Simon Pagenaud gave Meyer Shank Racing-Honda a fillip by topping the final practice session ahead of this afternoon’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.
The 2016 champion used alternate tires to lap the new downtown Motown course in 1m02.3615s, an average of 94.962mph around the 1.645-mile layout, on his 16th of 19 laps. It justified the positive outlook that Pagenaud displayed on Saturday after qualifying eighth, believing that not only does the track suit his driving style, but that the MSR team had made a breakthrough in learning what shock and damper combo best suits this bumpy track.
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His fastest effort was 0.1203s faster than Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Callum Ilott, who outpaced his pal at Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda, Marcus Armstrong.
But it was Armstrong’s teammate and compatriot Scott Dixon who turned heads with a 1m02.7192s effort on Firestone’s primary tires. He used this harder compound in the Firestone Fast Six session yesterday, and while he was half a second off pole-winning teammate Alex Palou, Dixon was still quick enough to ensure he will roll off from the second row this afternoon.
Josef Newgarden, who will start fifth, was fastest of the Penske-Chevrolets this morning again with fifth best time (also using primaries) ahead of Arrow McLaren-Chevy’s Pato O’Ward, Palou, David Malukas of Dale Coyne Racing w/HMD_Honda and the fastest Andretti Autosport-Honda of Colton Herta. Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing rounded out the Top 10.
UP NEXT: Race coverage begins at 3:00pm local (Eastern) time.
