Texas IndyCar; Juan Pablo Montoya and Graham Rahal tie in practice

Montoya was given first place honours by virtue of having posted his lap first.

The Team Penske driver rattled off a 215.002mph average with his second lap, with Rahal matching him just a few minutes later.

The dead heat set the tone for a session that ended with the top seven drivers covered by just 0.1s.

BHA rookie Gabby Chaves finished up third-fastest ahead of Tony Kanaan, leaving Ryan Hunter-Reay - whose start to the day was hampered by a crash in opening practice - to round out the top five.

Polesitter Will Power finished up 11th-fastest, while last year's race winner Ed Carpenter continued to struggle with his handling and ended the evening down in 22nd.

"We know how to make the cars go fast," he said after qualifying a disappointing 15th earlier in the day.

"However, it's hard to do that when the car does not handle well as well as we know it can. We have to figure out how to make this new car work with this new package."