Road America race lap record broken in first IndyCar practice

There was a lot of talk about how fast IndyCar could go at the resurfaced Road America this weekend, and David Malukas put his money where his mouth is by beating the track’s fastest ever race lap in the first representative lap of the opening practice.

It’s certainly made the drivers believe that the track’s pole record is within reach.

A repaving of the track undertaken in October and November last year replaced a surface which was in situ since 1995, and required 800 trucks to remove the debris and another 800 trucks to bring in the asphalt to be laid.

The race track record was set in 1998 by Alex Zanardi, who did a 1m41.874s in his Ganassi Dallara-Honda, while the best ever pole lap was set by Dario Franchitti in 2000, a 1m39.988s for Team Green.

With early running in practice usually reserved for rookies who have extra sets of tyres, no other driver ducked under the 1m43s when Dale Coyne with HMD’s Malukas nailed a 1m41.8652s early into the one hour, 15 minute session.

Last year’s polesitter Alexander Rossi later managed an even better 1m41.7790s for Arrow McLaren, which stood as the fastest time of the day.

Only the top five drivers got under the 1m42s mark with Rossi and Malukas ahead of runaway championship leader Alex Palou, his Ganassi team-mate Scott Dixon and Rossi’s Arrow McLaren stablemate Pato O’Ward.

You might think that warm temperatures this weekend would put the nail in the coffin of hopes of beating Franchitti’s record, but when asked if it was a possibility by The Race, Rossi said “we can do that”, which was met with a smile acknowledgement from Malukas just walking into the press conference.

Practice indicated that, even though speeds were higher generally, the level of difficulty has also increased with evidence of moments at almost every corner.

Pato O’Ward had to corral a lively rear-end at Turn 1 while Graham Rahal had a big save at the Kink having run wide and had to back out.

🫣 BIG save from @GrahamRahal in practice 1.

📺: @peacock | #SonsioGP pic.twitter.com/64z1fvwJuF

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) June 16, 2023

Romain Grosjean ran wide at Turn 7 in what could have been a big issue without a correction, too.

talk about going for a ride on the Road America rollercoaster.@rgrosjean with the mega save in turn 7.

📺: @peacock | #SonsioGP pic.twitter.com/w9FXunNmX6

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) June 16, 2023

The kerb at the exit of Turn 1 looked to be improved from last week after Scott McLaughlin was sent flying into the air in testing, but Christian Lundgaard still got all four wheels off the ground at the same part of the track indicating it is still a danger zone.

“I kept it flat!” said Lundgaard after the session. “The car was fine, I did another lap.”

Rossi said it might be difficult to alter for this weekend, with both Rossi and Lundgaard adding that the decision to repave the track but keep most of the old kerbs in place was an interesting one.

The big surprise in practice was how few people managed to improve lap time on the softer tyre, as Rossi and Malukas both went quicker on the hard tyre.

It’s clear that the teams which tested on the new surface last week should have an advantage heading into this event given the track changes, even if the shape of the corners has remained the same.

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Teams that tested at Road America

Wednesday
Chip Ganassi Racing – Marcus Armstrong
Dale Coyne Racing – David Malukas, Sting Ray Robb
Juncos Hollinger Racing – Agustin Canapino, Callum Ilott
Team Penske – Scott McLaughlin, Josef Newgarden, Will Power

Thursday
AJ Foyt Racing – Benjamin Pedersen
Arrow McLaren – Pato O’Ward, Felix Rosenqvist, Alexander Rossi

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But one crucial piece of information is that those teams testing did not get to use the race weekend tyre hurried into use for this weekend in preparation for the surface change.

Unlike other series, Firestone brings different types of road, street and oval tyres to different races depending on the challenge, and with a track repave, just about anything is possible.

The company reportedly even prepared some tyres typically used on the left-side of the car on ovals in case the speeds were so high that blistering was an issue.

The teams were significantly faster in the test last week than in Firestone’s own tyre test earlier in the year, so the event is certainly a challenge especially when the tyre manufacturer’s had mere weeks and months to turnaround production.

“It’s a chunk slower than our pace in testing,” added Rossi.

“So understanding the differences there and making any adjustments to the car to kind of combat that going into tomorrow.

“Obviously track evolution is going to continue being a thing, and other cars are going to keep improving, so you can’t stay still, you have to keep improving.”

Traditionally in IndyCar qualifying you do your banker laps on the hard tyre and use the soft tyre for your fastest laps.

But even before repaving this hasn’t always been the case at Road America as Josef Newgarden set his 2021 pole on the hard tyre, and the apparent similarity in the lack of improvement on the softs opens up strategy significantly for qualifying if drivers can make the softs last longer or keep the hards in the window for a longer period.

“They weren’t faster,” said Rossi of the softs.

“I mean, there were areas where they were faster, but a lot of guys didn’t improve. It wasn’t just me. I had fairly clean laps, so it wasn’t like traffic or lock-ups or anything like that. We’ve had it before. Same for everyone.

“But it certainly changes the strategy going into qualifying a little bit.

“That being said, I don’t think that the reds are going to continue being slower, but I think it’s certainly going to take an adjustment from what people usually do blacks to reds specifically for this weekend compared to other events that we’ll go to.”

Of the teams that tested, Team Penske was the surprise in practice as it lay 15th, 16th and 17th in the first session of the weekend.

There’s still plenty of time to turn that around though, with another practice on Saturday before qualifying, and then a warm-up ahead of the race on Sunday.

One driver lapping up all the track time he can get is Ryan Hunter-Reay, who is in his first road course race weekend since Laguna Seca in 2021 after joining Ed Carpenter Racing to replace Conor Daly.

Hunter-Reay was 22nd fastest in the 27-car field.

Practice 1 Results