Malukas tops opening Phoenix IndyCar practice

Team Penske’s David Malukas was quick during IndyCar’s Unser Open Test in February at Phoenix Raceway and it carried over as he led the field Friday morning in the No. 12 Chevy at 175.606mph.

Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward was second in the No. 5 Chevy (174.461mph) ahead of Penske’s Josef Newgarden in the No. 2 Chevy (174.057mph), ECR’s Christian Rasmussen in the No. 21 Chevy (173.967mph), Andretti Global’s Will Power in the No. 26 Honda (173.829), and ECR’s Alexander Rossi in the No. 20 Chevy (173.551mph).

It was a rare moment for IndyCar as its cars were the first to hit the track at an event on a Friday; its normal routine involves firing out late on Friday afternoons for its lone practice session. However, as the guests during NASCAR’s Phoenix event, 25 IndyCar drivers were first up at 8am in cool desert temperatures barely above 50 degrees.

“It feels really good right now, the track with it being so cold this morning is different,” Malukas said. “We made a few changes with the car to where it needed to be. Thankfully, we had the test here a few weeks ago. The car is very strong. We knew that. It’s going to be timing, getting it all right with wind, track temperature, all that. Hopefully we’ll have a good qualifying.”

Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Rinus VeeKay was the first to post a meaningful lap around the one-mile oval at 168.702mph in the No. 76 Chevy after 15 minutes went by, and then Penske’s Scott McLaughlin moved the bar up to 172.453mph in the No. 3 Chevy.

Twenty minutes in and Power was the new leader at 172.746mph in the No. 26 Andretti Honda, and moments later, Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist spun approaching the exit of Turn 2 and clobbered the wall with the left side of his No. 60 Honda. With qualifying up next in a few hours, Rosenqvist will not get a chance to sample the repaired car before the start of time trials.

• MSR scrambles to repair Rosenqvist car after Phoenix crash

At the point of the stoppage, the top six was comprised of Power, Graham Rahal, McLaughlin, Alex Palou, Scott Dixon and Santino Ferrucci. Nearly 13 minutes were lost during the cleanup, and with the green flag waving with just over 27 minutes left and the ambient creeping up to 55 degrees, a number of drivers, including O’Ward, Mick Schumacher, Malukas and Rossi had plenty of work to do after completing three laps or less.

O’Ward went to P1 on his first flying attempt with a 173.422mph in the No. 5 McLaren Chevy and then Malukas took the top spot with a 175.606mph in the No. 12 Penske Chevy with 22 minutes to go.

As 45 minutes passed, it was Malukas, O’Ward, Power, Rossi, Rahal, and McLaughlin as the top six. Schumacher improved to 19th. With 13 minutes left, Newgarden rose to third with a 174.057mph in the No. 2 Chevy to comprise an all-Chevy top four with Penske’s Malukas, O’Ward, and Penske’s Newgarden and McLaughlin flexing at Phoenix.

With 11 minutes remaining, Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood jumped to fifth in the No. 27 Honda with a 173.474mph.

Rossi improved to fourth as the clock wound towards the last five minutes to make for a leader group of Malukas, O’Ward, Newgarden, Rossi, McLaughlin, VeeKay, Kirkwood, and Nolan Siegel. Two minutes later and Rasmussen moved to fourth with a 173.967mph in the No. 21 Chevy and Power improved to fifth and Schumacher vaulted to 11th as the best rookie and best among the RLL team.

UP NEXT: Qualifying, 2:05pm ET (12:05pm local)

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