Tony Kanaan topped the time sheets in his return session for Chip Ganassi racing, circling the Texas Motor Speedway in 23.5451 seconds at an average speed of 220.173 mph.
The session was delayed by almost two hours due to track drying efforts that were needed after some overnight rain showers.
The weather continued to be very humid and almost foggy throughout the early afternoon, which slowed the efforts of the jet dryers that circled the track all morning.
When things finally got underway, many drivers were hesitant to head out on an unknown track, which left Dalton Kellett with the 1.5-mile oval to himself for about 10 minutes.
By time the latter half of the 90-minute session came around, all the drivers were putting in laps and it was Tony Kanaan who rocketed to the top in his #48 Bryant-sponsored Honda.
Kanaan, who is driving the car that Jimmie Johnson has been racing on the road courses the last couple weekends, was the only driver to break the 220mph barrier in today’s session.
Pato O’Ward was close, however, with a speed of 219.934 in his Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet. He was followed Takuma Sato and Scott Dixon in third and fourth place respectively.
Dixon will be attempting to follow up his season-opening win last year at Texas, that led the veteran all the way to his sixth series championship.
The current points leader Alex Palou ended the session down in 11th, the lowest of the four Chip Ganassi Racing entries.
Scott McLaughlin is the only rookie running ovals this season, and finished 20th in his first timed session around a high-banked oval.
The field of 24 entrants made it a point to run some laps on their own but spent the latter part of the session running in packs to get a feel for their cars in dirty air.
This led to a couple close calls – closer that most would prefer in practice – but there were no incidents to halt the running once it was underway.
On account of the delayed start to practice, the NTT IndyCar Series has decided that the planned qualifying session will be scrapped and drivers will line up according to driver points for the two races this weekend.
The first race of the double-header has also been moved forward nearly an hour due to the threat of more rain this evening, and the green flag for the Genesys 300 is now scheduled for 18:10 Central Time.
