Pocono IndyCar: Hunter-Reay leads opening practice, Carpenter crashes
Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay led opening practice for tomorrow’s ABC Supply 500, but Ed Carpenter struck the wall hard as he came onto the front straight, thankfully without injuring himself.
Photo by: Scott R LePage / Motorsport Images
The 75-minute session had just restarted after a 10min yellow for a track inspection, when IndyCar’s only driver/owner lost the tail end of the #20 Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet, spun and slapped the outside wall with the left side of the car. The closely following Will Power and Tony Kanaan had just time to brake hard, and avoid the debris by ducking down the pitlane.
Carpenter was able to step out of the car unaided and was quickly checked and released by IndyCar Medical, but his participation in this afternoon’s qualifying session is now under question.
IndyCar decided to add an extra seven minutes to the session, and Marco Andretti’s best lap of 41.1267 lap in the Andretti Autosport-Honda – an average speed of 218.836mph around the tri-oval – soon came under fire, with teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay eventually eclipsing him to go top with a 219.268mph lap.
Not long after, with fewer than 10mins left in the session, Ed Jones spun his Dale Coyne Racing-Honda at Turn 2, lightly kissing the wall with his nosecone.
That left little more than four minutes in the session, and although Andretti swiftly hit the track, he couldn’t quite find the pace to reestablish himself at the top of the times. Instead, Hunter-Reay’s closest challenge came from reigning champion Simon Pagenaud, whose Team Penske #1 entry was the only Chevy-powered car in the top eight, on 219.211mph.
Third fastest was Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda of Tony Kanaan, with Andretti eventually winding up fourth, just ahead of the second Ganassi entry of Scott Dixon.
Takuma Sato and Alexander Rossi ensured all four Andretti cars were in the top 10, while Graham Rahal was eighth just ahead of the second Penske of Helio Castroneves.
The surprise of the session was Gabby Chaves, in only the third event for Harding Racing-Chevrolet. The 2014 Indy Lights champion was 10th fastest, continuing the team’s great work that saw them finish ninth in the Indy 500 and fifth at Texas Motor Speedway.
Defending Pocono 500 winner, Penske’s Will Power, was only 17th, just behind oval rookie Esteban Gutierrez in the second Coyne car. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports – which earned pole position last year with the now deposed Mikhail Aleshin – was only 16th and 19th. However, this put them ahead of current points leader, Josef Newgarden, in the fourth Penske-Chevy.
IndyCar FP1, Pocono
Cla | # | Driver | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 39 | 41.0456 | 219.268 | ||
2 | 1 | Simon Pagenaud | 29 | 41.0563 | 0.0107 | 0.0107 | 219.211 |
3 | 10 | Tony Kanaan | 28 | 41.0658 | 0.0202 | 0.0095 | 219.160 |
4 | 27 | Marco Andretti | 38 | 41.1267 | 0.0811 | 0.0609 | 218.836 |
5 | 9 | Scott Dixon | 31 | 41.2005 | 0.1549 | 0.0738 | 218.444 |
6 | 26 | Takuma Sato | 32 | 41.2118 | 0.1662 | 0.0113 | 218.384 |
7 | 98 | Alexander Rossi | 35 | 41.2265 | 0.1809 | 0.0147 | 218.306 |
8 | 15 | Graham Rahal | 38 | 41.3342 | 0.2886 | 0.1077 | 217.737 |
9 | 3 | Helio Castroneves | 39 | 41.3517 | 0.3061 | 0.0175 | 217.645 |
10 | 88 | Gabby Chaves | 39 | 41.4209 | 0.3753 | 0.0692 | 217.282 |
11 | 21 | J.R. Hildebrand | 35 | 41.4262 | 0.3806 | 0.0053 | 217.254 |
12 | 8 | Max Chilton | 38 | 41.4483 | 0.4027 | 0.0221 | 217.138 |
13 | 83 | Charlie Kimball | 40 | 41.4659 | 0.4203 | 0.0176 | 217.046 |
14 | 14 | Carlos Munoz | 32 | 41.4962 | 0.4506 | 0.0303 | 216.887 |
15 | 20 | Ed Carpenter | 22 | 41.5101 | 0.4645 | 0.0139 | 216.815 |
16 | 5 | James Hinchcliffe | 29 | 41.5255 | 0.4799 | 0.0154 | 216.734 |
17 | 18 | Esteban Gutierrez | 33 | 41.5301 | 0.4845 | 0.0046 | 216.710 |
18 | 12 | Will Power | 30 | 41.5893 | 0.5437 | 0.0592 | 216.402 |
19 | 7 | Sebastian Saavedra | 43 | 41.7051 | 0.6595 | 0.1158 | 215.801 |
20 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | 31 | 41.9038 | 0.8582 | 0.1987 | 214.778 |
21 | 4 | Conor Daly | 38 | 41.9099 | 0.8643 | 0.0061 | 214.746 |
22 | 19 | Ed Jones | 33 | 42.2675 | 1.2219 | 0.3576 | 212.930 |
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