Courtesy of the NTT IndyCar Series

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – NTT IndyCar Series drivers encountered an off-and-on day of practice for the 10th annual Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama presented by AmFirst.

James Hinchcliffe. Photo by Chris Owens

Pushing the limits of their cars, themselves and Barber Motorsports Park’s rolling 2.3-mile, 17-turn permanent road course, nearly half the 24-driver field took excursions into the grass or gravel during one of the two 45-minute practices Friday. Despite having an adventurous moment himself in the opening session, James Hinchcliffe came back to set the fastest lap of the day in the later practice.

HONDA INDY GRAND PRIX OF ALABAMA: Practice 1 results I Practice 2 results I Combined practice results

Hinchcliffe, driver of the No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda who finished third in last year’s Barber race, clocked a top practice lap of 1 minute, 8.9994 seconds (120.001 mph) to take the day’s honors. The six-time NTT IndyCar Series race winner was pleased with the effort, despite a disjointed day that saw four red flags for cars stopped on or off track and numerous other slips and slides as drivers extracted every ounce out of their machines.

“Everything on the No. 5 Arrow car has been working well so far,” Hinchcliffe said. “It’s crazy – we’ve seen it all year, the amount of red flags we’re having in sessions. I think it’s just a function of everyone trying to push for those last few hundredths and thousandths (of a second) because it’s so competitive right now.

James Hinchcliffe. Photo by Joe Skibinski

“I don’t think we’ve ever been P1 in a session and been so happy with the (car’s) balance, if I’m totally honest.”

Rookie sensation Colton Herta, who became the youngest winner in Indy car annals at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, on March 24, continued his hot streak by logging the second-fastest lap of the day – also coming in the second session. Herta, who turned 19 six days following his historic win, toured the Barber circuit in 1:09.0084 (119.985 mph) in the No. 88 GESS International Honda for Harding Steinbrenner Racing.

“I’m happy with how today went,” Herta said. “I think we’re all a little puzzled with how the reds (Firestone alternate tires) reacted because almost everyone went slower on the reds, so we’re not sure what happened there. But we got a lot of data to look through and we were quick, so I’m looking forward to see how that goes when we add the rain in (Saturday’s) forecast.”

Neither Hinchcliffe nor Herta, however, avoided the rash of drivers who veered off course during the day. Among the others were Tony Kanaan, Matheus Leist, Takuma Sato, Spencer Pigot, Santino Ferrucci, Alexander Rossi and Zach Veach. Only Leist and Ferrucci made contact with a wall, but neither driver was injured. Despite the chaotic sessions, the top 21 drivers on the combined timesheet were within a second.

Ferrucci wound up third on the combined chart with a lap of 1:09.0461 (119.920 mph) in the No. 19 David Yurman Honda for Dale Coyne Racing.

“In Practice 2, we went out on the primary Firestone tire and we were instantly competitive,” Ferrucci said. “The David Yurman car felt really good and I was pretty confident. But then we put the red tires on, and we still have a lot to learn. 

“It’s nice to end the day near the top of the timesheets, even if it’s just the first day of practice.”

Honda-powered drivers owned the top six spots in each session. Pigot, in the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, was quickest among the bowtie brigade, seventh in the afternoon practice and overall for the day at 1:09.2055 (119.644 mph).

Absent from the top of the timesheets were Team Penske drivers Josef Newgarden, Will Power and Simon Pagenaud. None placed better than 10th in either session, with Power the best on the combined-session results at 12th. Newgarden, the current points leader and winner of the March 10 season opener at St. Petersburg, Florida, ranked 18th on the combined listing.

“We seem to be missing something at the moment,” Newgarden said. “It seems like all of us are searching for something.”

The final pre-qualifying practice starts at 11:45 a.m. ET Saturday (livestream on INDYCAR Pass on NBC Sports Gold). NTT P1 Award qualifying airs live on NBCSN and INDYCAR Pass at 4 p.m.

Coverage of the race commences at 4 p.m. Sunday on NBCSN and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network. Track officials announced Friday that Indy car legend Mario Andretti will be grand marshal and issue the command for drivers to start their engines from the driver’s seat of the Honda Fastest Seat in Sports two-seat Indy car he’ll be driving to pace the field before the green flag.

‘What They’re Saying’ from Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama practice

JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 2 Fitzgerald USA Team Penske Chevrolet, two-time defending Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama winner): “Not a great day, to be honest. We seem to be missing something at the moment. It seems like all of us are searching for something. That means we really need to put our heads together tonight and really look at things closely as a team and come up with some good solutions for tomorrow. I feel confident we’ll figure something out for the No. 2 Fitzgerald USA Chevy. We’re just off today and we weren’t very quick. I’m always confident with this group and I think we’ll find something. We just need to work really hard tonight.”

MATHEUS LEIST (No. 4 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet): “Not really the day we wanted here at the track. I made a mistake coming out of the pits in the first practice, and unfortunately, I crashed the car. It’s not a big crash, but we couldn’t continue – we had to change the wings and check everything. The second session was OK, but we still need to improve for tomorrow. I felt that the car had a lot of oversteer, mainly with the red (Firestone alternate) tires, which I thought we would pick up a lot of understeer. It was a balance change we were not expecting as a team, so we just have to regroup, watch the videos, analyze the data and see what to do to improve for tomorrow.”

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda):“Everything on the No. 5 Arrow car has been working well so far. It’s crazy – we’ve seen it all year, the amount of red flags we’re having in sessions; I think it’s just a function of everyone trying to push for those last few hundredths and thousandths (of a second) because it’s so competitive right now. Honda did a great job – I think they locked out the top six there, which is great. For us, it’s always interesting in Practice 2 with the reds (Firestone alternate tires). I don’t think a lot of people got out of the reds what they were expecting, ourselves included. I don’t think we’ve ever been P1 in a session and been so unhappy with the balance if I’m totally honest.”

MARCUS ERICSSON (No. 7 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda): “It’s a really cool track. First time here for me, obviously, but really enjoying it; it’s a lot of fun to drive. I think for us, we’ve done a good job with the Arrow car. (My teammate) James (Hinchcliffe) showed in both sessions that we can be really fast around here, so that’s really positive. For my side, I’m still building up to it, getting a hang of the track – it’s a difficult one; I’m sure by tomorrow we’ll be there. We have a bit of homework to do tonight to catch up, but then we should be right up there tomorrow.”

SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, 2018 NTT IndyCar Series champion): “In Practice 1, there was a lot of traffic and we didn’t really get a clear run in the PNC Bank car. In second practice, I don’t know what happened. We just couldn’t get the front tires to work for some reason. We had a lot of understeer on the black (Firestone primary) tires, so we made adjustments to correct that for the reds (Firestone alternate tires). For whatever reason, the car just went way out of balance. It felt like something was broken or disconnected on the car. Tenth isn’t terrible given those circumstances, but that’s obviously not where we want to be today.”

FELIX ROSENQVIST (No. 10 NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing Honda): “Practice 1 went very good and the car felt OK. No big drama there. Second practice, we may have gone the wrong way in terms of the direction of the changes. Nothing to worry about, though. We’ll revert to our baseline and we should be all right. Good lessons to learn for tomorrow. It’s good to learn and I’m looking forward to improving the NTT DATA car for qualifying.”

WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): “We definitely have some work to do to make the car better for tomorrow. We have a really strong team and we’re going to go over the data tonight to see what we can come up with. I think we found some good stuff in that session that we will implement for tomorrow for the No. 12 Verizon Chevy and see if we can improve the time sheets.”

TONY KANAAN (No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet): “It was a learning day for us. This was a track that we had a lot of difficulty at last year, so I think we’re closer – although the position that we finished (21st) doesn’t look like that – but we’re only seven-tenths (of a second) behind first place, which if we improve by three-tenths we’re in the top 10. We’ve got to keep working. If we’re able to improve for tomorrow, I think we’ll be OK.”

GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 15 One Cure Honda): “No one went quicker on the red (Firestone alternate) tires other than maybe Hinch (James Hinchcliffe), which was unusual. They are going to be a major challenge; the balance shift is massive. For us, really, we were close. The first run was solid, which was when we went our quickest. I lifted, because of traffic, to start what could have potentially been the optimal lap, timing wise, right when the tires were sweet because I thought I had an extra lap of fuel afterward, and I didn’t, so I wasted the blacks (Firestone primary tires) at the start. We’re not quickest, but we’re only half of a second out. It’s so close. It looks like there is only one sector where we are losing most of our time. We will work hard to resolve that.”

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS (No. 18 SealMaster Honda): “It was a good day for the No. 18 SealMaster Honda team. I am pretty happy with the car on blacks (Firestone primary tires). I didn’t get my fast lap during the first run on blacks, then went faster on the second run. So, we have left some on the table, which is why I am fairly confident and happy with the way things went. We got a weird read, but weren’t the only ones, with the Firestone reds (alternate tires). As soon as the sun came out, the track got about a full second slower on the alternates. That’s never been seen before. We tried a couple of things, but I can’t say we did a whole lot. The baseline setup was strong, so hopefully, we can make some little tweaks to it and make it better for tomorrow. Overall, a satisfying day.”

SANTINO FERRUCCI (No. 19 David Yurman Honda): “It was a good first day here at Barber Motorsports Park. In Practice 1 this morning, we didn’t run too much because of the conditions. In Practice 2, we went out on the primary Firestone tire and we were instantly competitive. The David Yurman car felt really good and I was pretty confident. But then we put the red (Firestone alternate) tires on, and we still have a lot to learn. So, there’s still a little bit of work to do before going into qualifying tomorrow, but I have confidence in the team. It’s nice to end the day near the top of the time sheets, even if it’s just the first day of practice.”

ED JONES (No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Scuderia Corsa Chevrolet): “It was a frustrating day. We were compromised again in Practice 1 with a few issues; unfortunately, we didn’t get much better in Practice 2. We tried different things with the setup, but nothing is really correlating to the No. 21 car. We are going to look at it and see what’s going on so we can get a handle on it before qualifying tomorrow.”

SPENCER PIGOT (No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet): “We had a pretty decent day today. The car was very good in the second session on the black (Firestone primary) tires. We made some good improvements over the start of the day. It is a little difficult on reds (Firestone alternate tires) right now, they seem to be throwing a little bit of a curveball at us as we try and get the most of them. We’ll see where we can improve on those tonight. Overall, I’m fairly happy with what we have so far and am looking forward to qualifying tomorrow.”

SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet): “We were trying a few different things on the No. 22 Menards Chevrolet today. We understand what we need to get ready for qualifying tomorrow and that’s why these practices are so important. I think we do have some good pace in the car. We didn’t show everything we have today, so tomorrow will be very interesting. I think it’s going to be very tight in qualifying, but hopefully that bright Menards Chevy will be at the front of the grid for Sunday’s race here at Barber.”

ZACH VEACH (No. 26 Gainbridge Honda): “Things have been up and down, but I think that’s because we are really close to a breakthrough. We’re so close to being able to run up front consistently – it’s just every now and then we keep going over it. Once it finally clicks, it will be good for all of us. It’s definitely slick out there, we’re seeing things that we haven’t really found at Barber before, especially with the reds (Firestone alternate tires). I don’t think anyone went faster with reds on. We had a big save at the top of the hill that definitely woke me up, but it worked out OK.”

ALEXANDER ROSSI (No. 27 NAPA AUTO PARTS Honda): “This morning was difficult because there were a lot of red flags and we started out with a damp track, so we didn’t really get a proper run. The second session was more indicative of our general pace and how the NAPA car is feeling. The big mystery to take away from today is the Firestone reds (alternate tires) were a lot worse for me and it’s unusual for the reds to be slower. We’ll have to understand why that is and work through it, but it was the same for the whole field. With that being said, we’re a tenth out of being P1, so we’ll keep chipping away at it to hopefully get to our third Firestone Fast Six tomorrow.”

RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 DHL Honda): “The car was a handful – it was tough out there today. I don’t know why; I think everybody is kind of dealing with that. Overall, lap times just aren’t where they were last year for the whole field. We’ll just have to look into it and see what’s going on, but I think everybody has their hands full. I’d like to get a win here this weekend for DHL and get Honda back to victory lane in Alabama. It’s been a couple races since our last win, so we’re looking to get back there.”

TAKUMA SATO (No. 30 Mi-Jack / Panasonic Honda): “It was a tough day with mixed feelings. Initially, I felt the car was quite positioned while the track was still green. The session was cut short by red flags, but we felt good under those conditions. As the track started getting more rubber down and faster, we started losing the balance and grip. In the end, we struggled to find the speed. I was in traffic when I was on the red (Firestone alternate) tire and never got a clear lap, but I didn’t really feel we could gain any time. Hopefully, we can develop the car tonight and have a productive day because today was tough.”

PATRICIO O’WARD (No. 31 Carlin Chevrolet): “It’s really exciting to be back at Barber Motorsports Park – it’s been a good track for me. Our day has been interesting. Our first session was pretty scrappy, but we were right on pace. For the second session, everyone got to put on red (Firestone alternate) tires, but for some reason, it really altered the balance and made a huge difference between the blacks (Firestone primary tires) and the reds. We’ll need to definitely work on that for tomorrow and see exactly what the No. 31 Carlin Chevrolet needs for those Firestone reds for qualifying. We weren’t the only ones struggling – I feel like a lot of cars did as well. Regardless, we’ll get it worked out tonight and be ready for qualifying tomorrow.” 

MAX CHILTON (No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet): “I think we’re just a little bit puzzled right now with where we ended the day here at Barber. The No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet showed some pace in the first session, but we really struggled in the second session trying to get it right with the tires. We have some work to do tonight to make sure we’re prepared for qualifying tomorrow, but I know the team will work it out before tomorrow morning.”

COLTON HERTA (No. 88 GESS International Honda): “I’m happy with how today went. I think we’re all a little puzzled with how the reds (Firestone alternate tires) reacted because almost everyone went slower on the reds, so we’re not sure what happened there. But we got a lot of data to look through and we were quick, so I’m looking forward to see how that goes when we add the rain in tomorrow’s forecast.”

MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 98 U.S. Concrete / Curb Honda): “The reds (Firestone alternate tires) seemed like blacks (Firestone primary tires) and the blacks seemed like reds, so I’m in a mentality of being prepared to qualify on the blacks. We’re a little on the loose side of town, because we got caught out. What we had expected to happen, didn’t happen, so we need to adapt.”