IndyCar: Saturday morning report from Road America
It is going to be a much cooler day here at beautiful Road America. Rain is currently falling and thunderstorms are expected until noon today in the area. Temperatures should only be in the low 70s, which is quite the contrast from yesterday’s 84 degrees when the 4 pm practice session started.
Both Josef Newgarden, driver of the Team Penske #2 entry, Ryan Hunter-Reay, driver of the Andretti Autosport #28 entry, talked about the low grip that the race track had during the Friday afternoon practice.
Hunter-Reay commented, “The track was tough today. Low grip. Conditions with how windy it was and everything. I expected it to be low grip just with the track temp, the overall ambient temp being close to 90 degrees. Usually here we have cooler conditions. It is an older surface, so I expect it to be light, not that light. But it’s the same for everybody. I think it’s going to grip up more tomorrow with cooler conditions and more rubber going down .”
Newgarden has this to add about the track. “It was trickier than last year. I thought the grip level of the track was lower. Definitely put a premium on getting it right the first run because the dropoff seems pretty big, at least close to a second, I would say, first to second run on tires.”
The DCR rookie, Romain Grosjean, was the fastest of the session. With no experience at this track, Grosjean has this to say after the practice. “Well, I don’t like topping free practice. I don’t know. As I say, we were quite good at the beginning, then we got an extra set of tires. The track was fairly different from when we came testing. We just need to see how it evolves through the weekend.”
The three fastest drivers were asked about going back to the old schedule for road and street courses, which is two practices on Friday, practice and qualifying on Saturday and race on Sunday. Hunter-Reay and Newgarden wasted no time saying they want to return to that schedule. Newgarden also spoke for the other Team Penske drivers and said they would want that change.
Romain Grosjean, who is in his first year of IndyCar racing, is not used to the old schedule, asked “What is a normal schedule?” After the laughter died down in the media center, Hunter-Reay explained it to Grosjean. Then the Frenchman chimed in, “I like that. It gets boring Friday morning. You don’t know what to do before the late practice session.”
Today’s schedule is practice 2 at 10:10 am local time. Then the Firestone Fast Six Qualifying at 1:30 pm. And the final practice session at 4:30 pm.
Lucille Dust reporting live from Road America