NOLA IndyCar: Will Power and Penske lead rain-hit session

Afternoon thunderstorms pushed the green flag back more than an hour, and even then running time was limited as track workers scrambled to remove standing water.

Aside from a couple of early exploratory laps from James Jakes and Marco Andretti, drivers only really had 10 minutes right at the end to get any meaningful track time.

Speeds increased steadily with the formation of a dry line, and Andretti's early benchmark in the 1m23s range was beaten nine times before Power finally claimed first place with a 1m20.1704s.

Ryan Hunter-Reay was second-fastest with a time 0.1 seconds down on the reigning champion's, with Simon Pagenaud and rookie Stefano Coletti rounding out the top four.

However the patchy conditions meant that several drivers limited themselves to no more than a couple of laps, and several opted not to go out at all.

That roster included all three of the Ganassi cars, as well as both Dale Coyne Racing entries and CFH's Josef Newgarden.

"We didn't know how much we were going to learn there, running 3.0s off the pace," said CGR owner Chip Ganassi.

Teams have one final practice session scheduled for Saturday before qualifying later in the afternoon.

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