Penske Teammates Power, Pagenaud Lead Opening Day of Practice at Long Beach

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Will Power and Team Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud recorded lap times in the second Verizon IndyCar Series practice session for the 41st Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach that were quicker than the 2014 Verizon P1 Award-winning time of Ryan Hunter-Reay. Next up is Sebastien Bourdais’ nine-year-old track record.

Power, driving the No. 1 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, led the 23-driver field with a lap of 1 minute, 7.5485 seconds.

“It was pretty good,” stated Power. “A lot of cars were running and laying rubber, but with the new aero kits and everything, the cars were just faster. It’s always super tight around here when it gets to qualifying. The top six are usually separated by about a tenth and a half (of a second) or something. … (How do the aero kits change the way you drive this track?) “The braking zones are a little shorter and you carry more speed through the fast stuff. It’s little gains on tracks like this. It’s high-speed tracks where you get the biggest gains. The faster you go, the more benefit you get from the (additional) downforce.”

Pagenaud was 0.0370 of a second back in the No. 22 Penske Truck Rental Chevrolet. Eighteen drivers were within a second of Power’s quick lap on the 11-turn street circuit.

Sebastien Bourdais set the track lap record at the 1.968-mile configuration at 1:06.882 in 2006. He went on to win — the middle victory of three in a row at Long Beach. Hunter-Reay earned the Verizon P1 Award last year with a lap of 1:07.8219 in the No. 28 DHL Honda for Andretti Autosport.

The two other Team Penske drivers, Helio Castroneves (1:07.9132) and Juan Pablo Montoya (1:08.0539), also were in the top five.

“Obviously all of the Chevrolet teams were thrown a little bit of a curveball this morning with the changes to the aero kits,” Castroneves added. “We are all in the same boat on that and we will make the best of it. The four Team Penske Chevrolets are still very fast, at the top of the speed charts. We collected a lot of information in the first practice about how the downforce changed and we made some really good changes for the second session. We are still improving it and have another session tomorrow to make the No. 3 Automobile Club of Southern California Chevy better before qualifying.”

INDYCAR announced today an update to the Verizon IndyCar Series car aerodynamic bodywork kits, effective for this weekend’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

• INDYCAR will continue to be proactive in its review of aero kit performance.
• This process will be ongoing as INDYCAR is committed to delivering an entertaining on-track product throughout the Verizon IndyCar Series season.
• The first step in this process began with last week’s mandate of structural upgrades to both Chevrolet’s and Honda’s aero kit components and will continue as the season progresses and opportunities for improvements are identified.
• As a result of the ongoing development of aero kits, INDYCAR has requested the following actions:
   o Chevrolet to add a tether to the winglets, or remove the winglets, from its front wing assembly.
   o Honda to implement additional reinforcements to its rear wheel guards.
• These upgrades must be implemented prior to Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Scott Dixon, who was quickest in the first session (1:08.6458) in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, was fourth (1:07.9671) in the late-afternoon practice.

A 45-minute session at 1 p.m. (ET) April 18 precedes the three rounds of qualifications (live-streamed 5 p.m. ET on racecontrol.indycar.com and tape-delayed at 6:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN) for the 80-lap race April 19 (4 p.m. ET on NBCSN).

Adam Sinclair
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