VeeKay tops test at Barber, Grosjean within one second
Rinus VeeKay put Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet on top in the 12-car IndyCar test at Barber Motorsports Park, while Romain Grosjean finished his first IndyCar test within one second of top spot.
VeeKay lapped the 2.38-mile course in 66.518sec, 0.115sec faster than Sebastien Bourdais of AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet, although Bourdais held top spot without use of the push-to-pass overtake.
Graham Rahal turned a marathon 141 laps and wound up third fastest and top Honda-powered driver in the test, driving the #15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan entry.
Former Barber winner Will Power was fastest of the Team Penske-Chevrolet quartet, although a couple of hundredths slower than teammate Josef Newgarden in the morning session, while Conor Daly made it two Carpenter cars in the top five.
Scott McLaughlin, who has just one IndyCar race under his belt, was an impressive seventh fastest for Penske, while Dalton Kellett appeared to have taken a step forward in the offseason as he becomes a fulltime driver for Foyt, finishing the day within 0.7sec of his team leader Bourdais.
The 2016 Indy Lights champion Ed Jones, on his return to IndyCar after a one-year hiatus, was 10th fastest, and just a tenth quicker than Dale Coyne Racing teammate and Formula 1 exile Romain Grosjean.
| RANK | CAR NO. | DRIVER | TEAM | QUICK LAP | DIFF. | TOTAL LAPS |
| 1 | 21 | Rinus VeeKay | Ed Carpenter Racing | 66.518 | 105 | |
| 2 | 14 | Sebastien Bourdais | A.J. Foyt Racing | 66.633 | -0.115 | 107 |
| 3 | 15 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 66.721 | -0.203 | 141 |
| 4 | 12 | Will Power | Team Penske | 66.902 | -0.384 | 109 |
| 5 | 20 | Conor Daly | Ed Carpenter Racing | 67.021 | -0.503 | 94 |
| 6 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 67.039 | -0.521 | 54 |
| 7 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | Team Penske | 67.065 | -0.547 | 104 |
| 8 | 22 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | 67.166 | -0.648 | 107 |
| 9 | 4 | Dalton Kellett | A.J. Foyt Racing | 67.238 | -0.72 | 73 |
| 10 | 18 | Ed Jones | Dale Coyne Racing With Vasser-Sullivan | 67.388 | -0.87 | 86 |
| 11 | 30 | Takuma Sato | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 67.448 | -0.93 | 111 |
| 12 | 51 | Romain Grosjean | Dale Coyne Racing w/ Rick Ware Racing | 67.478 | -0.96 | 83 |
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About this article
| Series | IndyCar |
| Event | Barber Motorsports Park February testing |
| Author | David Malsher-Lopez |
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