Iowa IndyCar: Power leads Daly in practice for double-header

Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet was the first driver to lap the 0.894-mile course in more than 170mph, but it was his teammate Daly who zoomed to the top of the start with his fourth lap. Daly, who took a pole for the Carlin team here back in 2020, lapped in 18.5778sec which is an average of 173.239mph. Even Josef Newgarden, who has led more than 1100 laps at this track, fell more than 1.6mph short despite moving into second.

Graham Rahal, who has always been strong at Iowa, was third fastest at the halfway point of the 90-minute session but with 40mins to go he was usurped by Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet’s Pato O’Ward on his 46^th lap having switched to a new set of Firestones. Then Alex Palou, defending champion in his newly Ridgeline-colored #10 Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda, slotted into second, within 1.5mph of Daly’s benchmark. However, on his 53^rd lap, O’Ward grabbed second, with a 172.687mph

At this time, Palou’s teammate led the 20-lap averages at 158.624mph, a tad ahead of Will Power’s Team Penske-Chevrolet, VeeKay and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s HyVee-backed driver, Jack Harvey.

Jimmie Johnson, practicing for his first IndyCar race at Iowa, then launched into the top six with his 54^th lap with a 170.795mph effort which, along with an improvement by Marcus Ericsson, ensured all four Ganassi cars were in the top 12.

With 20mins to go, several drivers attempted qualifying simulations, and Power – a three-time Iowa polesitter who is still seeking his first race win here – jumped to the top, shading Daly by a mere 0.0049sec with an 18.5729sec at 173.285mph. His sophomore teammate Scott McLaughlin almost matched him to claim third.

Then out came the second caution of the session, again for a track inspection, this time caused by a fox on the track.

The green flag waved again with 10 laps to go, and Palou set his fastest time of the session to move into fourth

Palou was the driver who completed the most laps at 119.

Qualifying begins at 9.30am local (Central) time, with the first race, the HyVeeDeals.com 250 presented by DoorDash, getting the green flag at 3.05pm.

P	Name	FTime	Diff	FL	Laps	FSpeed	Engine	Team
1	Will Power	18.5729	-	77	90	173.285	Chevy	Team Penske
2	Conor Daly	18.5778	0.0049	4	93	173.239	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
3	Scott McLaughlin	18.5946	0.0217	80	103	173.083	Chevy	Team Penske
4	Alex Palou	18.6289	0.0560	114	119	172.764	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
5	Pato O'Ward	18.6372	0.0643	53	106	172.687	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
6	Marcus Ericsson	18.7313	0.1584	78	81	171.819	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
7	Josef Newgarden	18.7599	0.1870	4	91	171.557	Chevy	Team Penske
8	Graham Rahal	18.8242	0.2513	8	84	170.971	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
9	Jimmie Johnson	18.8436	0.2707	54	85	170.795	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
10	Scott Dixon	18.8476	0.2747	84	90	170.759	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
11	Rinus VeeKay	18.8531	0.2802	5	106	170.709	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
12	Felix Rosenqvist	18.8606	0.2877	63	102	170.641	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
13	Jack Harvey	18.8918	0.3189	103	114	170.360	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
14	Colton Herta	18.9071	0.3342	56	81	170.222	Honda	Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
15	Takuma Sato	18.9191	0.3462	7	94	170.114	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
16	Christian Lundgaard	18.9276	0.3547	82	89	170.037	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
17	Simon Pagenaud	18.9301	0.3572	72	93	170.015	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
18	David Malukas	18.9416	0.3687	79	95	169.912	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
19	Helio Castroneves	18.9487	0.3758	28	92	169.848	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
20	Alexander Rossi	18.9906	0.4177	54	77	169.473	Honda	Andretti Autosport
21	Callum Ilott	19.0681	0.4952	87	91	168.785	Chevy	Juncos Hollinger Racing
22	Ed Carpenter	19.0904	0.5175	5	77	168.587	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
23	Romain Grosjean	19.1150	0.5421	48	95	168.370	Honda	Andretti Autosport
24	Devlin DeFrancesco	19.1753	0.6024	91	93	167.841	Honda	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
25	Dalton Kellett	19.2663	0.6934	90	91	167.048	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
26	Kyle Kirkwood	19.2954	0.7225	53	78	166.796	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises