Six drivers attended an IndyCar test session Wednesday at Texas Motor Speedway, with each rookie driver proving their competence at running at high speeds before the race at the same track later this month.
IndyCar uses the low downforce package at the 1.5-mile high-speed oval, and drivers need to adjust to the speed before being thrown into chaotic race situations.
Christian Lundgaard was the first driver on track in the morning, putting in laps in his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda as soon as the sun warmed the track enough to provide grip.
Kyle Kirkwood logged the fastest lap of the day in the afternoon with an average speed of 219.784 MPH, getting the most out of the cool, early spring weather.
For reference, the fastest race lap time from the Genesys 300 at Texas last year was 219.098 MPH by Marcus Ericsson.
Callum Ilott put in the second fastest lap time in his Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevy, averaging only 0.6 MPH slower than his fellow rookie in the AJ Foyt entry.
Even though he was the last person to start running laps, David Malukas ran the most laps of the day at 210, and Christian Lundgaard was only a few laps behind with 186.
Devlin DeFrancesco also topped the 100-lap milestone, and was able to put in the fifth-best time of the day.
Romain Grosjean, who will be running all oval races this season, logged the third-fastest lap of the day after leading the charts during most of the first half of the test.
Grosjean was the only driver on track that is technically not a rookie this season, although he has yet to compete on a high-speed oval and still needed to complete the program.
The afternoon running saw the drivers run in groups on track, testing out the feel of their cars while in the dirty air of their competitors after they were comfortable running at the high speeds.
Multiple veteran drivers, including Graham Rahal, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and JR Hildebrand, were on hand to give the cars a shakedown and make sure they were suitable for the more inexperienced drivers.
Jimmie Johnson was not present at the test despite being in the same situation as Grosjean, but Johnson has tested at Texas previously and was not required to do anything further ahead of the race in two weeks.
Multiple other drivers from Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing will have their own private test session at Texas next week.
The XPEL 375 will be run on March 20, with a compressed two-day schedule only allowing for limited practice during the race weekend.
