Power tops delayed first practice in Houston
Team Penske's Will Power claimed the honors of topping the first timesheets of the doubleheader weekend in Texas, with a time of 1:06.8320s (88.018mph) in Friday's first practice for the Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston. He topped Ganassi's Scott Dixon and Power's teammate Helio Castroneves.
Practice had originally been scheduled as a single 90-minute session on Friday morning, but the issue with the track surface at turn 1 on the 1.683-mile, 10-turn temporary street course caused a lengthy two and a half hour delay before cars got to head out at 1pm local time for the first of two separate 45-minute practice periods instead.
The session saw stoppages for Sebastian Bourdais and Josef Newgarden, and practice concluded under a third red flag for two separate incidents in turn 3 which saw Ryan Hunter-Reay jump the curb and hit the outside wall, and Justin Wilson also spinning.
Results
| Driver | Car No. | Best Time | Best Speed | Total Laps | Difference | Gap |
| Will Power | 12 | 01:06.8320 | 88.018 | 14 | –.—- | –.—- |
| Scott Dixon | 9 | 01:07.0793 | 87.693 | 12 | 0.2473 | 0.2473 |
| Helio Castroneves | 3 | 01:07.1036 | 87.661 | 13 | 0.2716 | 0.0243 |
| Ryan Hunter-Reay | 1 | 01:07.2257 | 87.502 | 9 | 0.3937 | 0.1221 |
| Justin Wilson | 19 | 01:07.3606 | 87.327 | 12 | 0.5286 | 0.1349 |
| James Jakes | 16 | 01:07.7457 | 86.831 | 13 | 0.9137 | 0.3851 |
| E.J. Viso | 5 | 01:07.7524 | 86.822 | 11 | 0.9204 | 0.0067 |
| Tony Kanaan | 11 | 01:07.8044 | 86.755 | 14 | 0.9724 | 0.0520 |
| Dario Franchitti | 10 | 01:07.9908 | 86.518 | 12 | 1.1588 | 0.1864 |
| Simon Pagenaud | 77 | 01:08.1319 | 86.338 | 8 | 1.2999 | 0.1411 |
| Simona De Silvestro | 78 | 01:08.2429 | 86.198 | 13 | 1.4109 | 0.1110 |
| Graham Rahal | 15 | 01:08.2556 | 86.182 | 11 | 1.4236 | 0.0127 |
| James Hinchcliffe | 27 | 01:08.2583 | 86.179 | 9 | 1.4263 | 0.0027 |
| Tristan Vautier | 55 | 01:08.4514 | 85.935 | 10 | 1.6194 | 0.1931 |
| Josef Newgarden | 67 | 01:08.6998 | 85.625 | 8 | 1.8678 | 0.2484 |
| Takuma Sato | 14 | 01:08.7342 | 85.582 | 11 | 1.9022 | 0.0344 |
| Oriol Servia | 4 | 01:08.8520 | 85.435 | 11 | 2.0200 | 0.1178 |
| Marco Andretti | 25 | 01:08.8861 | 85.393 | 12 | 2.0541 | 0.0341 |
| Mike Conway | 18 | 01:08.9422 | 85.324 | 12 | 2.1102 | 0.0561 |
| Luca Filippi | 98 | 01:09.0483 | 85.193 | 10 | 2.2163 | 0.1061 |
| Sebastian Saavedra | 6 | 01:09.0786 | 85.155 | 13 | 2.2466 | 0.0303 |
| Charlie Kimball | 83 | 01:09.7845 | 84.294 | 9 | 2.9525 | 0.7059 |
| Ed Carpenter | 20 | 01:09.8915 | 84.165 | 10 | 3.0595 | 0.1070 |
| Sebastien Bourdais | 7 | 01:14.1989 | 79.279 | 4 | 7.3669 | 4.3074 |