McLaughlin paces sole IndyCar practice on Iowa’s new surface

Team Penske led the one and only practice session ahead of the Hy-Vee Doubleheader at Iowa Speedway as Scott McLaughlin was the best of the field of 27 cars at 185.891mph in the No. 3 Chevy.

The 90-minute afternoon run had everything that Iowa’s known for. High heat and humidity—85 degrees—sent the newly-paved track surface to over 120F, and with new and slightly softer right-side Firestone tires to try, most drivers like McLaughlin, who also led the pack with 112 laps turned, spend their time working on chassis setup changes. Damper and spring changes were rampant throughout the session, and with qualifying simulations performed, the fastest laps were produced.

Championship leader Alex Palou was close behind in second with a 185.536mph run in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, and the NTT IndyCar Series’ latest winner Pato O’Ward was third at 184.154mph in the No. 5 Chevy. Meyer Shank Racing’s David Malukas was fourth in the No. 66 Honda at 184.112mph, O’Ward’s teammate Alexander Rossi was fifth at 183.784mph in the No. 7 Chevy, and the top six was completed by Scott Dixon in the No. 9 Ganassi Honda at 183.620mph.

“From the start, the car was pretty good off the truck even with the changes to the downforce and to the tire that we have for this race,” McLaughlin said. “Ultimately it felt pretty solid. I knew we had pace in it as I was building up to the run. I got a clean enough run so I made the most of it to put up a good lap. Hopefully we get a good place to start. We need to adjust a couple of things for turn four because it easy to get up there in the marbles, but I think is going to prove difficult for everyone. So far, so good.”

Wind also played a factor on Friday, as did harmless spins. Cautions were called for Agustin Canapino’s clean spin in Turn 2, Katherine Legge’s contact-free spin out of Turn 4, and even McLaughlin got in on the game with 90 seconds left while coming out of Turn 4. Only Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson was unlucky as his No. 28 Honda spun early in Turn 4, rotated, and smashed the rear of the car and did some damage up front.

Ericsson was unharmed and he’ll be back in action on Saturday at the start of qualifying.

The timing of Ericsson’s crash is the one lingering problem. It happened just 10 minutes into the session, which means he’ll go straight into qualifying with limited mileage in the car on the new right-side tires, and needs to push hard in the repaired car.

McLaughlin’s teammate Josef Newgarden, who’s won three of the last four Iowa races, was a surprise in 15th as his 105 laps of running—more than all but three others—didn’t deliver the anticipated pace.

Prior to the session, IndyCar held a high-lane rubbering-in outing for 30 minutes. Graham Rahal was confident the application of rubber above the low lane will open passing opportunities in the races.

“It’s gonna be there, for sure,” he said. “This helps tremendously.”

UP NEXT: Qualifying, Saturday, 3:45 p.m. ET, on Peacock.

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