Herta lapped the 2.366-mile 17-turn course in Birmingham, AL, in 66.5149sec, an average speed of 124.483mph to shade Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s defending race-winner here, by a mere 0.05sec.
Alexander Rossi was precisely 0.1sec behind Andretti Autosport teammate Herta but a hair faster than another teammate, Romain Grosjean, who is returning to the site of his first ever IndyCar race last year.
In a session that suggested Honda have retained somewhat of an advantage over Chevrolet on sinewy road courses, St. Petersburg winner, Team Penske-Chevy’s Scott McLaughlin, made a late improvement to bound into fifth place ahead of New Zealand compatriot Scott Dixon in the second quickest Ganassi.
Last year’s pole-winner, Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward, was the second fastest of the Chevys with a 66.9838sec, some 0.47sec off the ultimate pace.
Behind him was one of the stars of the session, Callum Ilott in the sole Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevy entry. He lapped the 2.366-mile course a tenth off O’Ward, but eighth overall after running 20 laps in the car bearing the Racing for Children’s Presented by Medical Properties Trust livery. He was fastest rookie.
Marcus Ericsson surived a hair-raising venture into the grass at Turn 13 to go ninth quickest ahead of Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet.
Jack Harvey was the quickest of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Hondas in 11th.
Will Power and Josef Newgarden, who have five Barber wins between them, were only 16th and 18th but Newgarden’s efforts were stymied by a technical issue which ended his session 10mins early. This weekend, the two-time champion could earn $500,000 bonus from PeopleReady, as he attempts to become the first driver this year to clinch victory on an oval, a street course and a road course.
Power and McLaughlin meanwhile turned 22 laps each as Penske attempts to make up for the fact that it did no ‘natural’ roadcourse testing in the offseason, and there is a new Firestone tire to learn for this weekend.
| P | Name | FTime | Diff | FL | Laps | LapTime | Engine | Team |
| 1 | Colton Herta | 1:06.5149 |
| 5 | 15 | 1:07.2187 | Honda | Andretti Autosport |
| 2 | Alex Palou | 1:06.5657 | 0.0508 | 8 | 17 | 1:07.5571 | Honda | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 3 | Alexander Rossi | 1:06.6657 | 0.1508 | 6 | 14 | 1:08.5594 | Honda | Andretti Autosport |
| 4 | Romain Grosjean | 1:06.7046 | 0.1897 | 5 | 16 | 1:06.8716 | Honda | Andretti Autosport |
| 5 | Scott McLaughlin | 1:06.8705 | 0.3556 | 22 | 22 | 1:06.8705 | Chevy | Team Penske |
| 6 | Scott Dixon | 1:06.9251 | 0.4102 | 10 | 16 | 1:07.4282 | Honda | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 7 | Pato O'Ward | 1:06.9838 | 0.4689 | 4 | 16 | 1:08.2196 | Chevy | Arrow McLaren SP |
| 8 | Callum Ilott | 1:07.0861 | 0.5712 | 10 | 20 | 1:09.0582 | Chevy | Juncos Hollinger Racing |
| 9 | Marcus Ericsson | 1:07.1012 | 0.5863 | 6 | 17 | 1:07.7934 | Honda | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 10 | Rinus VeeKay | 1:07.1155 | 0.6006 | 18 | 18 | 1:07.1155 | Chevy | Ed Carpenter Racing |
| 11 | Jack Harvey | 1:07.1841 | 0.6692 | 7 | 17 | 1:08.5340 | Honda | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 12 | Helio Castroneves | 1:07.2293 | 0.7144 | 6 | 14 | 1:07.8985 | Honda | Meyer Shank Racing |
| 13 | Felix Rosenqvist | 1:07.3416 | 0.8267 | 10 | 17 | 1:07.6990 | Chevy | Arrow McLaren SP |
| 14 | Devlin DeFrancesco | 1:07.3817 | 0.8668 | 20 | 20 | 1:07.3817 | Honda | Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport |
| 15 | Christian Lundgaard | 1:07.4004 | 0.8855 | 11 | 21 | 1:07.8519 | Honda | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 16 | Will Power | 1:07.4132 | 0.8983 | 9 | 22 | 1:07.4304 | Chevy | Team Penske |
| 17 | Graham Rahal | 1:07.4457 | 0.9308 | 7 | 17 | 1:07.6495 | Honda | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 18 | Josef Newgarden | 1:07.5505 | 1.0356 | 14 | 15 | 3:54.5483 | Chevy | Team Penske |
| 19 | Conor Daly | 1:07.5747 | 1.0598 | 9 | 17 | 1:07.7626 | Chevy | Ed Carpenter Racing |
| 20 | Kyle Kirkwood | 1:07.6110 | 1.0961 | 17 | 17 | 1:07.6110 | Chevy | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
| 21 | Simon Pagenaud | 1:07.6916 | 1.1767 | 7 | 17 | 1:07.8039 | Honda | Meyer Shank Racing |
| 22 | Takuma Sato | 1:07.7473 | 1.2324 | 6 | 17 | 1:08.0535 | Honda | Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR |
| 23 | David Malukas | 1:07.9687 | 1.4538 | 4 | 16 | 1:08.0378 | Honda | Dale Coyne Racing with HMD |
| 24 | Dalton Kellett | 1:08.4288 | 1.9139 | 7 | 19 | 1:08.4495 | Chevy | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
| 25 | Jimmie Johnson | 1:08.4633 | 1.9484 | 11 | 21 | 1:09.3542 | Honda | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 26 | Tatiana Calderon | 1:09.2677 | 2.7528 | 18 | 21 | 1:10.2406 | Chevy | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
