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| Ryan Hunter-Reay started Barber on the right foot |
Ryan Hunter-Reay was quickest with a 1:08.8470 lap, 0.0866 seconds faster than Josef Newgarden in second. The fastest Chevrolet driver was the inaugural winner at Barber, Helio Castroneves in third. Marco Andretti was fourth fastest with Juan Pablo Montoya rounding out the top five. This is Montoya's first start at Barber.
James Hinchcliffe was sixth ahead of Justin Wilson. Sébastien Bourdais caused a red flag during the session for an off into the sand trap. He was eighth fastest. Ryan Briscoe was the top Ganassi car in ninth and Simon Pagenaud was tenth, making it six Hondas in the top ten.
Long Beach winner Mike Conway was eleventh with Long Beach runner-up Will Power in twelfth. Sebastián Saavedra was thirteenth ahead of fellow Colombian and top rookie Carlos Muñoz. Muñoz won the Indy Lights race at Barber last year. Graham Rahal was fifteenth. Rahal also brought out a red flag in the session. One second covered the top fifteen.
Jack Hawksworth was sixteenth with Ganassi teammates Tony Kanaan and Charlie Kimball seventeenth and eighteenth. Oriol Servià was nineteenth with Takuma Sato rounding out the top twenty. Rookies Mikhail Aleshin and Carlos Huertas were twenty-first and twenty-second. Scott Dixon was slowest but only completed one installation lap before suffering a mechanical failure.
The interval between Hunter-Reay and Huertas was 1.9115 seconds. Huertas is the lone driver in the field who was not at the preseason test in March.
Second practice begins at 3:00 p.m. ET.
