Joseph Newgarden led the final hour-long practice session at Texas Motor Speedway after teammate Will Power and six other drivers spent 30 minutes trying to lay rubber on the second lane.
Posting a top speed of 211.193 mph, the Power was well below the expected race pace and as a result, the 27-car field did not try to use the second lane in the final practice. Meyer Shank Racing’s Helio Castroneves actually had the best lap of the 30-minute ride, but did so by driving a faster bottom lane.
Newgarden’s No. 2 Chevy (223.108 mph) was at the top of the speed chart for most of the session, and at the end of the session, Scott Dixon came in second in the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda (222.726 mph). No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevy (222.662 mph). Rahal Letterman Christian Lundgaard of Lanigan Racing was fourth in the #30 Honda (221.794 mph) as the team found most of the speed it lacked in qualifying and was followed by two Honda powered drivers in the Colton Herta Andretti Autosport (221.751 miles per hour). and Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing’s Takuma Sato (221,700 mph).
The first incident of the weekend came in the 27th minute of the session when RLL’s Jack Harvey slid high into turn 2 in an attempt to save the car from crashing and although he managed to keep it off the outside wall, the continued wiggle resulted in a hard hit against the inside wall with the front of the No. 45 Honda. The team faces a long night as the impact destroyed the Dallara DW12 tub; RLL rolled spare #45 out of the transporter before the battered main car was returned.
Harvey was not injured in the accident.
NEXT: Race, Sunday, 12:30 pm ET.