Herta, Honda Head Indy Car Field at Mid-Ohio

 

LEXINGTON, Ohio (July 26, 2019) – Honda-powered rookie Colton Herta led the way Friday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in the opening day of NTT IndyCarSeries practice in preparation for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200.  Herta’s best lap time of 1:05.7292 was more than two-tenths of a second clear of second-quickest Simon Pagenaud.

 

Another Honda-powered rookie, Felix Rosenqvist, ended the day fourth fastest, followed by Ryan Hunter-Reay’s Andretti Autosport Honda, with the Arrow Schmidt Peterson Honda of James Hinchcliffe rounding out the top six.  Defending series champion Scott Dixon led the morning session, but dropped down to seventh for the day after a late red flag [for a crash by Josef Newgarden] prevented him from making a run on the alternate, softer-compound Firestone “Red” tires.

 

Activities continue Saturday at Mid-Ohio with final practice and qualifying for Sunday’s 90-lap race. The 13th round of the 2019 season begin at 4 p.m. EDT Sunday, with livenetwork television coverage on NBC.

 

Colton Herta (Harding Steinbrenner Racing Honda)Fastest in Friday practice: “I picked up 1.1 seconds [on the Firestone Red tires], so it is a pretty big step up considering how short the track [length] is here.  There are a couple of places where you really gain time [on the Red tires] like Turn 12.  It really ‘grips up’ when you have the Reds on.  Turn 2 and Turns 4 and 5, too.  The Capstone car has been great, and we’re ready to go racing now.”

 

 

NTT IndyCar Series Honda Indy 200

Circuit:​​Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (2.258-mile road course) Lexington, Ohio

2017 Winner:​Alexander Rossi (Andretti Autosport) 116.957 mph average

Weather:​Sunny, warm, 82 degrees F

 

Top-10 Friday Practice Session Results:

Ps.	Driver​	Team	Manufacturer	Best Time	Notes
1.	Colton Herta-R	Harding Steinbrenner Racing	Honda	1:05.7292	123.671 mph average
2.	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	Chevrolet	1:05.9313	+0.24021 seconds
3.	Will Power	Team Penske	Chevrolet	1:05.9935
4.	Felix Rosenqvist-R	Chip Ganassi Racing​	Honda	1:06.0218
5.	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	Honda	1:06.0268
6.	James Hinchcliffe	Arrow Schmidt Peterson	Honda	1:06.0318
7.	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	1:06.0973
8.	Matheus Leist	A.J. Foyt Racing	Chevrolet	1:06.1627
9.	Spencer Pigot	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	1:06.2455
10.	Jack Havey-R	Meyer Shank Racing​	Honda	1:06.2480

Other Honda Results

12.	Sebastien Bourdais	DCR with Vasser-Sullivan​	Honda	1:06.4366
13.	Marcus Ericsson-R	Arrow Schmidt Peterson	Honda	1:06.5765
14.	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	Honda	1:06.5806
15.	Zach Veach-R	Andretti Autosport	Honda	1:06.6510
17.	Santino Ferrucci-R	Dale Coyne Racing​	Honda	1:06.7523
20.	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan	Honda	1:06.9536
22.	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	Honda	1:07.1140
23.	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan	Honda	1:07.2755