Kanaan tops opening practice in Texas

Tony Kanaan led a Chevy 1-2-3-4 in opening practice for the Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Kanaan was slightly faster than his Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden and Charlie Kimball.

They were followed by three Andreeti Autosport driver's Marco Andretti, Carlos Munoz and Alexander Rossi.

Gaby Chaves backed into the wall between turns 3 & 4 nine minutes into the session. The team pulled out Pippa Mann's car to repair Chaves' car.

Graham Rahal slowed out on the track at 11:44 and thought his engine may have failed. But it did not sound like that was the issue after talking with the team. We will update you on this later.

Ganassi Racing is on the top of the charts. Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon, were first and second respectively. Charlie Kimball, driving the number 83 again, was fourth fastest.

Third was Josef Newgarden, the Fuzzy's Vodka number 21 entry for Ed Carpenter Racing. His boss, Ed Carpenter, is in the number 20 car for this race. Carpenter has been referred to as one of the top 5 oval drivers and won here in 2014.

Scott Dixon, who won here in 2008 and 2015, was interviewed and commented that the hour and 15 minute practice session is not long enough to test a setup for qualifying. And we had quite a few yellow flags during the practice session.

Qualifying is next at 3:15 pm.

Results

P No Name FTime Diff LapTime Laps
1 10 Tony Kanaan 24.167 0.000 25.169 28
2 9 Scott Dixon 24.181 0.0148 25.644 33
3 21 Josef Newgarden 24.223 0.0563 25.776 49
4 83 Charlie Kimball 24.255 0.0885 5:58.875 34
5 27 Marco Andretti 24.261 0.0943 26.040 47
6 26 Carlos Munoz 24.263 0.0967 25.819 30
7 98 Alexander Rossi 24.294 0.1273 25.779 45
8 2 Juan Pablo Montoya 24.345 0.1786 41.047 29
9 12 Will Power 24.366 0.1989 43.835 40
10 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay 24.390 0.2236 7:15.244 17
11 14 Takuma Sato 24.416 0.2494 25.687 39
12 22 Simon Pagenaud 24.424 0.2579 41.555 43
13 15 Graham Rahal 24.444 0.2778 27.384 12
14 3 Helio Castroneves 24.485 0.3181 37.020 38
15 7 Mikhail Aleshin 24.596 0.4299 39.123 32
16 11 Sebastien Bourdais 24.631 0.4645 41.758 50
17 41 Jack Hawksworth 24.650 0.4830 25.368 43
18 20 Ed Carpenter 24.683 0.5161 25.232 27
19 5 James Hinchcliffe 24.812 0.6455 37.999 30
20 18 Conor Daly 24.814 0.6473 25.474 31
21 8 Max Chilton 24.853 0.6868 25.569 53
22 19 Gabby Chaves 26.917 2.7501 26.917 4