Alexander Rossi had the fastest lap on a perfect afternoon in the first practice of the weekend for the Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America. Under ideal conditions Rossi had the quick time of1:41.779. his teammates, Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist, also place in the top 10 at fith and eighth respectively. Chip Ganassi Racing again put all four of their cars in the top 10 with lex palou third, Scott Dixon fourth, Marcu Ericsson sixth, and Marcus rmstrong 10th.

David Malukas of Dale Coyne Racing with HMD, was second fastest, 0.086 seconds behind Rossi. Christian Lundgaard was seventh in a nice showing for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, and Colton Herta was ninth for Andretti Autosport.

Graham rahal was 11th, just 15 hundredths behind Lundgaard.

The session ran clean. Santino Ferrucci did a 360 spin in Canada corner, but he was able to keep the car riunning and drove off.

Mid Pack for Penske

Scott Mclauhghlin led a 15-16-17 result for Team Penske with Josef Newgarden, then Will Power. It seems odd to see all thre of them pakced so low. I wouldn’t count them out just yet, thou Slightly better than expected

Hunter-Reay a Little Better than Expected

Ryan Hunter-Reay’s debut with Ed Carpenter racing resulted in 20th place today, slightly higher than I expected. He finished higher tha Rinus VeeKay, who was 26th.

The Day

I missed Friday here last year, but today’s crowd semed larger than the 2021 Friday attendance. I watched most of practice from Canada Corner, which is usually pretty sparse on Friday. Today the crowd there approached Saturday size.

I talked to several fans attending their first Road America Indycar race. They were all in awe of the track.

Some track changes. The repaving looks great and the track is quite smooth. We’ll see how it changes theere racing Sunday.

There appears to be new fencing inTurn 5, which is a nice improvement.

Turn 8 now has a sand trap on the outside and viewing areas on that side of the track. It might be worth a look during tomorrow morning’s practice.

The runoff in turn 5 has been paved.I don’t like that change at all. It is less of a challenge to a driver who goes off course.

Tomorrow is an early start with Indycar practice at 9:55 Central time.

Results