Newgarden Returns to Top Spot at Mid-Ohio

Josef Newgarden’s summer time sizzling streak continued Friday on the Mid-Ohio Sports activities Automotive Course.

The 2-time winner at this everlasting street course picked up the place he left off within the most-recent NTT INDYCAR SERIES race – at Street America – by topping the follow charts right here Friday in the one session of the day in preparation for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Introduced by The All-New 2023 Civic Sort R (12:30 p.m. ET, stay on NBC and the INDYCAR Radio Community).

Newgarden drove the No. 2 PPG Group Penske Chevrolet to a greatest lap time of 1 minute, 7.0549 seconds on the 13-turn, 2.258-mile everlasting street course.

CLICK: NTT INDYCAR SERIES Observe 1 Outcomes

Newgarden’s season-leading three race wins have come at Texas Motor Speedway (March 20), on the streets of Lengthy Seashore (April 10) and at Street America (June 12). The weekend earlier than Street America he scored the NTT P1 Award for pole at The Raceway at Belle Isle Park.

Newgarden can be the defending winner at Mid-Ohio.

“The automotive feels actually good,” he mentioned. “I believe the (temperatures) undoubtedly made the lure velocity low, and it felt very troublesome to drive the automotive at present to carry it as much as temperature.

“I’m comparatively glad. I believe our automotive was good off the truck.”

Defending NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou ended the 75-minute session second on the follow sheet with a greatest lap time of 1:07.2610 within the No. 10 NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Felix Rosenqvist rounded out the highest three with a greatest lap time of 1:07.3171 within the No. 7 Vuse Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet.

The session featured 673 laps turned in comparison with final 12 months’s first follow (461).

Indianapolis 500 introduced by Gainbridge winner Marcus Ericsson, who completed second on this race in 2021, ended the day fourth within the No. 8 Ridgeline Lubricants Honda at 1:07.3720, and Colton Herta rounded out the highest 5 within the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda for Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian at 1:07.4998.

David Malukas was the quickest rookie of the session, clocking in eighth with a greatest lap of 1:07.5361 within the No. 18 HMD Honda for Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports. He accomplished 26 laps in his first NTT INDYCAR SERIES session at Mid-Ohio.

“All the pieces from our finish, I believe it was superb,” Malukas mentioned. “From begin to finish of that session it was good. Mid-Ohio is so particular, as a result of each time you exit on monitor, it feels fully completely different, and monitor circumstances to begin the session have been very robust to say the least.”

All 27 drivers within the subject fought by means of the summer time warmth, with a number of drivers noting how difficult the mid 90-degree day was. Following follow, Newgarden mentioned he has “hardly ever been this heat within the automotive.”

Whereas Newgarden, a two-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion, bested Palou, the reigning collection champion, by greater than two tenths of a second, the remainder of the sector was rather more compact, with first and twentieth separated by simply 1 second.

The one incident of the session got here with about 40 minutes to go. Two-time Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato misplaced management of the No. 51 Nurtec ODT Honda in Flip 1 and spun off target and into the gravel lure.

Sato’s Dale Coyne Racing with RWR machine sustained no vital injury, and he continued on to pit lane because the monitor went beneath pink flag circumstances.

The one different off-course tour got here with roughly 25 minutes to go within the follow. Andretti Autosport’s Romain Grosjean spun in Flip 12 within the No. 28 ForeverLawn/DHL Honda. He stored the automotive beneath energy, and no pink flag was thrown.

The NTT INDYCAR SERIES is again on monitor at Mid-Ohio Saturday with Observe 2 at 9:30 a.m. (ET), adopted by qualifying for the NTT P1 Award for pole at 2:45 p.m. Each classes might be stay on Peacock Premium and INDYCAR Radio Community.