Kyle Kirkwood brought his red-hot form into Road America, posting the fastest lap time of Friday’s practice session at 01:44.9881.
Kirkwood, the winner at World Wide Technology Raceway on June 15, comes into the four-mile road course looking for his third win in-a-row on the season and to close the 75 point gap to Alex Palou.
Kirkwood only turned 15 laps on Friday in the No.27 Siemens Honda for Andretti Global, as he and the 26 other drivers will experience record-high temps for an IndyCar race at Road America. The temps are expected to soar on Saturday and Sunday, making a 10 degree difference from Friday, a high in the low 80s.
“Definitely a session that was hindered a little bit by the red and the timing of the red flag,” Kirkwood said. “Happy to be quick once again here. We were quick last year, so I guess that’s a good positive to take away from today, and hopefully that trend continues. The weather is going to be so different tomorrow that I’m not sure what we learned from today is going to be applicable tomorrow or the next day.”
SEE: XPEL Grand Prix Practice 1 Results
Scott McLaughlin, who placed third at Road America in 2024, does not see the heat as an issue, carrying over from his days in the Australian V8 Supercar Series.
“It’s pretty normal,” the driver of the No.3 XPEL Chevrolet for Team Penske said. “I’ve had heat like this in super cars and you always train for the worst circumstances, so I feel pretty comfortable. I don’t struggle with the heat, not as much as other drivers do. I’ve sort of adapted to it by now.”
McLaughlin would end Friday’s session in sixth with a time of 01:45.3191. McLaughlin’s teammates, Will Power (01:45.1795) and Josef Newgarden (01:45.2228) would have good days, posting the third and fourth best times, respectively.
Wrapping up the top five was Christian Lundgaard (01:45.2246) driving the No.7 VELO Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren.
Three drivers had incidents on Friday. Devlin DeFrancesco, Santino Ferrucci and Alexander Rossi all went off in different parts of the race track.
DeFrancesco, who ended the day in second (01:45.1414), went off on the exit of Turn 4 and was able to get going. Ferrucci went for a spin into Turn 14 would have to his No.14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet by the AMR safety team.
Rossi would bring out the only red flag of the session, losing the car in Turn 1 and would need assistance to be towed out of the gravel trap. The red flag halted several drivers’ attempts to get a fast lap on the red, alternate compound tire. Palou had the fastest time in the session until that moment, before Kirkwood nabbed the top spot in the closing minutes. Palou would finish the session in ninth (01:45.3664), but has shown ‘Palou-esque” speed early on in the race weekend.
The field will get more track time on Saturday morning with a 45 minute practice session, leading into qualifying to set the grid for Sunday’s race.