GRAND PRIX OF PORTLAND PRACTICE REPORT

Today saw two practice sessions and a Warm Up on the 1.964-mile track. Tomorrow will host a final practice session followed by qualifying for the 105-lap Grand Prix of Portland which goes green Sunday at 3:40 p.m. ET on NBC.

ALEXANDER ROSSI, No. 27 NAPA AUTO PARTS HONDA

  • Finished the day second overall with a best lap time of 0:57.5538

“We didn’t get a lap in on Reds, so I think our theoretical is being third quick. Overall, I’m super happy with the NAPA car. We’ll have to figure some things out overnight but overall I think the general pace is there and we just need to fine tune it.”

MARCO ANDRETTI, No. 98 OBERTO CIRCLE K / CURB HONDA

  • Finished the day fifth overall with a best lap time of 0:57.9006

“Practice 1 was alright – it’s always unclear with overtake. For Practice 2, I think we misread where the Reds were going to go so, we didn’t really wring it out. We ran the Warm Up on old tires, so we weren’t really anywhere. I think there’s more to come from the Oberto Circle K car.”

ZACH VEACH, No. 26 GAINBRIDGE HONDA

  • Finished the day ninth overall with a best lap time of 0:57.9619
  • Finished the Warm Up second on the timing charts

“Today went really good. I’m really happy with today. We were P7 this morning, and then P14 in the second session – but we never got a clean run on our reds, so I feel like that explains it. In the final Warm Up today, we were P2 and I feel that is the pace we have with the Gainbridge car. I’m excited to see what we can do tomorrow. We got our first [Firestone] Fast Six here last year and I think we have a car that is capable of that again. We just need a few more details in our recipe.

RYAN HUNTER-REAY, No. 28 DHL HONDA

  • Finished the day 11th overall with a best lap time of 0:58.1618
  • Recorded the fastest time of the day’s Warm Up session

“It was a busy day. We are trying to work through a few issues we’ve had throughout the day. In the end, I think we found the issue, but it made it so that we couldn’t run the Reds in Practice 2. We had to run our Reds in Warm Up, which is actually an extension of Practice 2, I guess. Overall a bit of a muddied mess, but we figured out some things and hopefully tomorrow is a smoother day.”