Kimball tops night IndyCar practice in Phoenix

Kimball leads Andretti in night practice
Kimball leads Andretti in night practice

Charlie Kimball topped the second and final practice session for the second race of the 2018 IndyCar season, which is the Desert Diamond West Valley Casino Phoenix Grand Prix at ISM Raceway in Avondale, Arizona.

Kimball posted a top lap speed of 179.797 miles per hour (20.4631 second) around the four-turn, 1.022-mile dogleg oval in his #23 Chevrolet for Carlin Motorsport. He is set to start tomorrow night’s race way back in 22nd place after a lackluster qualifying run.

Despite all the rubber laid down to try and develop a 2nd groove, none has developed and the race will be single file lap after lap after lap. The only saving grace might be when the tires wear and the drivers start to lose control of their cars. Assuming they back out of the throttle and don't plaster the wall with expensive carbon fiber, we could see some passing.

We expect this to happen as the lower downforce cars separate the talented from the wankers.

Results

Pos No Name FTime Diff Gap FSpeed Engine Team
1 23 Charlie Kimball 20.463 –.—- –.—- 179.797 Chevy Carlin
2 9 Scott Dixon 20.554 0.0908 0.0908 179.003 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing Teams
3 14 Tony Kanaan 20.587 0.1240 0.0332 178.714 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
4 27 Alexander Rossi 20.642 0.1794 0.0554 178.234 Honda Andretti Autosport
5 88 Gabby Chaves 20.770 0.3067 0.1273 177.142 Chevy Harding Racing
6 1 Josef Newgarden 20.786 0.3231 0.0164 177.002 Chevy Team Penske
7 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay 20.806 0.3432 0.0201 176.831 Honda Andretti Autosport
8 98 Marco Andretti 20.811 0.3474 0.0042 176.795 Honda Andretti Autosport
9 15 Graham Rahal 20.827 0.3638 0.0164 176.656 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan
10 30 Takuma Sato 20.848 0.3850 0.0212 176.477 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan
11 20 Ed Carpenter 20.851 0.3877 0.0027 176.454 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
12 22 Simon Pagenaud 20.856 0.3932 0.0055 176.407 Chevy Team Penske
13 21 Spencer Pigot 20.903 0.4400 0.0468 176.012 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
14 5 James Hinchcliffe 20.941 0.4781 0.0381 175.692 Honda Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
15 4 Matheus Leist 20.942 0.4785 0.0004 175.689 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
16 12 Will Power 20.951 0.4880 0.0095 175.609 Chevy Team Penske
17 59 Max Chilton 20.973 0.5102 0.0222 175.423 Chevy Carlin
18 6 Robert Wickens 20.976 0.5128 0.0026 175.401 Honda Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
19 26 Zach Veach 21.004 0.5405 0.0277 175.170 Honda Andretti Autosport
20 10 Ed Jones 21.033 0.5701 0.0296 174.923 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing Teams
21 18 Sebastien Bourdais 21.131 0.6677 0.0976 174.116 Honda Dale Coyne Racing
22 32 Kyle Kaiser 21.149 0.6856 0.0179 173.968 Chevy Juncos Racing
23 19 Pietro Fittipaldi 21.360 0.8970 0.2114 172.246 Honda Dale Coyne Racing