Texas IndyCar: McLaughlin leads opening practice

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 18^th, 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