Power quickest, McLaughlin third in Iowa IndyCar practice

Will Power

Team Penske’s Will Power has gone fastest in the sole Practice session for this weekend’s Iowa IndyCar double-header.

Power headed up an all-Chevrolet top three at the end of the 90-minute session, ahead of Ed Carpenter Racing’s Conor Daly and fellow Penske driver Scott McLaughlin, with Honda’s best being Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou.

Daly’s personal-best lap, a 173.239mph (278.801km/h)/18.5778s, had him quickest after the initial runs and that was still the case when a Caution was called in the 23rd minute for a track inspection.

In fact, it took until the 70th minute for that marker to be bettered, when Power laid down a 173.285mph (278.875km/h)/18.5729s lap.

Minutes later, McLaughlin, whose only previous visit to Iowa Speedway was a test last month, made it a Penske one-three with a 173.083mph (278.550km/h)/18.5946s effort.

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Those laps were followed shortly by a second Caution, ostensibly for another track inspection, although it coincided with a fox running across the 0.875-mile tri-oval.

The green flag flew again with just over 10 minutes remaining, but the top three remained the same for the balance of proceedings.

Palou, however, crept up to fourth on a 172.764mph (278.037km/h)/18.6289s, edging Pato O’Ward to fifth after the McLaren SP driver had gone as quick as a 172.687mph (277.913km/h)/18.6372s.

Rounding out the top 10 were series leader Marcus Ericsson (Ganassi), Josef Newgarden (Penske), Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing), Jimmie Johnson (Ganassi), and last-start winner Scott Dixon (Ganassi).

Notables further back included Felix Rosenqvist (McLaren SP) in 12th, Colton Herta (Andretti Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian) in 14th, Takuma Sato (Dale Coyne Racing w/ Rick Ware Racing) in 15th, Simon Pagenaud (Meyer Shank Racing) in 17th, Helio Castroneves (MSR) in 19th, and Alexander Rossi (Andretti Autosport) in 20th.

Qualifying is a two-lap format, with drivers’ respective first laps setting the grid for Race 1 of the weekend and second laps for Race 2.

Qualifying gets underway on Sunday morning at 00:30 AEST, and Race 1 at 06:06 AEST, with both of those sessions live and ad-free on Stan Sport.

CLICK HERE for Power reaction

Results: Practice

Pos Num Driver C/E/T Fastest lap Speed (mph) Split 1st/prev Lap
1 12 Will Power D/C/F 0:18.5729 173.285 77/90
2 20 Conor Daly D/C/F 0:18.5778 173.239 0.0049/0.0049 4/93
3 3 Scott McLaughlin D/C/F 0:18.5946 173.083 0.0217/0.0168 80/103
4 10 Alex Palou D/H/F 0:18.6289 172.764 0.0560/0.0343 114/119
5 5 Pato O’Ward D/C/F 0:18.6372 172.687 0.0643/0.0083 53/106
6 8 Marcus Ericsson D/H/F 0:18.7313 171.819 0.1584/0.0941 78/81
7 2 Josef Newgarden D/C/F 0:18.7599 171.557 0.1870/0.0286 4/91
8 15 Graham Rahal D/H/F 0:18.8242 170.971 0.2513/0.0643 8/84
9 48 Jimmie Johnson D/H/F 0:18.8436 170.795 0.2707/0.0194 54/85
10 9 Scott Dixon D/H/F 0:18.8476 170.759 0.2747/0.0040 84/90
11 21 Rinus VeeKay D/C/F 0:18.8531 170.709 0.2802/0.0055 5/106
12 7 Felix Rosenqvist D/C/F 0:18.8606 170.641 0.2877/0.0075 63/102
13 45 Jack Harvey D/H/F 0:18.8918 170.360 0.3189/0.0312 103/114
14 26 Colton Herta D/H/F 0:18.9071 170.222 0.3342/0.0153 56/81
15 51 Takuma Sato D/H/F 0:18.9191 170.114 0.3462/0.0120 7/94
16 30 Christian Lundgaard D/H/F 0:18.9276 170.037 0.3547/0.0085 82/89
17 60 Simon Pagenaud D/H/F 0:18.9301 170.015 0.3572/0.0025 72/93
18 18 David Malukas D/H/F 0:18.9416 169.912 0.3687/0.0115 79/95
19 06 Helio Castroneves D/H/F 0:18.9487 169.848 0.3758/0.0071 28/92
20 27 Alexander Rossi D/H/F 0:18.9906 169.473 0.4177/0.0419 54/77
21 77 Callum Ilott D/C/F 0:19.0681 168.785 0.4952/0.0775 87/91
22 33 Ed Carpenter D/C/F 0:19.0904 168.587 0.5175/0.0223 5/77
23 28 Romain Grosjean D/H/F 0:19.1150 168.370 0.5421/0.0246 48/95
24 29 Devlin DeFrancesco D/H/F 0:19.1753 167.841 0.6024/0.0603 91/93
25 4 Dalton Kellett D/C/F 0:19.2663 167.048 0.6934/0.0910 90/91
26 14 Kyle Kirkwood D/C/F 0:19.2954 166.796 0.7225/0.0291 53/78

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