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Newgarden and Rossi top final IndyCar practice

Newgarden tops final practice
Newgarden tops final practice

Sunday's Iowa Corn 300 is run in the heat of the afternoon Sunday so this cool evening practice session after qualifying Saturday was a total waste of time, especially since the grandstands were empty. The grandstands were empty for qualifying too. NASCAR owns this track and once they bought it IndyCar attendance has dropped every year. It will eventually lead to the race dying from lack of proper promotion.

Why isn't this race still run as a night race? The fans will bake tomorrow in the afternoon sun and go home wilted.

With that said Josef Newgarden and Alexander Rossi turned near identical times to run 1-2 in the session. Scott Dixon, polesitter Will Power and Takuma Sato rounded out the top-5.

Speeds were 6 mph slower than in qualifying.

Live coverage of Sunday's Iowa Corn 300, the 11th of 17 races on the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series schedule, begins at 2 p.m. ET Sunday on NBCSN and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network that includes XM 209 and Sirius 217.

Final Practice Results

Pos No Name FTime Diff Gap Laps FSpeed Engine Team
1 1 Josef Newgarden 18.206 –.—- –.—- 58 176.772 Chevy Team Penske
2 27 Alexander Rossi 18.258 0.0518 0.0518 53 176.271 Honda Andretti Autosport
3 9 Scott Dixon 18.482 0.2759 0.2241 45 174.133 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing Teams
4 12 Will Power 18.524 0.3177 0.0418 74 173.740 Chevy Team Penske
5 30 Takuma Sato 18.622 0.4158 0.0981 54 172.825 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
6 14 Tony Kanaan 18.746 0.5399 0.1241 36 171.681 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
7 22 Simon Pagenaud 18.858 0.6512 0.1113 60 170.668 Chevy Team Penske
8 6 Robert Wickens 18.893 0.6866 0.0354 50 170.348 Honda Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
9 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay 18.923 0.7162 0.0296 41 170.081 Honda Andretti Autosport
10 5 James Hinchcliffe 18.927 0.7207 0.0045 40 170.041 Honda Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
11 23 Charlie Kimball 18.958 0.7512 0.0305 46 169.767 Chevy Carlin
12 15 Graham Rahal 18.975 0.7682 0.0170 46 169.615 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
13 26 Zach Veach 19.011 0.8043 0.0361 67 169.293 Honda Andretti Autosport
14 88 Gabby Chaves 19.023 0.8167 0.0124 31 169.183 Chevy Harding Racing
15 19 Zachary De Melo 19.026 0.8198 0.0031 35 169.155 Honda Dale Coyne Racing
16 10 Ed Jones 19.056 0.8496 0.0298 44 168.891 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing Teams
17 59 Max Chilton 19.132 0.9258 0.0762 48 168.218 Chevy Carlin
18 18 Sebastien Bourdais 19.176 0.9691 0.0433 52 167.838 Honda Dale Coyne Racing with VS
19 20 Ed Carpenter 19.226 1.0194 0.0503 33 167.399 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
20 21 Spencer Pigot 19.310 1.1034 0.0058 54 166.671 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
21 4 Matheus Leist 19.442 1.2354 0.1320 29 165.539 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
22 98 Marco Andretti 19.455 1.2483 0.0129 29 165.430 Honda Andretti Herta Autosport with CA