Simon Pagenaud Tops Third 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 before qualifying?

Team Penske’s Simon Pagenaud topped this weekend’s third IndyCar practice session at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin with a top lap time of 102.0439 seconds (141.610 miles per hour) around the 14-turn, 4.014-mile natural terrain road course.

Pagenaud in his Chevrolet car was followed by all three of his Team Penske teammates in Chevrolet cars, with Will Power, Helio Castroneves and Josef Newgarden 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 Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, who was 5th fastest on the speed chart.

Team Penske in the Chevrolet cars took the top 4 spots in the speed chart, and Chevrolet drivers took five of the top 7 spots. However, Honda drivers took eight of the top 13. Not including Team Penske drivers, the highest driver of a Chevrolet car was Ed Carpenter Racing’s Spencer Pigot, who was 7th 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 all three Road America practice sessions thus far this weekend.

Must Read: Road America Practice #2 Recap

The series lone full-time rookie, Ed Jones, was 17th 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 16th quickest on the speed chart.