IndyCar: Newgarden tops Day 1 of Indy Open Test

-by Mark Cipolloni–

With the help of a tow, which is what everyone’s top speeds were, Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden (shown above) turned the fastest lap of 227.686mph to top Day 1 of open testing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in his #2 Chevy.

“Really great day,” Newgarden said. “I wish it was Race Day today. But you can’t choose those. You have to show up on that day and be very good. I told the team that if it was Race Day, don’t touch it because it was very good. Sometimes you show up and the car is great. and sometimes you have to work on it. Today was one of those really good days.

“We got through our list, as well, and we learned a lot, which is always positive. Sometimes you can go around in circles at this place, but today as a team I felt like we were very efficient with our time. We split everything up and divided and conquered. Really, really happy for Team Penske today, and I feel good for next month with the Shell car.”

Late in the session, Conor Daly bumped Scott Dixon down a notch with a 227.466mph lap in his Ed Carpenter Chevy.

“I thought today was really good. We were fast really all day, but I felt really racey. We happened to sneak a lap in there, but I really, really enjoyed today. We stayed in the car for three and a half hours, so we did a lot of work which is great. That’s what testing is for, and we were quick. I feel really good about our day today.”

Scott Dixon ended up third quick in his #9 Ganassi Honda ahead of Andretti Autosport’s Kyle Kirkwood in his #27 Andretti Honda.  Kirkwood won this past Sunday in Long Beach.

“This is the first time we get to see what we’re doing on computers actually makes sense on a racetrack, and we think it does,” Kirkwood said. “They’ve done a really good job. We’re able to race really close with everyone. The racing is a lot closer this year in this front pack than it was last year, which is cool to see.”

But it’s cool Kyle.  Wait until the track heats up later in May.

Dixon’s Ganassi teammate, Takuma Sato, rounded out the top-5.

IndyCar added more downforce to the cars this year and on this cool day in April most of the drivers were “easy flat” all the way around.  The goal is to artificially create closer racing this year.

A total of 3,107 dizzying laps were turned today by 33 drivers.  With the threat of rain on Friday, teams tried to get in as much running today as possible – not that it means much, given the temperatures will be much higher a month from now.

Select Quotes

Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet:

“I think we just ended with a really, really good car. Everything that we’ve tested, we got a positive or a negative out of it. That’s always good to compile it all together and hopefully make a pretty good race car. Towards the end, running in traffic I felt good. I’m still learning how to get a tow in an Indy car so I’ll work on that, but apart from that, I think we’ve got a pretty speedy race car.”

Will Power, No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet:

“We’ve gone through items that we’ve developed in the offseason, and new aero bits that INDYCAR has implemented, so just trying to find out what works and what doesn’t. It was a good day.”

Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 23 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet:

“It was great! You know, that first run out, but you know the first proper run felt like a kid going down the hill on a bike, going down a ramp, that’s probably like that feeling of just pure excitement. It was great. I absolutely couldn’t wait to do it. But now it’s great like Stefan (Wilson) said – the team’s done a great job preparing these cars, and really happy to be joining Team Chevy again. We have a lot of great history together not only in the sports car side of GM with Cadillac and everything but winning a championship together back in 2012. So I have a lot of good friends there and look forward to working with them. It’s something that I’m definitely going to take the time the most have been working with the team. It’s been excellent today. We just we were going through some pretty big ticket stuff you know, big ticket items with the wind and everything and we with the starting that refresher do very strange just feel in 210 to 215 was not kind of like that morning. I wanted to get through that as fast as possible. It was like eating your vegetables as a kid. Yeah, it’s not fun, but got through it. After that, yeah, had a blast. And the worst vegetables for you growing up would be one kid when I was a kid, it was definitely broccoli. Like that was the worst. You know, for my kids to now I love messing with them. Always eat your vegetables also.”

Stefan Wilson, No. 24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet:

“Really good day for us, you know, to get through your refresher. And, I think we did 140 laps today. So, I did a lot more than I thought we’re going to get done today with how we expected it to be and how many it got. So yeah, really, really positive stuff. I think it’s nice to be in a stronger positive window. You know, the cars in a decent window right now, I think we need to refine it. But you know, we’re not from the kitchen sink at it. So that’s, that’s a good place to be where you check in boxes going through the program. Maybe we’ll see what happens tomorrow. And maybe it gets some time. Maybe not. But everything done. You want it to be that? Yeah, absolutely. I think so. You know, we actually didn’t expect any running tomorrow. So we tried to just cram it all in today. You know, and if tomorrow happens, then that’s a bonus, you know. So, you know, really appreciate all the work that Dreyer & Reinbold have done. All the crew just done an amazing job to prepare for better cars and having done 140 laps today after not running a lap since then last year, so hats off to them. It was nice to be back after a year as well. Didn’t sleep well, last night, you know, thinking about what was ahead of me today. You know, it’s kind of like riding a bike. You get back in and everything starts to make sense again. So yeah, and a Chevrolet as well. They’ve done a really good job with the package coming into the month. So excited to be with this whole program.

Ed Carpenter, No. 33 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet:

“I would say it was a good start to the month of May in April. I thought we had a really productive day. Time sheets are what they are, but we had a pretty ambitious list to be really aggressive and get through today and try to get through tomorrow’s work too not knowing what the weather will be. For my sake, the No. 33 BITNILE.COM Chevy, I was really happy with. Very confident. Learned some good things, learned some bad things which is always a positive too. I’m excited to hear what Rinus (VeeKay) and Conor (Daly) experienced today. Feeling pretty optimistic coming back.”

Tony Kanaan, No. 66 Arrow McLaren Racing Chevrolet:

“It was a good day. First day, trying to get through the motions. It’s a new car, new build, so we didn’t really worry about anything, it was just trying to get myself, the mechanics, and everything rolling. It was an awesome day. We ran as many laps as we wanted to run. There were no issues, so a good day.”

Day 1 Open Combined Session Test Results

(R) Rookie
Total Laps for Combined Sessions: 3,107

Session 2 Results