Josef Newgarden was quickest in the final Verizon IndyCar Series practice session for this afternoon’s GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma at Sonoma Raceway.
Newgarden had a field-best elapsed time of 1:17.6431 and speed of 110.583 mph.
Scott Dixon, whose reign as 2015 series champion comes to an end today, made a strong run in the closing minutes to record the second-best effort (1:17.6600 at 110.559), followed by Takuma Sato (1:18.1803 at 109.823), Charlie Kimball (1:18.1921 at 109.806) and Alexander Rossi (1:18.2923 at 109.666).
Pole-sitter Simon Pagenaud (1:18.8396 at 108.905) and sole championship challenger Will Power (1:19.0236 at 108.651) were 18th and 20th quickest, but there are no worries there.
They were simply shaking their cars down in preparation for this afternoon’s race, which begins at 6:50 p.m. ET/3:50 p.m. PT. The race will be televised live on NBCSN, which begins with pre-race coverage at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT.
Marco Andretti, who was quickest and fastest in Saturday’s third practice, was 13th in Sunday’s final session (1:18.6141 at 109.217 mph)
Conor Daly was slowest of the 22 drivers on-track (1:19.0374 at 108.632).
Here’s how the final practice session played out:
