Colton Herta turned a lap of 1:07.027 late in this morning’s practice to lead the final practice round before qualifying this afternoon. Herta’s lap came just before the third red flag ot yhe morning halted practie about 90 seconds early.

Rinus VeeKay had led the majority of the practice until the final push by other drivers dropped his time to sixth. Will Power finished second and Josef mewgarden was third. Power’s time was only 0.003 seconds behind Herta. Newgarden was 0.034 seconds off the pace.

Three red flags interrupted the session. Just two and a half minutes into the session, Devlin DeFrancesco went off track in turn 2 and had cintact with the barrier. With about 30 minutes left Dalton Kellett went into the turn 12 tire barrier. The final stoppage happened with only a minute and 23 seconds left. Will Power oulled his car off course in turn 4 and stopped. The carbwas towed back to the paddock.

The results set up a fascinating second qualifying group with Herta, Newgarden, Alex Palou, and Pato O’Ward. We could see a three round duel between Herta and Newgarden.

The top 13: