IndyCar: Kanaan leads Ganassi 1-2 in first practice at Iowa

Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon, who last year locked out the front row for Chip Ganassi Racing in the Iowa Corn Indy 300, still have the magic ingredient for the Verizon IndyCar Series’ shortest track. In first practice for this year’s race at the 0.875-mile oval in Newton, Iowa, the former IndyCar champions were the only drivers to lap in the 179mph bracket, and Ganassi-Chevrolet’s pace was further endorsed by Charlie Kimball clocking fourth-fastest time.

However, there was encouragement for both Andretti Autosport and Honda when last year’s surprise winner Ryan Hunter-Reay went third fastest, while the 2014 runner-up, Josef Newgarden, was fifth for CFH Racing-Chevy, three places ahead of teammate and team co-owner Ed Carpenter.

Championship leader Juan Montoya led the Team Penske-Chevy quartet with sixth place, 3mph faster than the slowest of his teammates (Will Power), but also 3.5mph off Kanaan. Rookie Stefano Coletti completed the most laps (63) but was understandably still 3.5mph slower than his KVSH Racing teammate, Sebastien Bourdais, who won last week’s race at Milwaukee.

There were two brief yellow flag periods for track inspections.

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