IndyCar News: Kirkwood tops Practice 1 at Road America

Andretti Global ace Kyle Kirkwood turned a lap of 1m44.9881s in his #27 Honda to top opening IndyCar practice for the XPEL GP of Road America on Friday afternoon.

American Kirkwood, winner of the last two IndyCar races, was 0.1533s faster than Canadian Devlin DeFrancesco on the #30 RLL Honda.

Will Power, driving for his job (his contract expires this year), was third quickest, in the #12 Penske Chevy, 0.19 seconds behind Kirkwood.

Josef Newgarden was 4th in the #2 Penske Chevy, 0.24s behind Kirkwood.

The Team Penske driver discussed his practice session with the media.

“The hybrid, obviously, compared to last year, we are trying to understand the weight difference. A little bit more of a lap time loss at this track relative to others because of
the distance. You’re going to see a little more lap time loss, a second and a half to last year’s would be my guess.  Just trying to understand the traits of the car, what we
need to do with the tires.”

“It is going to be hot.  We are trying to understand, not just from a personal standpoint, but also how the car reacts in the heat. The temperature is going to be a big deal. It’s normally never this sort of temperature around this place. That will be the tricky part to get right.”

Christian Lundgaard rounded out the top 5 in the #7 Arrow McLaren Chevy, 0.24s behind Kirkwood.

Most drivers did not gather much data on the alternate (red) tires because they were installed late in the session, just before Alexander Rossi went into the gravel on Turn 1, causing a red flag with five minutes remaining in the session.

XPEL Grand Prix of Road America Practice 1 Results

Lucille Dust reporting live from Road America