IndyCar: Newgarden tops Milwaukee practice

Josef Newgarden, already a two-time race-winner in 2015, shot to the top of the times in the final five minutes of first practice for tomorrow’s 12th round of the Verizon IndyCar Series, the ABC Supply Wisconsin 250.

The American lapped the Milwaukee Mile this evening at an average of 169.626mph in his CFH Racing-Chevrolet to head off a late challenge for P1 from Team Penske-Chevy’s Simon Pagenaud. Third was Takuma Sato in AJ Foyt Racing-Honda and fourth was claimed by the series’ most recent winner, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal.

Said Newgarden: "We usually have good cars here but we unloaded today and it was really impressive. It's nicely balanced and I can drive it in deep so that bodes well, we just have to make sure we qualify up front. That's the key here.

"I think the race is going to be a lot different than Fontana and I'm not sure how much overtaking there's going to be. It will be interesting."

Rahal commented: "Right away the balance of the car was really good, I was definitely pleased with it. It was pretty comfortable so we were able to push forward and try some things with the setup and I think we made the racecar a lot better. It’s definitely going to be interesting to follow a bunch of cars based on what some guys were saying that I talked to that seemed to struggle pretty bad. That’s going to make it an interesting race."

Tony Kanaan who topped the session almost throughout, had to be content with fifth, while his Chip Ganassi Racing-Chevy teammate Scott Dixon showed magnificent car control in the final minute to hold onto a major wriggle while following Penske’s Will Power and take sixth.

Defending polesitter/racewinner at the Mile, Power finished the session in 10th, while championship leader Juan Montoya was only 16th.

A late surge from Ryan Hunter-Reay saved embarrassment for Andretti Autosport whose cars spent most of the session outside the top half. RHR, a three-time winner here at Milwaukee vaulted to seventh with his final lap. However, teammates Carlos Munoz, series returnee Justin Wilson and Marco Andretti were 14th, 16th and 23rd respectively.

Ryan Briscoe was part of a solid showing from Schmidt Peterson Motorsport-Honda, he and James Jakes clocking 11th and ninth fastest times respectively. The Australian, who was one of the stars at both Texas and Fontana ovals last month, noted: ""Usually when you follow somebody into the corner, you lose the air and your car pushes but I experienced something really different today. If I tried to follow somebody close my car got loose every time so I'm not sure how that's going to play out tomorrow."

The event's unusual schedule will see second practice held tomorrow 9.15am local (8.15am ET), with qualifying at 12.30 and the 250-lap race starting at 4.35pm.

Click here for full results.

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