IndyCar: Kirkwood tops rookie oval test as the sun sets in Texas
Sensational rookie Kyle Kirkwood turned a lap of 23.5868s in his #14 AJ Foyt Chevy to lead all six IndyCar rookies testing at Texas Motor Speedway Wednesday.
Kirkwood was the fastest rookie in the season opener in St. Petersburg last weekend, and he is making the AJ Foyt Chevy do things no one expected. Whether anyone attempts to go faster under the lights tonight remains to be seen, but all the drivers got plenty of laps under their belts today
Callum Ilott in the small Juncos Hollinger team was 2nd quick in his #77 Chevy, just 0.0721s slower than Kirkwood to give Chevy powered cars a 1-2 over the 4 other Honda drivers testing.
Andretti Autosport’s Romain Grosjean’s time from the morning of 23.7047s in his #28 Andretti Autosport DHL Honda held up as the 3rd fastest time. Grosjean is not really a rookie in IndyCar, but because he only ran one oval race last year, he was allowed to test today with the rookies.
David Malukas in the #18 Dale Coyne Honda turned a fast lap late when the track was cooler to go 4th quick. Malukas turned more laps than all the other rookies, his final lap count at 210
5th fastest #29 Andretti Autosport Honda rookie Devlin DeFrancesco who ended up 0.2267s behind Kirkwood.
Christian Lundgaard was 6th quick, just 0.31s off the fast time in his #30 Rahal Honda.
Wednesday Rookie Test Times at 6:00pm in Texas
Pos | No | Name | Time | Behind | Gap | Laps | Speed | No-Tow Speed | Engine | Team |
1 | 14 | Kyle Kirkwood | 23.5868 | 0.000s | 0.000s | 146 | 219.784 | 216.69 | Chevy | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
2 | 77 | Callum Ilott | 23.6589 | 0.0721 | 0.0721 | 130 | 219.114 | 216.53 | Chevy | Juncos Hollinger Racing |
3 | 28 | Romain Grosjean | 23.7047 | 0.1179 | 0.0458 | 152 | 218.691 | 218.21 | Honda | Andretti Autosport |
4 | 18 | David Malukas | 23.7814 | 0.1946 | 0.0767 | 210 | 217.985 | 217.99 | Honda | Dale Coyne Racing with HMD |
5 | 29 | Devlin DeFrancesco | 23.8135 | 0.2267 | 0.0321 | 133 | 217.692 | 217.49 | Honda | Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport |
6 | 30 | Christian Lundgaard | 23.8990 | 0.3122 | 0.0855 | 186 | 216.913 | 216.91 | Honda | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |