Colton Herta led Friday practice for Indycar’s season finale in a session interrupted five times by red flags. Herta”s time of 1;07.5382 is under the track record set in 2000 by Helio Castroneves. Pato O’Ward was second, and Alexander Rossi finished third. O’Ward also beat the track record.

Times were all on the primary tires. teams were just beginning to run the alternates when red flags near the end of the session prevented any significant runs on the alternate tires. Tire degradation of the primary tires appeared low.

“We didn’t get to do a proper run,” Herta said of the alternate, red-sidewall tires. “I think some of the teammates did, which is a good thing for me at least to understand what they do and how we can make the car a little bit better.

“But it’s really close. I feel really happy with how everything is. It’s a good-looking race car this weekend, and I hope to try to make it to Victory Lane with it.”

The newly paved surface proved quick as expected, but anyone going just a bit offline ended up off track. Romain Grosjean made contact with the tire barrier in turn4, damaging the left front suspension. Will Power had heavy contact and suffered a cut tire and rear end damage.

Scott Mclaughlin’s spin into the gravel with about three minutes left ended practice.

Indycar practices again tomorrow at 1 pm Eastern, then qualifies at 5 pm Eastern.

Results