• Ryan Hunter-Reay runs quickest in opening-day practice
• Five-time Mid-Ohio winner Scott Dixon posts third-fastest lap
• Six Honda drivers in top 10

LEXINGTON, Ohio (July 28, 2017) – Ryan Hunter-Reay and Scott Dixon led the way for Honda Friday in Verizon IndyCar Series practice for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, finishing the day first and third on the time charts after a pair of 45-minute sessions.

A previous Mid-Ohio pole winner, Andretti Autosport’s Hunter-Reay paced the second, slightly faster practice session in a highly competitive day that saw no fewer than eight drivers all run within a half-second of Hunter-Reay’s 1:04.2961 benchmark. Dixon, the unofficial “Master of Mid-Ohio” with five career wins here, posted the third-fastest time with his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

Alexander Rossi rounded out the top five for Honda, with teammate Marco Andretti seventh in his Andretti Autosport Honda. Graham Rahal, the 2015 winner here, ended the day in eighth with James Hinchcliffe making it six Hondas in the top 10 with a best time of 1:04.8613, in 10th.

Activities at the Honda Indy 200 continue tomorrow, with final practice and qualifying. Coverage of Sunday’s 90-lap event starts at 3 p.m. EDT, live on the NBC Sports Network.

Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport Honda): “Today was a good run. The DHL car was good; we just need to continue to make improvements from session to session. We didn’t test here, so it was nice to see we had a good pace from last year. We could just roll out and improve from there. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow; we know everyone else is going to be improving. It’s amazing, if you look at the times and see how close everything is, there is no margin for error. It’s going to be that way all weekend, so we’re just happy to have a productive day and looking forward to another one of those tomorrow.”