Russian driver Aleshin tops opening practice at Pocono
In a session interrupted by three crashes for Ryan Hunter-Reay, Charlie Kimball and Juan Montoya, Russian driver Mikhail Aleshin turned a lap of 221.932 mph to lead opening practice for the ABC Supply 500 at Pocono.
Four of the top-5 cars were Hondas, which only happens on the superspeedways where the Chevys are towing the same parachute as the Hondas.
James Hinchcliffe was 2nd quick at 220.290 mph in another Honda.
Rookie Alexander Rossi was the fastest of the Andretti Autosport quartet in 4th at just under 220 mph while his teammate Carlos Munoz rounded out the top-5.
The usual top runners of the Penske and Ganassi teams struggled to find speed as they are not used to towing the parachute the Honda drivers are forced to tow every race.
Results
Rank | Car | Driver Name | Make | Time | Speed | Diff | Gap | Best Lap | Total Laps |
1 | 7 | Aleshin, Mikhail | Honda | 00:40.5530 | 221.932 | –.—- | –.—- | 4 | 27 |
2 | 5 | Hinchcliffe, James | Honda | 00:40.8553 | 220.290 | 0.3023 | 0.3023 | 24 | 36 |
3 | 21 | Newgarden, Josef | Chevy | 00:40.8794 | 220.160 | 0.3264 | 0.0241 | 29 | 33 |
4 | 98 | Rossi, Alexander (R) | Honda | 00:40.9227 | 219.927 | 0.3697 | 0.0433 | 24 | 26 |
5 | 26 | Munoz, Carlos | Honda | 00:40.9240 | 219.920 | 0.3710 | 0.0013 | 5 | 24 |
6 | 12 | Power, Will | Chevy | 00:41.0186 | 219.413 | 0.4656 | 0.0946 | 47 | 49 |
7 | 10 | Kanaan, Tony | Chevy | 00:41.1427 | 218.751 | 0.5897 | 0.1241 | 24 | 25 |
8 | 83 | Kimball, Charlie | Chevy | 00:41.1669 | 218.622 | 0.6139 | 0.0242 | 12 | 30 |
9 | 2 | Montoya, Juan Pablo | Chevy | 00:41.1725 | 218.593 | 0.6195 | 0.0056 | 37 | 39 |
10 | 20 | Carpenter, Ed | Chevy | 00:41.2109 | 218.389 | 0.6579 | 0.0384 | 25 | 25 |
11 | 41 | Hawksworth, Jack | Honda | 00:41.2167 | 218.358 | 0.6637 | 0.0058 | 26 | 28 |
12 | 9 | Dixon, Scott | Chevy | 00:41.2954 | 217.942 | 0.7424 | 0.0787 | 15 | 25 |
13 | 28 | Hunter-Reay, Ryan | Honda | 00:41.2973 | 217.932 | 0.7443 | 0.0019 | 5 | 5 |
14 | 22 | Pagenaud, Simon | Chevy | 00:41.3167 | 217.830 | 0.7637 | 0.0194 | 34 | 35 |
15 | 3 | Castroneves, Helio | Chevy | 00:41.3228 | 217.797 | 0.7698 | 0.0061 | 28 | 29 |
16 | 14 | Sato, Takuma | Honda | 00:41.3746 | 217.525 | 0.8216 | 0.0518 | 23 | 26 |
17 | 27 | Andretti, Marco | Honda | 00:41.3762 | 217.516 | 0.8232 | 0.0016 | 31 | 31 |
18 | 8 | Chilton, Max (R) | Chevy | 00:41.4907 | 216.916 | 0.9377 | 0.1145 | 14 | 30 |
19 | 15 | Rahal, Graham | Honda | 00:41.5382 | 216.668 | 0.9852 | 0.0475 | 32 | 37 |
20 | 11 | Bourdais, Sebastien | Chevy | 00:41.5446 | 216.635 | 0.9916 | 0.0064 | 13 | 32 |
21 | 88 | Daly, Conor (R) | Honda | 00:42.1618 | 213.463 | 1.6088 | 0.6172 | 33 | 37 |
22 | 19 | Mann, Pippa | Honda | 00:42.7145 | 210.701 | 2.1615 | 0.5527 | 12 | 37 |