Kimball tops afternoon test session at TMS

Charlie Kimball

Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing's Charlie Kimball gave the Ganassi organization and Honda a session sweep of the fastest laps during Monday's IZOD IndyCar Series open test at Texas Motor Speedway.

Kimball ran a lap of 211.330 miles per hour in the No. 83 Novo Nordisk Honda to take the top honors in the afternoon session and second overall to Target Chip Ganassi's Scott Dixon. Dixon (No. 9 Target Honda), who was second to Kimball in the afternoon at 211.330 mph , was the only driver on the day to surpass 212 mph with his morning-session lap of 212.371 mph.

Defending IZOD IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti (No. 10 Target Honda) gave Ganassi the top- three spots in the afternoon with a lap of 210.525 mph. Team Penske's Will Power (No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet) was fourth at 210.367 mph and another Ganassi entry – Graham Rahal (No. 38 Service Central Honda) – was fifth at 210.011 mph.

The teams ran a combined 836 laps in the afternoon session, led by 112 by Franchitti. Overall, the teams ran 1,172 laps on the 1.5-mile oval with Power pacing the field with 137.

INDYCAR closed out the final session with some pack racing involving three to four cars, with the most active during this stint being Team Penske and Target Chip Ganassi Racing drivers.

"This track, it’s funny," said Penske Racing's Ryan Briscoe, who ran in those late-session pack stints. "It can be a pack race and then conditions change and you look at the race in 2010 and we were lifting through half the stint then. But conditions today were good and it was hard to do a full stint on tires. So I think that’s a positive note."

Combined Results