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