Josef Newgarden drew first blood in Milwaukee by finishing fastest in the opening practice session for the ABC Supply Wisconsin 250 on Saturday.
Newgarden posted a fastest lap time of 21.5415 seconds to finish ahead of Penske’s Simon Pagenaud at the top of the timesheets, recording an average speed of 169.626.
Ganassi’s Tony Kanaan led for much of the session after posting a quick time early on with an average speed of 167.702 mph.
However, as conditions continued to improve at the Milwaukee Mile and the track rubbered in, drivers managed to find more and more time, causing a flurry of changes in the timesheets late on.
Penske remained rather quiet for much of the session before Simon Pagenaud jumped up into second place in the final five minutes, finishing two-hundredths of a second short of Newgarden at the top.
Takuma Sato managed to produce a number of strong laps late on to secure third place in practice, finishing ahead of Fontana winner Graham Rahal in fourth.
Kanaan’s early lap was good enough for fifth place at the end of the session ahead of Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon, who ended up sixth in the re-liveried no. 9 car.
Three-time Milwaukee winner Ryan Hunter-Reay showed some good pace on Saturday evening at The Mile to finish seventh ahead of Helio Castroneves. James Jakes and Will Power rounded out the top ten.
The session was without much drama or notable incident, with just two yellow flag periods being required: firstly for a cut tire, then for debris on the track.
Milwaukee rookie Stefano Coletti turned the most laps during the 75-minute session on Saturday, finishing just two shy of a century as the Monegasque racer got to grips with the track.
The drivers and teams will now be turning their attention to tomorrow’s congested programme, starting with practice at 9:15am CT (10:15am ET).
For full broadcasting information ahead of the ABC Supply Wisconsin 250, click here.
Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.
Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.
On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.
One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.
After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.
The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.
Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.
Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports
“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”
Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.
“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”
As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.
But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.
A block pass by Haiden Deegan led to a series of events that eventually led to Jordon Smith failing to make the Main. – Feld Motor Sports
“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.
“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”
Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.
“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.
“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”
The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.
