Alexander Rossi Tops First Road America Practice Session

By Asher Fair | Jun 23, 2017

May 21, 2017; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Verizon IndyCar Series driver Alexander Rossi drives through the first turn during practice before qualifications for the 101st Running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports /

The 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season is in its 10th race with the Kohler Grand Prix at Road America. Who looks solid early on?

Andretti Herta Autosport’s Alexander Rossi topped this weekend’s opening IndyCar practice session at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin with a top lap time of 103.3285 seconds (139.849 miles per hour) around the 14-turn, 4.014-mile natural terrain road course.

Rossi in his Honda car was followed by three Team Penske drivers in Chevrolet cars, with Simon Pagenaud, Will Power and Josef Newgarden finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th fastest in the session, respectively. The next fastest driver of a Honda-powered car was Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, who was 5th fastest on the speed chart.

Team Penske in the Chevrolet cars took up three of the top 4 spots in the speed chart, but Honda drivers took up six of the top 9. Not including Team Penske drivers, the highest driver of a Chevrolet car was Carlos Munoz, who was 14th fastest on the speed chart.

The Honda vs. Chevrolet battle, or really the Honda vs. Team Penske battle, has been the story of the season thus far. Honda has dominated Chevrolet as a whole, but Team Penske has been competitive in Chevrolet cars, and they are really the only team that has been.

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The series lone full-time rookie, Ed Jones, was 13th quickest in his Dale Coyne Racing Honda. Jones’ teammate Esteban Gutierrez, who is making his third IndyCar appearance in a substitution role for the injured Sebastien Bourdais and first as the full-time replacement, was 19th quickest on the speed chart.

Robert Wickens, who is filling in for Mikhail Aleshin at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports since Aleshin is stuck in France due to immigration issues, was 20th quickest in his Honda in his first career IndyCar practice. Full practice results are located at IndyCar.com.

The second practice session takes place this afternoon beginning at 4:15 PM ET. The third practice session takes place tomorrow beginning at 12:00 PM ET. Qualifications for the race begin tomorrow at 4:00 PM ET and can be seen on NBC Sports Network (NBCSN) on a delay at 5:00 PM ET. The final practice session begins at 9:00 AM ET on Sunday, June 25th, and the race itself starts later that day at 1:15 PM ET and can be seen live on NBCSN starting at 12:30 PM ET.

Next: Road America Fantasy Picks

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