Practice report
IndyCar Texas
Texas IndyCar: McLaughlin leads opening practice
First practice for Sunday’s PPG 375, the second round of the 2023 NTT IndyCar Series saw Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin lead the way on a weekend where Chevrolet cars appear to have an edge so far.
David Malsher-Lopez
Edited: Apr 2, 2023, 12:32 AM
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In the cool of the morning – the session ran from 8.00-9.00am local time – and with IndyCar having allowed extra downforce components this weekend, and drivers able to catch some strong tows, speeds looked startlingly good in the opening session.
Scott McLaughlin, who qualified and finished second in last year’s IndyCar round at TMS, was swiftly up to speed, clocking a 223.747mph lap in the #3 Team Penske entry, which equates to 23.169sec around the 1.5-mile oval in Fort Worth.
Chevrolet looked strong at this stage, with Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi also turning 223mph laps in their Arrow McLarens to run second and third, ahead of Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport-Honda.
Josef Newgarden, Penske’s defending Texas winner, was also looking strong, just ahead of Takuma Sato – in his first outing for Chip Ganassi Racing – and Ganassi’s five-time Texas winner, Scott Dixon.
Dixon briefly vaulted his part-time teammate but then Sato moved up to fifth, second fastest Honda driver, before pitting.
Also impressing at this stage was rookie Benjamin Pedersen, who with 15mins remaining, was in 11th for local team, AJ Foyt Racing. He eventually fell to 18th, but teammate Santino Ferrucci took twelfth.
With 12mins to go, Felix Rosenqvist, last year’s Texas polesitter, made it three Arrow McLarens in the top five. Then with under five minutes to go, series sophomore Callum Ilott sprung his Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevrolet into sixth, until Devlin DeFrancesco pushed him down with fifth best time.
The next time the cars are on track will be 11.15am local (Central) time for qualifying. There will then be a “high-line” practice to try and open up more grooves for tomorrow’s race, followed by an hour’s final practice.
P
Name
FTime
Diff
Gap
FL
Laps
FSpeed
Engine
Team
1
Scott McLaughlin
23.1690
23.1690
--.----
14
40
223.747
Chevy
Team Penske
2
Pato O'Ward
23.1928
0.0238
0.0238
5
32
223.518
Chevy
Arrow McLaren
3
Alexander Rossi
23.1980
0.0290
0.0052
5
34
223.468
Chevy
Arrow McLaren
4
Colton Herta
23.2135
0.0445
0.0155
34
35
223.318
Honda
Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
5
Devlin DeFrancesco
23.2232
0.0542
0.0097
34
34
223.225
Honda
Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
6
Felix Rosenqvist
23.2557
0.0867
0.0325
39
50
222.913
Chevy
Arrow McLaren
7
Callum Ilott
23.2586
0.0896
0.0029
44
44
222.885
Chevy
Juncos Hollinger Racing
8
Takuma Sato
23.2665
0.0975
0.0079
30
43
222.810
Honda
Chip Ganassi Racing
9
Josef Newgarden
23.3005
0.1315
0.0340
12
24
222.484
Chevy
Team Penske
10
Scott Dixon
23.3205
0.1515
0.0200
19
34
222.294
Honda
Chip Ganassi Racing
11
Simon Pagenaud
23.3474
0.1784
0.0269
30
47
222.038
Honda
Meyer Shank Racing
12
Santino Ferrucci
23.3516
0.1826
0.0042
35
37
221.998
Chevy
AJ Foyt Enterprises
13
Alex Palou
23.3638
0.1948
0.0122
34
37
221.882
Honda
Chip Ganassi Racing
14
Will Power
23.3792
0.2102
0.0154
24
33
221.736
Chevy
Team Penske
15
David Malukas
23.3798
0.2108
0.0006
37
39
221.730
Honda
Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
16
Romain Grosjean
23.3873
0.2183
0.0075
32
36
221.659
Honda
Andretti Autosport
17
Helio Castroneves
23.3949
0.2259
0.0076
33
35
221.587
Honda
Meyer Shank Racing
18
Benjamin Pedersen
23.4054
0.2364
0.0105
14
38
221.487
Chevy
AJ Foyt Enterprises
19
Marcus Ericsson
23.4907
0.3217
0.0853
34
36
220.683
Honda
Chip Ganassi Racing
20
Conor Daly
23.5082
0.3392
0.0175
38
38
220.519
Chevy
Ed Carpenter Racing
21
Rinus VeeKay
23.5164
0.3474
0.0082
32
33
220.442
Chevy
Ed Carpenter Racing
22
Sting Ray Robb
23.5230
0.3540
0.0066
9
41
220.380
Honda
Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
23
Kyle Kirkwood
23.5449
0.3759
0.0219
37
38
220.175
Honda
Andretti Autosport
24
Agustin Canapino
23.5452
0.3762
0.0003
19
30
220.172
Chevy
Juncos Holling Racing
25
Ed Carpenter
23.5610
0.3920
0.0158
17
29
220.025
Chevy
Ed Carpenter Racing
26
Graham Rahal
23.6066
0.4376
0.0456
39
45
219.600
Honda
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
27
Jack Harvey
23.6121
0.4431
0.0055
40
40
219.548
Honda
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
28
Christian Lundgaard
24.0019
0.8329
0.3898
29
42
215.983
Honda
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
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