In a continuing trend for the Verizon IndyCar Series this year, Team Penske swept the top-three, and four of the top-five spots in practice for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Will Power would top the charts with a lap of one minute and 7.5485 seconds.
“It was pretty good,” Power said. “A lot of cars were running and laying rubber, but with the new aero kits and everything, the cars were just faster. It’s always super tight around here when it gets to qualifying. The top six are usually separated by about a tenth and a half (of a second) or something.”
Power has been fast all season long, but found himself out of the top-five last weekend at NOLA Motorsports Park due to being caught on a different strategy when the race was called due to the time limit.
Simon Pagenaud was second quickest, four hundreths behind Power, as he tries to bounce back following a wreck on the last lap at NOLA. Helio Castroneves was third quickest, and mentioned the fact that the Chevrolet teams were thrown a curveball with the changes to the aerokits this morning. INDYCAR requested that Chevrolet add a tether to the winglet or remove it completely from the front wing assembly, while Honda was told to reinforce the rear wheel guards.
“We are all in the same boat on that and we will make the best of it,” Castroneves shared. “The four Team Penske Chevrolets are still very fast, at the top of the speed charts. We collected a lot of information in the first practice about how the downforce changed and we made some really good changes for the second session. We are still improving it and have another session tomorrow to make the No. 3 Automobile Club of Southern California Chevy better before qualifying.”
Castroneves is coming off of a runner-up finish at NOLA Motorsports Park despite contact with a lap car during the event.
Scott Dixon broke up the Team Penske party at the front, placing his Chip Ganassi Racing entry in the fourth spot. Dixon has struggled the first two events of the season despite showing speed. St. Petersburg winner Juan Pablo Montoya rounded out the top-five.
“I was really happy with the No. 2 Verizon Chevy in the first practice,” he said. “It had a lot of speed. We made a few changes for the second practice and it just didn’t respond like we hoped, but we have a pretty good car and we have something we can work with. Qualifying is going to be very important for us. We’ve made a lot of strides in that area this year and I’m confident that we can get a good starting spot tomorrow afternoon.”
Josef Newgarden was sixth, followed by Graham Rahal, Sebastien Bourdais, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Marco Andretti.
“I can’t tell you how excited I am about finally being able to drive an Indy car,” Moran Jr. said. “Dale is a dream maker and I have always dreamed of this opportunity. We just need to run a lot of miles, as I am aware of the hill I have to climb, but I love Long Beach and this truly is a dream come true for me.”
Rocky Moran Jr. was 23rd quickest as he looks to make his INDYCAR debut with Dale Coyne Racing, replacing Carlos Huertas.
