IndyCar: Briscoe leads Honda 1-2 in opening practice at Fontana

Ryan Briscoe

It was a good start to the race weekend at Auto Club Speedway for Ryan Briscoe, who will make his third start at the 2-mile, D-shaped oval in the MAVTV 500 on June 27.

Briscoe, driving the No. 5 Arrow/Lucas Oil Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda, topped the speed chart in the first practice session for the 500-mile race with a lap of 217.451 mph (33.1109 seconds).

“With these aero kits, everyone is running different levels of downforce, which mixes it up a little bit more," said Briscoe, who is filling in on ovals for the injured James Hinchcliffe. “I’m happy with the car.

“It’s such a long race and so many lanes to choose from I think the goal has to be having a good race car. Hopefully we’re decent in qualifying, but it’s not the end of the world if we’re not."

A 75-minute practice session at 12:45 p.m. (Pacific) precedes single-car qualifications at 4:45 p.m. Watch the on-track action, augmented by real-time Timing & Scoring and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network broadcast, on racecontrol.indycar.com.

Honda-powered cars claimed the topo two spots as Marco Andretti posted a best lap of 217.316 mph in the No. 27 Snapple Andretti Autosport entry.

Four different teams were represented in the top five of the lap speeds. Simon Pagenaud (217.134 mph) of Team Penske was third, Charlie Kimball (217.016) was fourth and 2014 race winner Tony Kanaan (216.975) was fifth.

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