IndyCar: Newgarden over Rossi in 2nd St. Pete GP practice

Josef Newgarden, gunning for his third straight victory on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, turned the fastest lap in final practice ahead of qualifying for the Firestone GP of St. Petersburg in his #2 Penske Chevy.

Newgarden’s lap of 1m0.0622s beat the #27 Andretti Honda of Alexander Rossi by 0.1127s.

Jack Harvey was 3rd quick in the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda0.157s back.

Colton Herta in the #26 Andretti Honda was 4th just a tad slower 0.1594s behind Newgarden while Marcus Ericsson rounded out the top-5 in the #8 Ganassi Honda.

Slowest again, and completely out to lunch, was 7-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, 2.2s off the pace in an otherwise tightly bunched field. NASCAR, which touts their drivers as the greatest in the world, had best stop saying that.

Practice 2 Results

Pos	No	Name	Time	Diff	Gap	Laps	Speed	Engine	Team
1	2	Josef Newgarden	1m00.0622s	0.000	0.000	23	107.888	Chevy	Team Penske
2	27	Alexander Rossi	1m00.1749s	0.1127	0.1127	23	107.686	Honda	Andretti Autosport
3	60	Jack Harvey	1m00.2192s	0.1570	0.0443	21	107.607	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
4	26	Colton Herta	1m00.2216s	0.1594	0.0024	26	107.603	Honda	Andretti Autosport
5	8	Marcus Ericsson	1m00.2219s	0.1597	0.0003	27	107.602	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
6	22	Simon Pagenaud	1m00.2735s	0.2113	0.0516	28	107.510	Chevy	Team Penske
7	3	Scott McLaughlin	1m00.3003s	0.2381	0.0268	28	107.462	Chevy	Team Penske
8	9	Scott Dixon	1m00.3262s	0.2640	0.0259	29	107.416	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
9	51	Romain Grosjean	1m00.4198s	0.3576	0.0936	24	107.250	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/Rick Ware Racing
10	5	Pato O’Ward	1m00.4797s	0.4175	0.0599	25	107.143	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
11	10	Alex Palou	1m00.5076s	0.4454	0.0279	29	107.094	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
12	7	Felix Rosenqvist	1m00.6291s	0.5669	0.1215	21	106.879	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
13	12	Will Power	1m00.6489s	0.5867	0.0198	24	106.844	Chevy	Team Penske
14	20	Conor Daly	1m00.6998s	0.6376	0.0509	25	106.755	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
15	29	James Hinchcliffe	1m00.7019s	0.6397	0.0021	21	106.751	Honda	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
16	14	Sebastien Bourdais	1m00.7074s	0.6452	0.0055	27	106.742	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
17	21	Rinus VeeKay	1m00.7098s	0.6476	0.0024	27	106.737	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
18	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	1m00.7160s	0.6538	0.0062	25	106.726	Honda	Andretti Autosport
19	15	Graham Rahal	1m00.7304s	0.6682	0.0144	28	106.701	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
20	30	Takuma Sato	1m00.8908s	0.8286	0.1604	30	106.420	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
21	4	Dalton Kellett	1m01.2766s	1.2144	0.3858	19	105.750	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
22	18	Ed Jones	1m01.6716s	1.6094	0.3950	24	105.073	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan
23	59	Max Chilton	1m01.7157s	1.6535	0.0441	23	104.998	Chevy	Carlin
24	48	Jimmie Johnson	1m02.3598s	2.2976	0.6441	26	103.913	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing