What happened on day one of IndyCar’s title showdown

Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden was the only IndyCar title contender in the top five as he topped Laguna Seca Friday practice by 0.4163s, as Andretti Autosport starred ahead of the title decider.

With tyres at a premium the rookies dominated early in the session as they’re given an extra set. Andretti driver Devlin DeFrancesco was duly on top before the heavy hitters came out.

In-form second year driver Scott McLaughlin, who has to win the race on Sunday to win the championship, topped those heavy hitters before Jimmie Johnson crashed at Turn 6 and brought out a red flag that reduced the session to 20 minutes remaining.

That preceded the switch to the soft tyre – which used to happen in practice two close to qualifying, but now occurs in the first practice which is longer. This running is the only time the drivers get to use that tyre before qualifying, so it’s an important stint for the drivers and teams.

Simon Pagenaud – in an Andretti-affiliated Meyer Shank entry – and Andretti Autosport driver Colton Herta both took turns to top the session on the softs, but it was Newgarden ahead inside the last five minutes of the 75.

Herta – who has been on pole and won the last two races at Laguna – was some way adrift of five-time 2022 race-winner Newgarden, who trails standings leading Penske team-mate Will Power by 20 points in the championship.

Newgarden’s lead at the top of practice was certainly a warning shot for his rivals though.

When asked about that by The Race, he replied: “I didn’t even really put together my best lap, and I’m sure that was the case for the majority of the field.

“It’s always hard to read off the first session. I think we’ll tighten up tomorrow.

“But just the early read is good. I felt like we made really good use of our short time that we had today and short set of tires that we had.

“We didn’t have a lot to work off of. So I feel good early, but I feel like it’s early days.”

Behind Herta, his Andretti team-mates Romain Grosjean and Alexander Rossi were third and fourth, followed by ace rookie Callum Ilott in the only single-car entry in the field for Juncos Hollinger Racing.

Pagenaud was sixth ahead of Power, while Marcus Ericsson was the next title contender and the top Ganassi driver in 10th.

Just behind was McLaughlin, who needs to win Sunday’s race for a shot at the title.

Ganassi tested at the venue two weeks ago but if it has instigated a breakthrough it didn’t show in practice as Scott Dixon was 17th. He starts the weekend tied with Newgarden on 20 points behind Power.

Heavy tyre degradation is expected on Sunday and it was visible in how low-grip the circuit appears to be starting the weekend especially. The number of drivers going off at Turns 3-6 was double figures.

Practice 1 Results