In total, the Verizon IndyCar Series’ open test at Phoenix International Raceway consisted of four sessions: two during the day and two during the evening, each lasting three hours. There were 23 car/driver combinations that turned laps (of note: 21 cars were entered, but Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi each took laps in the other’s car).
Because of the number of sessions and cars participating, the lap count was expected to be relatively high. Several drivers completed more than 100 laps in at least one session, with a handful even doing so in multiple sessions.
Among the notable drivers to break the 100-lap barrier was Graham Rahal, driving a lone entry for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. “I don’t know why, but our guys like to pound laps, so that’s all right. We’ll just keep driving when they tell me to,” he quipped after the Friday evening session, in which he turned 114 laps.
For Rahal, the track time as a single-car entry over the weekend was paramount in maximizing the team’s efforts. “One of my concerns is always just stalling out,” he explained. “As a single car, you see the amount of laps we’re pounding here, and we have to. I mean, we’re trying things on tires we probably shouldn’t be running on, but we have to try to do things because as a single car you’re only getting knowledge from one source.”
Another driver who enjoyed a heavy workload was Josef Newgarden on his first major outing in the No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. Newgarden accounted for 99 laps on Friday night and 114 laps on Saturday night. For Newgarden, it presented a great opportunity to spend more time with his new team. “The Verizon 2 car team is all new to me, so they’re not new to each other, so there’s great continuity there, but I’m new to the group,” he detailed. “So they’re trying to understand me and I’m trying to understand them.”
Dale Coyne Racing driver Sebastien Bourdais also cracked the 100-lap mark during a session, putting 103 laps of work in on Saturday night. For Bourdais, it was an opportunity to get reacquainted with Craig Hampson, with whom he won four consecutive championships in the Champ Car World Series between 2004 and 2007, and run through a myriad of changes to the chassis. “The guys did a great job. I don’t recall that I’ve ever gone through so many changes, big changes on the car over a two-day test, and we got out of this with a very happy car,” said the Frenchman.
However, the prize for the most laps turned goes to defending Verizon IndyCar Series champion Simon Pagenaud, who totaled 303 laps across both days, including a whopping 124 on Friday night. For Pagenaud, it helped knock the rust off. A stalwart at the Rolex 24 in past years, Pagenaud elected to forego a driving opportunity at the 2017 edition of the endurance classic, especially after a busy off-season. “It’s been a busy winter with the championship and all the appearances everywhere in the world,” said Pagenaud, who did a tour of France, among other appearances, following his championship run. “It was good for me to get some time off, stay with my family. That’s something I really needed.”
For Pagenaud, the Phoenix test marked his first significant driving duty since the Petit Le Mans in early October. “This year I just didn’t feel like it was the right thing to do for my program and for being pretty focused with Penske at attacking another title,” he said of his decision to forego the Rolex 24, though he did attend as a spectator.
The 21 drivers who participated at the Phoenix test completed 5,134 laps across all four sessions. The next open test takes place at Barber Motorsports Park on March 21, just over a week after the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.