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Weather Update

thepitwindow2 Comments

The predicted rfront is moving through Birmingham right now. The amazing @Indycar_Wxman says the front will move through by 9:30 am local time.

It looks like the race will go with minimal disruption. The radar just before 8 pm:

For further updates, check in with @tutorindie on Twitter or The Pit Window on Facebook.

The USF 2000 race scheduled for 8:45 and the 9:45 Indy Lights race may be delayed, possibly until after the Indycar race. Indy Pro 2000 has a race at 2:30. This morning’s races may go after that if they can’t go this morning. The television window creates a hard stop time for this morning’s races.

Herta Quickest in Barber Practice 1

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Photo by Kyle McInnes

Colton Herta led the first practice session for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. Andretti Autosport put three drivers in the top six. Alexander Rossi finished third and Romain Grosjean was fourth.

Defending race winner and series champion Alex Palou was second and Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon was sixth. Marcus Ericsson put a third Gaanssi car in top ten with the ninth fastest time.

Scott McLaughlin was the only Team Penske car in the top 10 in fifth place.

Pato O’Ward, the 2021 Barber pole sitter was seventh.

Rookie Callum Ilott had the eighth fastest time,

The session ran uninterrupted.

Callum Ilott

The top 13

Notes

The crowd seemed smaller than atypical Friday Barber crowd. I find that odd since the track declared tomorrow and Sunday sellouts.

The Fan Zone appeared to be the most robust in several years. There are a lot of vendors and expanded food choices.

Danial Frost led the Indy Lights practice session with a time of 1: 12.6511. Matthew Brabham, winner of the first race at St. Pete, was sixth.

A chance of rain looms for qualifying tomorrow and a better chance of precipitation is possible Sunday.

It was nice see flowers in bloom at Barber again.

Morning at Barber

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It’s great to be back at Barber Motorsports Park. I don’t know why, but I consider this race the true start of the summer racing season. I assume it is because the race is so close to opening day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Turn 3
Turn 1. Pit out at the middle right edge

Today’s action focuses mainly on the Road to Indy, including USF Juniors, the first step on the ladder. Indycar takes the track at 3 pm Central Time.

Notes

Indycar and IMS announced a multi -year sponsorship with Gallagher, a global insurance company. Gallagher was the sponsor for Carlin Racing and Max Chilton.The agreement includes title sponsorship of the second Indycar road race at IMS. The link to the announcement:

https://go.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/index.php/email/emailWebview?md_id=1746

The 33rd entry for the Indianapolis 500 will be announced next week. I’m hearing it involves Stefan Wilson and Cusick Motorsports.

I’ll be back with some driver quotes in a bit.

Newgarden Leads Day 2

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The sun escaped its cloud prison and the Indycar series team got in a four hour practice at IMS today. The session saw cars running in groups and practicing passing. Teams ran together to get a feel for the draft..

Just two caution periods for track inspections interrupted today’s practice period.

Josef Newgarden led today’s session with lap at 229.519 mph. Takuma Sato also had a lap over 229 mph, just 0.0157 seconds slower. The next five drivers had speeds in the 228 mph range.

Newgarden has won the last two races and feels good about his chances in the 500. After the test ended, he told the media<

“I can’t deny things feel really good on the 2 car. They’re just progressing. It’s not like two steps forward, two steps back, or vice versa. I feel like it’s going forward every single time, and we’re just getting better.

We’ve been on a good trajectory at the moment. I don’t want to see it flatten too much; I want to see it go the other way. I feel confident with what we’ve got, feel good at showing up anywhere. Being at Team Penske makes that easier. I always feel confident in our group.”

Unlike Wednesday’s string of yellows for incidents, today was issue free. Drivers completed 3,267 laps. Marcus Ericsson completed he most laps, 148.

Marco Andretti climbs into the 98 to start his day.

The top 10 had three Chevys and seven Hondas. All five cars from Chip Ganassi Racing were in the top 10. Tony Kanaan was the fastest from the team at third place with a lap of 228.767.

Tony Kanaan in turn 2

Helio Castroneves did not run today. He is uninjured, but his car was not repaired in time from yesterday’s crash.

Notes

Marco Andretti was the only Andretti Autosport driver in the top 15 in sixth place. Romain Grosjean finished 16th. Alexander Rossi was 23rd and Colton Herta was 28th. Puzzling results for a team that used to be really good at IMS.

Colton Herta gets ready to start the test session

Sato was not driving the car he will drive in the 500 this week. The team did not want to risk damage to their speedway car.

Santino Ferrucci showed some speed . he finished twelfth today but was in the top 10 for a good chunk of the session. I don’t understand why he doesn’t have a full time ride.

Callum Ilott again led the pure rookies. Keep an eye on him next month.

Will Power pointed out at the end of the day that today’s results mean nothing for qualifying. The cars ran without their qualifying boost, and qualifying is one car on track, not several that can give the trailing car a tow.

“You need (extra boost for qualifying), with everyone going on single runs on exactly the same fuel load with no draft, all that. That’s the only way you’ll know,” Power said.

Thanks for following along these two days. It was great to be back at IMS with cars running on the oval.

Today’s time sheet