Kimball tops night IndyCar practice in Phoenix

Kimball leads Andretti in night practice

Charlie Kimball topped the second and final practice session for the second race of the 2018 IndyCar season, which is the Desert Diamond West Valley Casino Phoenix Grand Prix at ISM Raceway in Avondale, Arizona.

Kimball posted a top lap speed of 179.797 miles per hour (20.4631 second) around the four-turn, 1.022-mile dogleg oval in his #23 Chevrolet for Carlin Motorsport. He is set to start tomorrow night’s race way back in 22nd place after a lackluster qualifying run.

Despite all the rubber laid down to try and develop a 2nd groove, none has developed and the race will be single file lap after lap after lap. The only saving grace might be when the tires wear and the drivers start to lose control of their cars. Assuming they back out of the throttle and don't plaster the wall with expensive carbon fiber, we could see some passing.

We expect this to happen as the lower downforce cars separate the talented from the wankers.

Results

Pos	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FSpeed	Engine	Team
1	23	Charlie Kimball	20.463	–.—-	–.—-	179.797	Chevy	Carlin
2	9	Scott Dixon	20.554	0.0908	0.0908	179.003	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing Teams
3	14	Tony Kanaan	20.587	0.1240	0.0332	178.714	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
4	27	Alexander Rossi	20.642	0.1794	0.0554	178.234	Honda	Andretti Autosport
5	88	Gabby Chaves	20.770	0.3067	0.1273	177.142	Chevy	Harding Racing
6	1	Josef Newgarden	20.786	0.3231	0.0164	177.002	Chevy	Team Penske
7	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	20.806	0.3432	0.0201	176.831	Honda	Andretti Autosport
8	98	Marco Andretti	20.811	0.3474	0.0042	176.795	Honda	Andretti Autosport
9	15	Graham Rahal	20.827	0.3638	0.0164	176.656	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan
10	30	Takuma Sato	20.848	0.3850	0.0212	176.477	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan
11	20	Ed Carpenter	20.851	0.3877	0.0027	176.454	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
12	22	Simon Pagenaud	20.856	0.3932	0.0055	176.407	Chevy	Team Penske
13	21	Spencer Pigot	20.903	0.4400	0.0468	176.012	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
14	5	James Hinchcliffe	20.941	0.4781	0.0381	175.692	Honda	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
15	4	Matheus Leist	20.942	0.4785	0.0004	175.689	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
16	12	Will Power	20.951	0.4880	0.0095	175.609	Chevy	Team Penske
17	59	Max Chilton	20.973	0.5102	0.0222	175.423	Chevy	Carlin
18	6	Robert Wickens	20.976	0.5128	0.0026	175.401	Honda	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
19	26	Zach Veach	21.004	0.5405	0.0277	175.170	Honda	Andretti Autosport
20	10	Ed Jones	21.033	0.5701	0.0296	174.923	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing Teams
21	18	Sebastien Bourdais	21.131	0.6677	0.0976	174.116	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing
22	32	Kyle Kaiser	21.149	0.6856	0.0179	173.968	Chevy	Juncos Racing
23	19	Pietro Fittipaldi	21.360	0.8970	0.2114	172.246	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing