Nashville IndyCar: Dixon, Herta lead race day warm-up

Josef Newgarden ran new alternate tires to become the first driver to duck into the 1min16s, a 1min16.4338sec putting him at the top of the times, until being eclipsed by 0.4sec by teammate Scott McLaughlin, who will start the race from his second IndyCar pole position.

Dixon and Marcus Ericsson of Ganassi Racing got in the top-four mix, too, while Dixon was running on primaries.

With 16mins remaining in the 30min session, Dalton Kellett went long at Turn 9 and stalled his AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet, bringing out the red flag.

Graham Rahal, on what has been one of the strongest weekends this year for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda team, moved into the top five when running primaries, while Colton Herta’s Andretti Autosport-Honda – starting 23^rd today – ran a barely used set of alternates to deliver a 1min15.6760sec.

The alternates are green-sidewalled this weekend, to signify Firestone’s use of rubber from the guayule shrub, a more sustainable source.

Rahal ran long at Turn 9 and needed a restart but managed to avoid causing a red flag. His teammate Christian Lundgaard, starting third today, made a late improvement on green tires to move into the top five, as did the Foyt car of Kyle Kirkwood.

Splitting these two with his final lap was defending champion Alex Palou, whose teammate Dixon then sprang to the top (on greens) with a 1min15.6050sec.

The session ended in somewhat limp manner, as David Malukas’ Dale Coyne Racing w/HMD-Honda rolled to a halt on track, bringing out local yellows.

To help deal with the heat and humidity in Nashville, IndyCar has mandated the air scoops on top of the aeroscreens for this afternoon’s race which starts at 2.30pm local (Central) time.

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Mph
1	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	16	1'15.6050		99.993
2	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	20	1'15.6760	0.0710	99.900
3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	20	1'16.0134	0.4084	99.456
4	Kyle Kirkwood	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	16	1'16.1015	0.4965	99.341
5	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	18	1'16.2629	0.6579	99.131
6	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	16	1'16.3255	0.7205	99.049
7	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	20	1'16.4338	0.8288	98.909
8	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	17	1'16.4364	0.8314	98.906
9	Will Power	Team Penske	21	1'16.4525	0.8475	98.885
10	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	18	1'16.5822	0.9772	98.717
11	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	20	1'16.6675	1.0625	98.608
12	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	17	1'16.8581	1.2531	98.363
13	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	19	1'16.8584	1.2534	98.363
14	Takuma Sato	Dale Coyne Racing	15	1'16.9031	1.2981	98.306
15	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	9	1'17.0714	1.4664	98.091
16	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	18	1'17.1388	1.5338	98.005
17	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing	19	1'17.2301	1.6251	97.889
18	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	21	1'17.3710	1.7660	97.711
19	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	14	1'17.3767	1.7717	97.704
20	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	19	1'17.5928	1.9878	97.432
21	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	17	1'17.9180	2.3130	97.025
22	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	16	1'17.9617	2.3567	96.971
23	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	16	1'18.3315	2.7265	96.513
24	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	18	1'18.3786	2.7736	96.455
25	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	19	1'18.5407	2.9357	96.256
26	Simona de Silvestro	Paretta Autosport	17	1'18.5601	2.9551	96.232
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