Josef Newgarden Tops Second Road America Practice Session

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

Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden topped this weekend’s second IndyCar practice session at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin with a top lap time of 102.8229 seconds (140.537 miles per hour) around the 14-turn, 4.014-mile natural terrain road course.

Newgarden in his Chevrolet car was followed by all three of his Team Penske teammates in Chevrolet cars, with Will Power, Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves finishing 2nd, 3rd and 4th fastest in the session, respectively to complete a Team Penske top 4 sweep. The fastest driver of a Honda-powered car was Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ James Hinchcliffe, who was 5th fastest on the speed chart.

Team Penske in the Chevrolet cars took the top 4 spots in the speed chart, but Honda drivers took seven of the top 11. Not including Team Penske drivers, the highest driver of a Chevrolet car was Spencer Pigot, who was 12th 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. That has been on display in both Road America practice sessions thus far this weekend.

Must Read: Road America Practice #1 Recap

The series lone full-time rookie, Ed Jones, was 6th 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 17th quickest on the speed chart.