Iowa IndyCar: Josef Newgarden heads Penske 1-2-3 in practice
Josef Newgarden headed a Penske 1-2-3 in the IndyCar practice session at Iowa, beating Will Power and Simon Pagenaud to the fastest time
Newgarden clocked in a 17.3397s lap (185.609mph) with seven minutes of the session to go, as the field started to run in qualifying trim in the latter stages.
Power wound up just 0.0326 seconds down on Newgarden, as Pagenaud joined his Penske team-mates in the top three - with just two minutes of the session to go - with a 17.4533s lap.
The top four was occupied exclusively by Chevrolet-powered cars, as Ed Carpenter's 17.4783s lap from early on in the session held strong among the qualifying runs.
Marco Andretti was the fastest of the Honda runners in fifth, ahead of Tony Kanaan and Mikhail Aleshin, the latter of whom had been within the top three for the first hour.
Alexander Rossi was eighth fastest, beating fellow Honda runners James Hinchcliffe and Graham Rahal, who ensured that the top 10 was covered by less than 0.2s.
Championship leader Scott Dixon was only 16th fastest, having been forced to miss the final 20 minutes of the session as a penalty for a pit-lane transgressions at Road America.
Practice was extended by five minutes after JR Hildebrand lost control of his Dallara-Chevrolet towards the end of the session, hitting the wall at Turn 2 and narrowly avoiding team-mate Carpenter.
Esteban Gutierrez was 19th in his first full oval-track session during a race weekend, just under 0.4s down on Newgarden's fastest time around the 0.875-mile track.
PRACTICE TIMES:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 17.3397s | - | 47 |
| 2 | Will Power | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 17.3723s | 0.0326s | 51 |
| 3 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 17.4533s | 0.1136s | 48 |
| 4 | Ed Carpenter | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 17.4783s | 0.1386s | 47 |
| 5 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 17.4937s | 0.1540s | 50 |
| 6 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 17.5133s | 0.1736s | 36 |
| 7 | Mikhail Aleshin | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 17.5160s | 0.1763s | 40 |
| 8 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Herta | Dallara/Honda | 17.5232s | 0.1835s | 39 |
| 9 | James Hinchcliffe | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 17.5240s | 0.1843s | 49 |
| 10 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Dallara/Honda | 17.5250s | 0.1853s | 55 |
| 11 | Charlie Kimball | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 17.5621s | 0.2224s | 64 |
| 12 | Max Chilton | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 17.6044s | 0.2647s | 57 |
| 13 | Ed Jones | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 17.6267s | 0.2870s | 51 |
| 14 | Carlos Munoz | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Chevrolet | 17.6369s | 0.2972s | 60 |
| 15 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 17.6522s | 0.3125s | 60 |
| 16 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 17.6554s | 0.3157s | 36 |
| 17 | J.R. Hildebrand | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 17.6994s | 0.3597s | 51 |
| 18 | Helio Castroneves | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 17.7076s | 0.3679s | 69 |
| 19 | Esteban Gutierrez | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 17.7369s | 0.3972s | 60 |
| 20 | Takuma Sato | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 17.7555s | 0.4158s | 59 |
| 21 | Conor Daly | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Chevrolet | 17.9606s | 0.6209s | 53 |
Previous article
Formula V8 3.5 title hopeful Binder looking at 2018 IndyCar seat
Next article
Iowa IndyCar: Will Power takes pole for Penske
Indy500: Starting grid
IndyCar: Colton Herta takes victory at St. Pete
Barber IndyCar: Lap 1 Crash
Barber IndyCar: Palou wins at Birmingham
Why IndyCar’s longest silly-season is still far from over
OPINION: The 2021 IndyCar silly season has been one of the silliest for many years, as many talented drivers remain in play – with new pieces to the puzzle being added all the time. Here's what we know so far about who will end up where in 2022
Why IndyCar's generational shift isn't as stark as it appears
OPINION: The rise of two drivers racing only their second full-season IndyCar campaigns to head the points with four races to go has led to some observers doubting the credentials of the old guard. But they haven't faded away, there's merely a deeper talent pool that is helping to make this season one of the best in recent years
The F1 champion who became an Indy king in his second career
Emerson Fittipaldi’s decision to go racing with his brother led to him falling out of F1, but he bloomed again on the IndyCar scene. NIGEL ROEBUCK considers a career of two halves
The lasting legacy of a fallen Indycar rookie
Jeff Krosnoff was plucked out of obscurity to become a respected and highly popular professional in Japan, and then got his big break in Indycar for 1996. But a tragic accident at Toronto 25 years ago cut short a promising career and curtailed his regular team-mate Mauro Martini's passion for racing
The two key areas where Dixon needs to re-assert his authority
OPINION: Having been Chip Ganassi Racing's IndyCar focal point for the best part of a decade, Scott Dixon has been so far outgunned by new team-mate Alex Palou in 2021. After finishing behind the Spaniard at his traditional happy hunting ground at Mid-Ohio, Dixon has work to do to assume his traditional position in the team and the standings
The winners and losers of IndyCar 2021 so far
At the halfway point in the 2021 IndyCar Series season, we've had seven winners in eight races, spread between five teams – none of them Team Penske. In this unusual season, even by IndyCar standards, who’s excelling and who’s dragging their heels?
Castroneves: How I kept it under control to make Indy 500 history
Helio Castroneves’ overwhelming vivaciousness outside the cockpit belies a hardcore racer who knows how to plot his moves – and then recall it all. A day after his fourth Indy 500 win, he explained his tactics
How 'chess master' Castroneves cemented his Indy legend status
Helio Castroneves joined AJ Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears with the most Indianapolis 500 wins after edging past Alex Palou on the penultimate lap of a thrilling race that validated Michael Shank's faith in the veteran Brazilian - who is discovering that there is life after Penske after all
