Following the Team Penske dominance at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, many people predicted that we’d see more of the same this weekend at NOLA Motorsports Park. However, so far it looks as though Chip Ganassi Racing has the upper-hand.
Tony Kanaan would top the first practice with a lap of one minute and 18.8753 seconds as he searches for his seventh podium in nine races following a third place finish at St. Pete.
Will Power, who dominated practice at St. Pete and finished second, would time in second quickest. The Team Penske driver was about five hundreths off of Kanaan. Kanaan’s Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon was third quickest, followed by KV Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais and Simon Pagenaud.
Josef Newgarden and Sage Karam was sixth and seventh, giving Chevrolet a sweep of the top seven spots. The new manufacture aerodynamic kits debuted at St. Petersburg, with Chevrolet sweeping the top six spots in the field. James Hinchcliffe was eighth in his Honda, followed by Gabby Chaves and St. Petersburg race winner Juan Pablo Montoya.
With drivers experiencing the NOLA Motorsports Park course for the first time, there were a total of six red flags during the session for incidents. Jack Hawksworth, who timed in 23rd, stopped in turn three. Francesco Dracone, who timed in 24th, spun exiting Turn 5. Carlos Huertas, who is aiming for a good finish after mechanical issues at St. Petersburg, spun exiting turn two, with Luca Filippi narrowly avoided him. Hinchcliffe would spin on the exit of turn five, while Dixon spun exiting turn one.
Stefano Coletti also had a wild ride through the gravel exiting Turn 6, did not cause any significant damage to his car.
The Verizon IndyCar Series teams will get another practice this afternoon, before qualifying takes place on Saturday for Sunday’s race.
