Josef Newgarden paces Team Penske 1-2-3 in opeining Iowa practice

Josef Newgarden led a Team Penske Chevrolet sweep of the hour-long opening practice for tomorrow evening’s Iowa 300 at the Iowa Speedway.

The NTT IndyCar Series points leader and 2016 Iowa race winner led the session at the get go but was displaced by three-time Iowa winner Ryan Hunter-Reay midway through. Newgarden responded in the waning moments and lapped the 7/8-mile oval in 17.8961 seconds which averaged out to 179.838 mph.

Next in line of the Team Penske trio was Toronto winner and championship contender Simon Pagenaud, who was just .1308s off his teammate and was .0135s ahead of Will Power.

Honda claimed the next three spots as Alexander Rossi led the charge in fourth followed by Scott Dixon in fifth and three-time Iowa master Ryan Hunter-Reay in sixth.

Hunter-Reay led a chain of former Iowa winners as Tony Kanaan moved into seventh in the waning minutes while defending race champion James Hinchcliffe slotted in eighth place.

Filling out the top ten were the Honda pair of Chip Ganassi Racing’s Felix Rosevqvist in ninth and Andretti Autosport sophomore Zach Veach in tenth.

Ed Carpenter Racing had their work cut out for them as the team vies for their fifth straight podium at the series’ lone short oval of the season. Team owner/driver Ed Carpenter ended up 15th while last year’s race runner Spencer Pigot ended up in 16th.

Two track inspections briefly slowed the action, but no driver encountered issues throughout the hour.