and Scott McLaughlin caused a fourth at the same spot.

Alex Palou caused a fifth when he couldn’t get reverse gear at Turn 3, and O’Ward caused a final one when he stalled after a spin-turn went awry at Turn 8.

In the closing moments, drivers switched to the softer, green-sidewalled alternate tires.

O’Ward took the top spot with 1m03.5436s and immediately overshot a corner and had to spin turn to recover. He then went faster again with 1m03.0773s.

Driver after driver took their shot of toppling him, but just couldn’t manage it. Scott Dixon got closest for Ganassi, 0.0986s away, ahead of Alexander Rossi (McLaren), Kirkwood, Palou and Felix Rosenqvist (McLaren).

Helio Castroneves also had to miss a chunk of the session when a bump caused his Meyer Shank Racing’s Honda to over-rev and require an engine change.

The new track also features a split pitlane, with stall selections on either side chosen by order of Indy Grand Prix qualifying. The pitlane exit blends straight into the racing line for Turn 1, with Rossi and Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing) having a near-miss.

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren	33	1'03.0773			93.885
2	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	33	1'03.1759	0.0986	0.0986	93.738
3	Alexander Rossi	Arrow McLaren	30	1'03.3630	0.2857	0.1871	93.461
4	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Autosport	31	1'03.5140	0.4367	0.1510	93.239
5	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	34	1'03.6388	0.5615	0.1248	93.056
6	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren	27	1'03.6929	0.6156	0.0541	92.977
7	Will Power	Team Penske	42	1'03.7439	0.6666	0.0510	92.903
8	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	30	1'03.7540	0.6767	0.0101	92.888
9	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	31	1'03.7984	0.7211	0.0444	92.824
10	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	34	1'03.9518	0.8745	0.1534	92.601
11	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	35	1'04.1082	1.0309	0.1564	92.375
12	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	39	1'04.1978	1.1205	0.0896	92.246
13	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	34	1'04.2281	1.1508	0.0303	92.203
14	Marcus Armstrong	Chip Ganassi Racing	42	1'04.3134	1.2361	0.0853	92.080
15	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	30	1'04.4376	1.3603	0.1242	91.903
16	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	34	1'04.4797	1.4024	0.0421	91.843
17	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	34	1'04.6259	1.5486	0.1462	91.635
18	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	31	1'04.6777	1.6004	0.0518	91.562
19	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing	29	1'04.7698	1.6925	0.0921	91.432
20	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	43	1'04.7800	1.7027	0.0102	91.417
21	Ray Robb	Dale Coyne Racing	39	1'04.8143	1.7370	0.0343	91.369
22	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	31	1'04.8789	1.8016	0.0646	91.278
23	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	34	1'05.5223	2.4450	0.6434	90.381
24	Agustin Canapino	Juncos Hollinger Racing	17	1'05.6454	2.5681	0.1231	90.212
25	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	28	1'06.0065	2.9292	0.3611	89.718
26	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	17	1'06.0689	2.9916	0.0624	89.634
27	Benjamin Pedersen	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	38	1'07.7024	4.6251	1.6335	87.471
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