Early Saturday morning, engines roared through the streets of Arlington, Texas as IndyCar’s 25 drivers completed their second practice runs.
The fun yet difficult course gave everyone a challenge once again, with a wide disparity in times among the field.
Kyle Kirkwood completed the fastest lap of all at 1:33.1409, which was over a second quicker than Friday’s running.
Kirkwood was well off the pace during the first session, showing just how much he has improved overnight.
Second fastest was the ever-present Alex Palou, followed by Marcus Armstrong in his Meyer Shank Racing Honda.
Will Power squeaked into fourth, and Marcus Ericsson was fifth quick to complete the Andretti trio. Ericsson was nearly a second slower than Kirkwood at the head of the field, however.
The first Chevrolet on the timesheets as David Malukas in sixth, followed by his Penske team-mate Scott McLaughlin.
Sting Ray Robb and Rinus VeeKay were right at the bottom, continuing the Juncos Hollinger Racing duo’s woes.
Stop and start session
Similar to the first practice session on Friday, the series’ veterans seemed to have a rougher learning curve than the others.
The first red flag was brought out by Scott Dixon, who spun lazily in the tight Turn 4.
While he was working on getting his car facing the right way, Will Power came around the corner and ran into him.
Luckily it was a slow speed impact, and both drivers were able to continue for the rest of the session after a short bit of attention from their respective pit crews.
Josef Newgarden also had an issue, as he lost control while traversing the multiple track surfaces in Turn 2.
He slid into the barriers and crunched his front suspension, which ended his morning early.
A few other drivers locked up and went into the runoff areas, but they were able to get going again without assistance from the AMR safety crew.
Drivers will be back on track at 1:30 in the afternoon for qualifying, which could prove to be a game of how much risk each racer wants to take on.
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