Team Penske continued to show good pace as they finished 1-2-3-5 in final practice for this weekend’s Verizon IndyCar Series race at Barber Motorsports Park, with Will Power leading the way.
Power set a weekend’s best time so far of 1:06.9953s to pace the field ahead of team-mates Josef Newgarden and Helio Castroneves, while reigning series champion Simon Pagenaud was fifth.
Mikhail Aleshin denied Penske a second clean sweep of the weekend by finishing fourth for Schmidt Peterson Motorsport but only after surviving a moment early in the session at turn one that saw the Russian run off track.
It was a good session for Schmidt, with the second car of James Hinchcliffe finishing fifth fastest as the Canadian looks to go back-to-back in race victories after triumphing last time out around the streets of Long Beach.
Scott Dixon was seventh fastest for Chip Ganassi Racing, while team-mate Max Chilton enjoyed a much better day to finish tenth, just behind Friday pacesetter Marco Andretti and 2016 Barber runner-up Graham Rahal, while Ryan Hunter-Reay was eleventh after a late spin that almost saw him collected by Hinchcliffe.
As well as Aleshin and Hunter-Reay, both Ed Carpenter Racing entrants had off-track moments, but everyone was able to continue and the session concluded without too much of an interruption.
Josef Newgarden was second fastest in the middle of a Penske 1-2-3 – Credit: Bret Kelley / IndyCar
Barber Motorsports Park Free Practice 3 Result
[table id=1902 /]
