Marco Andretti, who topped Thursday’s open test session for the IZOD IndyCar Series at Pocono Raceway, went P1 in this morning’s practice session at the “Tricky Triangle” with a lap at 221.883 miles per hour in the No. 25 Andretti Autosport Chevrolet. The one-hour run will be the only practice session before Pocono IndyCar 400 qualifying takes place later this afternoon at 1:15 p.m. ET.
Following him in second was Tony Kanaan, who is looking to continue his drive toward a potential Triple Crown with a victory this weekend in Pennsylvania. He topped out at 220.819 miles per hour in the No. 11 KV Racing Technology Chevrolet, ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing’s Charlie Kimball, who led the Honda camp with a lap at 220.683 mph in the No. 83 machine.
Current championship leader Helio Castroneves, who goes into Pocono with a nine-point advantage over reigning series champ Ryan Hunter-Reay, was fourth-fastest this morning at 220.219 mph in the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet. Rounding out the Top 5 was Scott Dixon in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda and his lap at 220.217 mph; Dixon will be forced to take a 10-spot grid penalty for Sunday’s race due to changing his Honda motor before the 2,000-mile threshold.
Simon Pagenaud, Takuma Sato, Will Power, Iowa winner James Hinchcliffe, and Alex Tagliani completed the Top 10. The session only went yellow once for Power, who suffered an apparent electrical issue on his No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet and needed to be towed back to the pits.
