Helio Castroneves continued Chevrolet’s domination at the Phoenix International Raceway as the pole sitter set the best time during night practice ahead of Saturday evening’s race at the one-mile oval.
Castroneves, who earlier had secured his fiftieth Verizon IndyCar Series pole position during qualifying, set a best time of 19.7495s as drivers got valuable track time running race-spec set-ups.
Juan Pablo Montoya made it a Team Penske 1-2 under the lights, with Josef Newgarden placing third for Ed Carpenter Racing ahead of the leading Chip Ganassi Racing entry of reigning series champion Scott Dixon, while Penske’s Simon Pagenaud completed the top five.
Front-row starter Tony Kanaan was sixth fastest for Ganassi ahead of Ed Carpenter, with Max Chilton, Will Power and Charlie Kimball completing the top ten.
Ryan Hunter-Reay was the leading Honda-powered driver in eleventh, with the Andretti Autosports driver just ahead of James Hinchcliffe of Sam Schmidt Motorsports, who got in some good running after missing qualifying due to his crash during opening practice.
Carlos Munoz, who crashed during qualifying, also returned to the track for Andretti Autosport and finished nineteenth fastest, but Takuma Sato again missed the session as his AJ Foyt Enterprises team continued to repair the #14 car after his morning crash. Sato will start the race on Saturday with just five laps of practice under his belt.
Phoenix International Raceway Free Practice 2 Result
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