Will Power/No.12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet continued his powerful performance in the second Verizon IndyCar Series practice session Friday noon at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. His time of 1:09.8759/125.657 mph was faster than his morning time. All but four of the 24 VICS drivers were faster in the midday session.
Rookie Jordan King/No.20 Ed Carpenter Racing/Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet was second, making him top Rookie again. Third through fifth were Alexander Rossi/No.27 NAPA AUTO PARTS Andretti Autosport Honda, Rookie Robert Wickens/No.6 Lucas Oil SPM Honda, and Simon Pagenaud/No.22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet.
The 45-minute session on the 14-turn road course was quite lively, with at least ten lead changes. It was all Green Flag racing with no drama. Among those who topped the charts were Ryan Hunter-Reay/No.28 DHL Andretti Autosport Honda, Helio Castroneves/No.3 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, Alexander Rossi, and Wickens. Several leaders led more than once. Power led four times, and Rossi led twice, as did Wickens.
LEFT TO RIGHT: Ryan Hunter Reay/No.28 Honda, Zachary Claman De Melo/No.19 Honda, and Ed Jones/No.10 Honda. Photos by Nico Matamoros.
Turning the most laps in the second session was again Ed Jones/No.10 NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing with 21 laps, which was also the number run by reigning champion, Josef Newgarden/No.1 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. The fewest laps were turned by Rookie Zachary Claman De Melo/No.19 PaySafe Dale Coyne Racing Honda with ten laps. Overall, Jones has the most laps at 42, with De Melo the fewest at 26.
More sponsorship announcements were made.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing announced an expansion of its current sponsorship with United Rentals and the team program – Turns For Troops. In the past United Rentals – the official equipment rental supplier to the Verizon IndyCar Series – donated $50 for each lap completed by RLL driver, Graham Rahal/No.15 Honda. The donations went to SoldierStrong, an organization utilizing advanced technologies for helping the rehabilitation of wounded veterans. For the month of May United Rentals will be the primary sponsor for Rahal’s racecar. And in May, the donations will
include Rahal’s teammate, Takuma Sato in both May races, and Oriol Servia in the Indy 500.
LEFT TO RIGHT: Mike Lanigan, RLL owner; Stephanie Turzanski, SoldierStrong executive director; Chris Hummel, chief marketing officer, United Rentals; Graham Rahal, driver; David Letterman, owner; and Bobby Rahal, owner.
IndyCar announced it’s very first official charity partnership – with SeriousFun Children’s Networks, which started out as The Hole In The Wall Gang camp network founded by the late Paul Newman. It has now expanded worldwide to include 30 camps. The partnership is all about raising awareness about the camps and raising funding to continue its good works. Included in raising awareness will be PSA’s which are already running at the Speedway: texting KIDS to 900900. Josef Newgarden is an ambassador to SeriousFun Children’s Network and hosted some children at the Long Beach IndyCar Race. Graham Rahal grew up knowing Paul Newman and raced for his IndyCar team.
LEFT TO RIGHT: Josef Newgarden, ambassador; Clea Newman, ambassador; Graham Rahal, driver; Blake Maher, CEO SeriousFun Children’s Network; and CJ O’Donnell, chief marketing officer for IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Adam Carolla has ten of Paul Newman’s race cars, including his 1987 SCCA C Production Datsun, which he loaned to the Network to display at the Speedway. Clea Newman said she rode in the car on one of her Dad’s victory laps, but she’s never raced as her mother would never let her.
