IndyCar: Kirkwood Leads First Practice Session in Belle Isle

Kyle Kirkwood, driver of the no 14 ROKIT AJ Foyt Racing entry, led the field in the first practice session of the weekend with a time of 1:16:345.   The American is doing double duty this weekend, racing the no 17 Seal Master Vasser-Sullivan, in the Weathertech  Sportscar Series race.

Pato O’Ward, driver of the no 5 Arrow McLaren SP entry, was second fastest with a time of 1:16:1556.

Alexander Rossi, driving the no 27 NAPA Auto Parts/AutoNation Andretti Autosport entry, was third fastest with a time of 1:16:5146.

Simon Pagenaud and Marcus Ericsson followed with the fourth and fifth fastest in the session.

The 60-minute practice session was marred by crashes and a red flag this afternoon as the NTT INDYCAR Series drivers hit the bumpy circuit for the first time this weekend.

The session was delayed briefly to allow the Indy Lights teams to clear their equipment from the pit lane.   45 minutes of practice time was guaranteed in the 60-minute window.

Five minutes after the green flag dropped, Dalton Kellett,  driver of the no 4 K-Line AJ Foyt Racing entry,  stopped on course in Turn 5.  The Canadian driver, who was already been issued a five-gird spot penalty for an unapproved engine change for the Indy 500, had a five-minute penalty in this session for causing the red flag.

15 minutes after going back to green, Felix Rosenqvist, driver of the no 7 Vuse Arrow McLaren SP entry,  made contact also in turn 2.   IndyCar has cleared him to drive this weekend.  The Swede had an awful crash here last year, which took him out of contention for the remainder of the 2021 season.

Simon Pagenaud, driver of the no 60 AutoNation/Sirius XM Meyer Shank Racing entry, also received a penalty of five minutes because his machine stalled on track.

Practice 1 Results

Pos No Name Time Diff Gap Laps Speed Engine Team
1 14 Kyle Kirkwood 1:16.1345 0.000 0.000 20 111.119 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
2 5 Pato O’Ward 1:16.1556 0.0211 0.0211 13 111.088 Chevy Arrow McLaren SP
3 27 Alexander Rossi 1:16.5146 0.3801 0.3590 14 110.567 Honda Andretti Autosport
4 60 Simon Pagenaud 1:16.6177 0.4832 0.1031 13 110.418 Honda Meyer Shank Racing
5 8 Marcus Ericsson 1:16.6574 0.5229 0.0397 14 110.361 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
6 26 Colton Herta 1:16.6992 0.5647 0.0418 16 110.301 Honda Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
7 06 Helio Castroneves 1:16.8230 0.6885 0.1238 17 110.123 Honda Meyer Shank Racing
8 3 Scott McLaughlin 1:16.9552 0.8207 0.1322 19 109.934 Chevy Team Penske
9 28 Romain Grosjean 1:17.0272 0.8927 0.0720 19 109.831 Honda Andretti Autosport
10 9 Scott Dixon 1:17.1444 1.0099 0.1172 13 109.664 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
11 51 Takuma Sato 1:17.2187 1.0842 0.0743 17 109.559 Honda Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
12 10 Alex Palou 1:17.2524 1.1179 0.0337 15 109.511 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
13 29 Devlin DeFrancesco 1:17.3088 1.1743 0.0564 22 109.431 Honda Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
14 12 Will Power 1:17.4831 1.3486 0.1743 20 109.185 Chevy Team Penske
15 21 Rinus VeeKay 1:17.4948 1.3603 0.0117 11 109.169 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
16 2 Josef Newgarden 1:17.5562 1.4217 0.0614 19 109.082 Chevy Team Penske
17 18 David Malukas 1:17.6107 1.4762 0.0545 17 109.006 Honda Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
18 30 Christian Lundgaard 1:17.6968 1.5623 0.0861 20 108.885 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
19 15 Graham Rahal 1:17.7188 1.5843 0.0220 21 108.854 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
20 45 Jack Harvey 1:18.2212 2.0867 0.5024 18 108.155 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
21 20 Conor Daly 1:18.2984 2.1639 0.0772 16 108.048 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
22 4 Dalton Kellett 1:18.4071 2.2726 0.1087 14 107.898 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
23 77 Santino Ferrucci 1:19.3177 3.1832 0.9106 17 106.660 Chevy Juncos Hollinger Racing
24 11 Tatiana Calderon 1:19.4001 3.2656 0.0824 22 106.549 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
25 48 Jimmie Johnson 1:19.5794 3.4449 0.1793 23 106.309 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
26 7 Felix Rosenqvist 1:21.6946 5.5601 2.1152 2 103.556 Chevy Arrow McLaren SP

 

Lucille Dust reporting live from Detroit