If the last two days of testing at Barber Motorsports Park are any indication, Team Penske has the edge going into the IZOD IndyCar Series’ season-opening race on March 14.
Will Power led a Penske sweep of the top three spots in today’s lone test session at BMP (cold temperatures scratched the morning runs). The Australian driver took the No. 12 Verizon-backed machine to P1 with a hot lap of 1 minute, 9.8724 seconds. Following him were teammates Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe, who had the fastest time on Wednesday.
According to Doug Demmons of The Birmingham News, today’s afternoon session featured a pair of wrecks that involved De Ferran Luczo Dragon Racing driver Raphael Matos and defending series champion Dario Franchitti from Target Chip Ganassi Racing. As you can see from the links, these were significant incidents, indeed!
Franchitti’s teammate Scott Dixon had a better day on the 2.3-mile road course, going fourth-quickest. Justin Wilson also had another solid outing today for Dreyer and Reinbold Racing and came away with the fifth-fastest time.
Here’s the full speed chart from today’s activities:
1. 12-Will Power, Penske, 1:09.8724 secs., 118.502 m.p.h.
2. 3-Helio Castroneves, Penske, 1:10.0084, 118.272.
3. 6-Ryan Briscoe, Penske, 1:10.0459, 118.208.
4. 9-Scott Dixon, Ganassi, 1:10.0594, 118.185.
5. 22-Justin Wilson, DRR, 1:10.0869, 118.139.
6. 5-Takuma Sato, KV Racing Tech., 1:10.2070, 117.937.
7. 24-Mike Conway, DRR, 1:10.2497, 117.865.
8. 26-Marco Andretti, Andretti Autosport, 1:10.3956, 117.621.
9. 06-Hideki Mutoh, Newman/Haas/Lanigan, 1:10.4451, 117.538.
10. 34-Mario Romancini, Conquest, 1:10.5487, 117.366.
11. 32-James Rossiter, KVRT, 1:10.5700, 117.330.
12. 11-Tony Kanaan, AA, 1:10.6704, 117.164.
13. 14-Vitor Meira, A.J. Foyt Racing, 1:10.6963, 117.121.
14. 37-Ryan Hunter-Reay, AA, 1:10.7123, 117.094.
15. 8-E.J. Viso, KVRT, 1:11.3140, 116.106.
16. 78-Simona de Silvestro, HVM Racing, 1:11.3351, 116.072.
17. 7-Danica Patrick, AA, 1:11.5112, 115.786.
18. 2-Raphael Matos, De Ferran Luczo Dragon Racing, 1:11.5184, 115.726.
19. 10-Dario Franchitti, Ganassi, 1:12.9810, 113.454.
20. 67-Jay Howard, Sarah Fisher Racing, 1:14.1883, 111.608.
