The 2017 IndyCar season is in its 15th race with the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at Gateway. Which drivers looked solid in the final practice session?
Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden topped this weekend’s final IndyCar practice session at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Illinois with a top lap speed of 184.079 miles per hour (24.4460 seconds) around the four-turn, 1.25-mile oval.
Newgarden led a top 4 Chevrolet sweep in the practice session, with two of his three teammates occupying two of the other three spots in that sweep. Race polesitter Will Power was 3rd quickest in the session, while Helio Castroneves was 4th. The other Team Penske driver, Simon Pagenaud, was just 13th fastest in the session
The fastest non-Team Penske Chevrolet driver in the session was Ed Carpenter, who was 2nd fastest. He is due for a breakthrough weekend, as his best finish this season in five oval races is only 7th place, and he has yet to win a race since he won over three years ago at Texas in the 2014 season. The fastest Honda driver in the session was Alexander Rossi, who finished in 5th place.
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All eight of the Chevrolet drivers finished the session in the top 16, leaving the bottom five spots for the Honda drivers. In just his second practice session back since his nasty crash in Indianapolis 500 qualifying, Sebastien Bourdais occupied one of those five spots, as he was 18th quickest in the session in his Dale Coyne Racing Honda.
Sebastian Saavedra, who is making his third substitution appearance for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports this season, was 21st quickest in the practice session in his Honda car, making him the slowest driver in both practice sessions as well as qualifying so far this weekend. You can see full practice results from the first practice session at Gateway at IndyCar.com.
Remaining Weekend Schedule
The 248-lap race starts at 9:40 PM ET tomorrow and can be seen live on NBCSN starting at 9:00 PM ET.
Next: IndyCar driver power rankings
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