After five hours of solid testing time at The Thermal Club, two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing was the fastest in both sessions on Friday.
Palou finished the second session with a time at 1:39.3373 around the 17-turn, 3.067-mile road course located near Palm Springs, Calif. Palou drives the No. 10 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing and is a two-time NTT IndyCar Series and defending champion.
Felix Rosenqvist of Meyer-Shank Racing was second in the No. 60 SiriusXM Honda at 1:39.7802 as Honda swept the top two positions.
Click to see the full test session results.
Romain Grosjean was third in a Chevrolet at 1:40.1490 driving the No. 77 for Juncos Hollinger Racing. Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing was third at 1:40.2244 in the No. 21 Chevrolet with Christian Lundgaard rounding out the top five at 1:40.2914 in the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda.
There were eight cars on track with three minutes remaining as several drivers attempted to knock Palou’s time off the top of the scoring monitor. But with the sun setting, Palou’s time held up.
Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin was 10th in the second test session at 1:40.5823 in the No. 3 Chevrolet and explained why two full days of testing is important for more than Sunday’s $1 Million Challenge.
“We want to chase that big money check, but ultimately this is a bit deal to get some track time in between events,” Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin said. “We are trying a few different things with the front, what I want with the front of the car. It’s really hard at this track because you have low-speed corners and high-speed corners.
“To make the car work on both is really hard, but that is what we are doing. We need to look after the tires in Sunday’s race. Hopefully, we put on a great show. It’s IndyCar. We always do.”
It was much hotter in Friday’s second IndyCar Series test session in Thermal, Calif. The three-hour session ran from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time and proved to be valuable for the IndyCar teams to test for other races on the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series schedule.
“We went out early to try and get some clean laps in Friday’s first session,” Palou said of his time in the first test session. “We want to focus on the race we have this weekend, but at the same time it’s an opportunity to take today and some of Saturday as a test day to make changes.
“It’s good, it’s exciting and it’s great we are here racing.”
It was the first of two days of testing before IndyCar’s first All-Star event since the Marlboro Challenge at Nazareth Raceway in Pennsylvania on Oct. 3, 1992. It is also the first non-points race on the IndyCar schedule since the Nikon Indy 300 at Surfer’s Paradise, Queensland, Australia, on October 26, 2008.
The Thermal Club is a private community for the ultra-rich near Palm Springs, Calif. Many of its members are motorsports enthusiasts and was the home to last year’s IndyCar Preseason Open Test.
“This place is pretty track temperature sensitive, and we are out here just for the sake of being out here and don’t plan to be out there in this session for long,” Alexander Rossi said. “It’s hotter in the car, but we don’t have the load and peak grip going through our body anymore.
“This is one of the bumpier permanent road courses we go to so we can learn a bit about our package for future events and make sure the damper program is progressing in the right direction.”
Saturday’s schedule calls for more testing beginning at noon (ET), but the day’s schedule will conclude with qualifications for Sunday’s two heat races as part of the $1 Million Challenge. Saturday’s qualifications begin at 8 p.m. (ET).