ELKHART LAKE, Wisconsin – As Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden continues to search for his first NTT IndyCar Series victory of the season, the 2018 Road America race winner was fastest in Saturday morning’s practice session with a time of 1:45.3399 around the 4.014-mile permanent road course.
Newgarden drives the No. 2 Hitachi Chevrolet.
“I think the speeds fall off, that’s a good key word for this weekend,” Newgarden said. “There is a big grip drop-off. It’s challenging. The grip came up a lot with the conditions. I think it will be interesting in qualifying to see what the people choose tire-wise. It will be fascinating.
“It’s been hard this weekend just to get the grip out of the car. We will see this afternoon. I love a wide entry, but the hard thing is this place will bite you. If you make a mistake here, it will end bad. I love Road America.”
PRACTICE RESULTS: Rev Group Grand Prix Second Practice
The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion was followed by Colton Herta’s No. 26 Gainbridge Honda at 1:45.4730, Graham Rahal’s No. 15 Gehl/Manitou Honda at 1:45.6515, and Romain Grosjean’s 1:47.770 in the No. 51 Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda.
Second-year IndyCar Series driver Oliver Askew rounded out the top five at 1:45.7953 in the No. 21 Sonax Chevrolet.
Scott Dixon’s No. 9 PNC Bank Honda was damaged, sending the crew back to the paddock to repair the damaged pieces on the car. Dixon is a two-time Road America winner, including 2020, when he won the first leg of a weekend doubleheader.
“We did our second run and there was some debris in the carousel that destroyed the underwing,” Dixon said. “There isn’t anything we can do until we chance the front wing or the underwing, so we’re done.
“We will be going into qualifying a little bit blind. It was our first go on a new set of Firestone Blacks. The time would have been respectable until we broke that. It’s frustrating.”
Dixon’s team was able to quickly repair the car and send him back on track with three minutes left on a set of Firestone Reds. Dixon finished 22nd out of 25 drivers.
“I just needed more time,” Dixon said. “It’s frustrating with how compact these weekends are. You can’t afford to fall behind. It depends on how conservative you are in the first lap, the gains are pretty big. I wouldn’t say we look stellar across the team, but hopefully we can improve the car.”
NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Cody Ware, making his NTT IndyCar Series debut, spun out and drove off course in turn 12 just nine minutes into the session. He was able to get his No. 52 Honda refired and return to the track four minutes later, but was assessed a five-minute time penalty for bringing out the red flag.
With 12 minutes left in the session, fill-in driver Oliver Askew jumped to the top of the timing list with a lap at 1:45.8782. Askew is filling in for injured driver Rinus VeeKay, who suffered a broken clavicle in a cycling crash on Monday.
Newgarden, however, quickly reasserted himself to the top spot at 1:45.7953 in the No. 2 Chevrolet.
Bourdais raced his way into the top three with less than seven minutes to go, a much-needed boost of speed for the driver at AJ Foyt Racing.
It was quite busy at the end of the session, with 23 of the 25 cars entered in the race on the track at the same time.