Championship leader Will Power led Friday’s private test at Portland International Raceway as nine drivers prepared for the NTT IndyCar Series’ penultimate round on September 4 at PIR. Power was followed by Colton Herta, Josef Newgarden, Alexander Rossi, with Scott McLaughlin completing the top five.

The long day of running saw multiple offs and a few crashes, but all nine from Team Penske, Andretti Autosport, and A.J. Foyt Racing were able to continue running after repairs were made.

“It was a good day of running through the checklist, but it seemed like a little bit of a demolition derby with people going off and chucking it in the wall,” Herta told RACER. “Will crashed, Romain crashed twice, Devlin went off a few times, I went off once. Rossi went off, and these were just the people in front of me, so I didn’t see all of the other ones. It’s a difficult place, even on the test days.

“But the day was nice. Track temp got up over 100 degrees for most of the day. In the morning it was 70-75 degrees, and it warmed up a little bit in the afternoon to 80-85 when the sun came out, but that was only for a short stint, and it crept back down in the low 80s, high 70s.”

Herta reckons he could have gotten close to Power’s best lap, but his fastest run was halted by one of the many red flags.

“Will put that lap in, and I don’t know if I could have done a 58.2s like he did if I was able to finish my run, but we were really good on used tires,” he said. “And I think I would have done a 58.3s, maybe a 58.4s if the red didn’t come out. But we’re satisfied with what we learned.”

Unofficial Times:

1: Will Power, Team Penske Chevy, 58.295s

2: Colton Herta, Andretti Autosport Honda, 58.543s

3: Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevy, 58.596s

4: Alexander Rossi, Andretti Autosport Honda, 58.620s

5: Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske Chevy, 58.634s

6: Devlin DeFrancesco, Andretti Autosport Honda, 58.656s

7: Romain Grosjean, Andretti Autosport Honda, 58.951s

8: Kyle Kirkwood, A.J. Foyt Racing Chevy, 59.397s

9: Dalton Kellett, A.J. Foyt Racing Chevy, 1m00.101s