DETROIT — An early morning practice session at Detroit’s Belle Isle featured numerous spins, crashes and red flags.
By the time it was over, Alexander Rossi of Andretti Autosport was the fastest in the No. 27 NAPA Auto Parts/AutoNation Honda for Andretti Autosport.
He whipped around the 2.35-mile, 14-turn street course street course in 1:15.8101. Simon Pagenaud of Meyer-Shank Racing was second at 1:15.8803 in the No. 60 SiriusXM/AutoNation Honda.
Josef Newgarden of Team Penske was third in the No. 2 Chevrolet at 1:15.9118 with Meyer-Shank’s Helio Castroneves fourth in the No. 06 Honda at 1:16.0412.
Rookie David Malukas rounded out the top five at 1:16.1180 in the No. 18 Honda for Dale Coyne Racing.
The Spin Fest began just eight minutes into the session that started at 8:30 a.m. ET when David Malukas and Kyle Kirkwood went side-by-side in turn seven. Malukas entered the runoff but Kirkwood’s No. 14 Chevrolet. That brought out the red flag.
At 9:03 a.m., Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 Honda spun and stopped in turn two for a yellow.
Dalton Kellett had a hard crash in turn 13, damaging the left side of the A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet to bring out a second red flag.
At 9:28 a.m., Will Power spun in the exit of turn 12 and sopped on course for a third red flag.
With three minutes left in the session, Simon Pagenaud stopped on track in turn six.
Rossi made his flying lap in the one minute that was left when the track returned to green.