Palou tops late flurry of fast laps in Harvest GP practice

The NTT IndyCar Series’ one and only practice session for the Harvest Grand Prix doubleheader on the Indianapolis road course featured Carlin Racing’s Max Chilton, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist, and Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden atop the leader board for the majority of the 75-minute outing.

With their times set early in the session on Firestone’s primary tires, the times rapidly shuffled in the last 12 minutes as teams bolted the faster alternate tires to their cars to perform qualifying simulations ahead of this evening’s run for the Race 1 pole.

A spin and stall by CGR’s Marcus Ericsson spoiled a number of runs when the red flag flew, leaving early red-tire runners Alex Palou from Dale Coyne Racing in the No. 55 Honda first (1m10.1777s) and Meyer Shank Racing’s Jack Harvey in the No. 60 Honda (1m10.2773s) in second before the field of 25 cars were forced to pit and wait for Ericsson to be sorted.

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Once the drivers were released, time for a single flying lap was left, and as the flurry of red-tire runs were completed, Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta leapt to third in the No. 88 Honda (1m10.3857s), championship leader Scott Dixon claimed fourth in CGR’s No. 9 Honda (1m10.4328).

Despite venturing out on alternates, Chilton held onto fifth with his best produced on primaries (1m10.4636s), and in sixth, Dixon’s main title rival, Newgarden, climbed to sixth on primaries (1m10.5307s).

As expected, the four newcomers to the event occupied the last four positions as A.J. Foyt Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais was 22nd, Arrow McLaren SP’s Helio Castroneves was 23rd, Andretti’s James Hinchcliffe was 24th, and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing’s Sage Karam was 25th.

Outside of the red flag for Ericsson, numerous trips onto the grass and running wide at various corners took place in the cool and windy conditions, but no major dramas took place.

RESULTS

UP NEXT: Qualifying, 6:20 p.m. ET, on NBC Sports Gold.