Friday at Barber Motorsports Park saw times plenty fast enough to break the track record at the natural terrain road course.
In the morning, rookie Tristan Vautier was fastest at 1:09.0120 with Scott Dixon only 0.0526 seconds behind the Frenchman. Defending champion Ryan Hunter-Reay was the fastest Chevrolet in third with the Ganassi driver Charlie Kimball in fourth and Will Power in fifth. AJ Allmendinger was ninth fastest in his first practice session back in an IndyCar since 2006. So much for Chevrolet dominance as the top ten was an even split five-to-five between them and Honda.
Other notbales in first practice were Takuma Sato 13th, James Hinchcliffe 15th, Marco Andretti 17th, Graham Rahal 21st and Justin Wilson 22nd.
Second practice saw the Chevrolet of Helio Castroneves fastest at a 1:08.5540 but Honda took six of the top ten. Alex Tagliani made an appearance in second with Vautier backing up his morning success in third; Simon Pagenaud and Will Power rounded out the top five. Allmendinger also backed his morning success by running eighth in the afternoon. James Jakes and Sato rounded out the top ten respectively.
Notables in second practice: Ryan Hunter-Reay 12th, Dario Franchitti 14th, Hinchcliffe 15th, de Silvestro 17th, Sébastien Bourdais 20th and Rahal 22nd.
IndyCar will run a 30-minute practice session Saturday morning at 9:00 AM ET with a qualifying at 11:25 AM ET.
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