Just four days removed from his Lap 1 crash during the season opener at Barber Motorsports Park, Josef Newgarden and the No. 2 Team Penske machine went to the top of the charts in the first NTT IndyCar Series practice of the weekend. Newgarden put the No. 2 Team Penske Chevy first with a time of 1.00.8029 and 106.574 mph ahead of his Team Penske teammate Will Power.
“We definitely have an opportunity,” Newgarden said about pacing practice. “We’re here. We have a good chance with this crew all the time. I always feel confident every race. Yeah, it was a decent start for us. I think we need to be better in some areas. I also conversely think we improved in some other areas where we were weak last year. We’ve made improvements. We need to make probably a little bit more to try to stay on top, but we definitely got a shot.”
While Newgarden certainly started off the weekend on the right foot, he knows the race win isn’t a given as the Top 10 spots were separated by a second in one of the most competitive practice sessions IndyCar has seen in quite some time.
“No apprehension was observed,” Newgarden added about the competitive practice. “I think they’ve been pretty quick to get on it. I didn’t see anybody taking it easy. Typically tight in INDYCAR. It was no different today. I think the track was really high grip, honestly, more so than what I was expecting. That’s probably what brought the times tighter. Normally when it grips up, we get really close as far as the entire pack. Yeah, it’s going to be tough. You got to be on it. Can’t make even the littlest mistake. That can set you back pretty far.”
There were a few notables that occurred during the session. First, the start was delayed due to a timing/scoring issue which caused the clock to stop with 39 minutes remaining. Eventually, practice resumed and saw a couple of cars go off track, most notably the No. 14 of Sebastien Bourdais who went off track in the Turn 10 runoff area. Bourdais tried getting his A.J. Foyt Racing machine refired, but the car stalled out causing a red flag. He was given a five-minute time penalty for bringing out the red in the closing moments.
Will Power, Colton Herta, Alexander Rossi, Simon Pagenaud, Scott Dixon, Felix Rosenqvist, Scott McLaughlin, Pato O’Ward, and Graham Rahal rounded out the Top 10. Last week’s winner Alex Palou finished the session in 20th.
The NTT IndyCar Series will be back in action Saturday morning with the final practice session scheduled at 9:45 a.m./ET and qualifying scheduled for 1:45 p.m. ET, all live on Peacock with a subscription.
Practice One Results
- Josef Newgarden
- Will Power
- Colton Herta
- Alexander Rossi
- Simon Pagenaud
- Scott Dixon
- Felix Rosenqvist
- Scott McLaughlin
- Pato O’Ward
- Graham Rahal
- Marcus Ericsson
- Rinus VeeKay
- Ryan Hunter-Reay
- Sebastien Bourdais
- Jack Harvey
- Conor Daly
- James Hinchcliffe
- Takuma Sato
- Romain Grosjean
- Alex Palou
- Ed Jones
- Max Chilton
- Dalton Kellett
- Jimmie Johnson
