IndyCar: Kirkwood Leads First Practice Session in Belle Isle

Kyle Kirkwood, driver of the no 14 ROKIT AJ Foyt Racing entry, led the field in the first practice session of the weekend with a time of 1:16:345. The American is doing double duty this weekend, racing the no 17 Seal Master Vasser-Sullivan, in the Weathertech Sportscar Series race.

Pato O’Ward, driver of the no 5 Arrow McLaren SP entry, was second fastest with a time of 1:16:1556.

Alexander Rossi, driving the no 27 NAPA Auto Parts/AutoNation Andretti Autosport entry, was third fastest with a time of 1:16:5146.

Simon Pagenaud and Marcus Ericsson followed with the fourth and fifth fastest in the session.

The 60-minute practice session was marred by crashes and a red flag this afternoon as the NTT INDYCAR Series drivers hit the bumpy circuit for the first time this weekend.

The session was delayed briefly to allow the Indy Lights teams to clear their equipment from the pit lane. 45 minutes of practice time was guaranteed in the 60-minute window.

Five minutes after the green flag dropped, Dalton Kellett, driver of the no 4 K-Line AJ Foyt Racing entry, stopped on course in Turn 5. The Canadian driver, who was already been issued a five-gird spot penalty for an unapproved engine change for the Indy 500, had a five-minute penalty in this session for causing the red flag.

15 minutes after going back to green, Felix Rosenqvist, driver of the no 7 Vuse Arrow McLaren SP entry, made contact also in turn 2. IndyCar has cleared him to drive this weekend. The Swede had an awful crash here last year, which took him out of contention for the remainder of the 2021 season.

Simon Pagenaud, driver of the no 60 AutoNation/Sirius XM Meyer Shank Racing entry, also received a penalty of five minutes because his machine stalled on track.

Practice 1 Results

Pos	No	Name	Time	Diff	Gap	Laps	Speed	Engine	Team
1	14	Kyle Kirkwood	1:16.1345	0.000	0.000	20	111.119	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
2	5	Pato O’Ward	1:16.1556	0.0211	0.0211	13	111.088	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
3	27	Alexander Rossi	1:16.5146	0.3801	0.3590	14	110.567	Honda	Andretti Autosport
4	60	Simon Pagenaud	1:16.6177	0.4832	0.1031	13	110.418	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
5	8	Marcus Ericsson	1:16.6574	0.5229	0.0397	14	110.361	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
6	26	Colton Herta	1:16.6992	0.5647	0.0418	16	110.301	Honda	Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
7	06	Helio Castroneves	1:16.8230	0.6885	0.1238	17	110.123	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
8	3	Scott McLaughlin	1:16.9552	0.8207	0.1322	19	109.934	Chevy	Team Penske
9	28	Romain Grosjean	1:17.0272	0.8927	0.0720	19	109.831	Honda	Andretti Autosport
10	9	Scott Dixon	1:17.1444	1.0099	0.1172	13	109.664	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
11	51	Takuma Sato	1:17.2187	1.0842	0.0743	17	109.559	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
12	10	Alex Palou	1:17.2524	1.1179	0.0337	15	109.511	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
13	29	Devlin DeFrancesco	1:17.3088	1.1743	0.0564	22	109.431	Honda	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
14	12	Will Power	1:17.4831	1.3486	0.1743	20	109.185	Chevy	Team Penske
15	21	Rinus VeeKay	1:17.4948	1.3603	0.0117	11	109.169	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
16	2	Josef Newgarden	1:17.5562	1.4217	0.0614	19	109.082	Chevy	Team Penske
17	18	David Malukas	1:17.6107	1.4762	0.0545	17	109.006	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
18	30	Christian Lundgaard	1:17.6968	1.5623	0.0861	20	108.885	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
19	15	Graham Rahal	1:17.7188	1.5843	0.0220	21	108.854	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
20	45	Jack Harvey	1:18.2212	2.0867	0.5024	18	108.155	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
21	20	Conor Daly	1:18.2984	2.1639	0.0772	16	108.048	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
22	4	Dalton Kellett	1:18.4071	2.2726	0.1087	14	107.898	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
23	77	Santino Ferrucci	1:19.3177	3.1832	0.9106	17	106.660	Chevy	Juncos Hollinger Racing
24	11	Tatiana Calderon	1:19.4001	3.2656	0.0824	22	106.549	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
25	48	Jimmie Johnson	1:19.5794	3.4449	0.1793	23	106.309	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
26	7	Felix Rosenqvist	1:21.6946	5.5601	2.1152	2	103.556	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP

Lucille Dust reporting live from Detroit