Pagenaud leads opening practice

Simon Pagenaud

Team Penske's Simon Pagenaud put the #22 Avaya Chevrolet atop the time charts in practice today for the Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway. With a lap of 216.172 mph, the Frenchman nipped teammate Will Power by a mere five-thousandths of a second. Takuma Sato was the fastest Honda in third.

Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon rounded out the top-five.

Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay crashed midway through the session. The 2012 series champion was checked, cleared and released from the infield care center, but did not turn any other laps. No word yet on whether the Andretti team will need to go to a backup car.

Next up for the Verizon IndyCar Series will be pole qualifying, scheduled to be at 4:15 p.m. ET.

Results:

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	FSpeed	Engine
1	22	Simon Pagenaud	24.231	0.000	0.000	44	46	37.744	46	216.172	Chevy
2	1	Will Power	24.236	0.0052	0.0052	45	50	38.617	47	216.126	Chevy
3	14	Takuma Sato	24.241	0.0106	0.0054	25	26	24.626	22	216.078	Honda
4	10	Tony Kanaan	24.285	0.0547	0.0441	5	35	38.258	35	215.685	Chevy
5	9	Scott Dixon	24.327	0.0966	0.0419	4	46	38.518	46	215.314	Chevy
6	3	Helio Castroneves	24.332	0.1010	0.0044	4	39	37.309	39	215.275	Chevy
7	15	Graham Rahal	24.344	0.1129	0.0119	30	31	37.889	31	215.169	Honda
8	19	Tristan Vautier	24.377	0.1459	0.0330	51	52	24.383	48	214.878	Honda
9	27	Marco Andretti	24.379	0.1480	0.0021	4	28	40.319	28	214.860	Honda
10	26	Carlos Munoz	24.399	0.1686	0.0206	4	22	38.614	22	214.678	Honda
11	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	24.457	0.2265	0.0579	5	17	25.226	15	214.170	Honda
12	83	Charlie Kimball	24.466	0.2351	0.0086	4	41	36.908	41	214.095	Chevy
13	8	Sage Karam	24.535	0.3041	0.0690	50	52	24.752	47	213.493	Chevy
14	7	James Jakes	24.540	0.3095	0.0054	10	43	25.101	39	213.446	Honda
15	11	Sebastien Bourdais	24.548	0.3175	0.0080	6	31	44.449	31	213.376	Chevy
16	2	Juan Pablo Montoya	24.553	0.3225	0.0050	5	37	38.204	37	213.333	Chevy
17	5	Ryan Briscoe	24.562	0.3309	0.0084	31	43	25.355	27	213.260	Honda
18	18	Pippa Mann	24.704	0.4730	0.1421	22	54	25.952	52	212.033	Honda
19	41	Jack Hawksworth	24.710	0.4796	0.0066	24	37	25.125	32	211.976	Honda
20	4	Stefano Coletti	24.750	0.5192	0.0396	19	25	25.377	23	211.637	Chevy
21	98	Gabby Chaves	24.827	0.5967	0.0775	7	46	25.332	40	210.977	Honda
22	20	Ed Carpenter	24.858	0.6274	0.0307	5	27	25.313	18	210.716	Chevy
23	67	Josef Newgarden	24.860	0.6292	0.0018	5	47	38.248	47	210.701	Chevy