By Austin Lawton, Staff Writer
Just a week after the 109th Indianapolis 500, the IndyCar series heads up north to the streets of Detroit, Michigan for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. The race on Sunday will be the third time the series has raced on the streets, after departing the traditional venue in nearby Belle Isle.
The first practice session on Friday set the tone for the weekend as Kyle Kirkwood set the fastest time of 1:01.7509 driving the No.27 Siemens/AWS Honda for Andretti Global. Kirkwood was the only driver to hit the 1:01 bracket and came into Detroit as the winner of the only street course race this season in Long Beach.
Scott McLaughlin (1:02.0301) in the No. 3 TireRack Chevrolet for Team Penske ended the day in second followed by his two teammates, Will Power (1:02.3862) and Josef Newgarden (1:02.4819) in third and fourth respectively. Christian Lundgaard (1:02.6047) in the No.7 Velo Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren closed out the top five.
SEE: Detroit Grand Prix Friday Practice Results
Power and Kirkwood created the story of the session with 19 minutes left. As Power and Kirkwood approached the Turns 5, 6 and 7 complex, Kirkwood slowed to pass the No.4 of David Malukas. Malukas was attempting to get out of the way in the tight confines of the street circuit and Power, wanting to get space to set a presentable lap, put the front wing of his No.12 Verizon Chevrolet against the attenuator of Kirkwood.
Power pushed Kirkwood through Turns 5, 6 and 7, causing Kirkwood to come within inches of the outside wall.
“I came around and he [Kirkwood] slowed up in the middle,” Power told FOX Sports’ Georgia Henneberry. “I thought ‘I may as well get a gap now’ so I just pushed him past the car in front and got a really nice gap. If I hadn’t touched him already, I was like ‘Oh well, may as well keep pushing him’ and gave myself a gap and finished the run nicely.”
After the incident, Kirkwood went to the track in anger, setting what would be the fastest lap of the session. Afterwards, Kirkwood gave a surprisingly calm reaction to Henneberry.
“I don’t know. Everyone is going slow around here,” Kirkwood said. “The track’s not big enough to fit all the cars and he [Power] got frustrated. I mean, whatever, I guess. Did it give him the right to push my car through a couple of corners and almost cause a wreck? I don’t think so. Malukas is right in front of me and I can’t do much and he’s shoving me along. I’m not upset. I don’t care. We’re P1. At the same time, I expect IndyCar to do the right thing and I’m sure that they’ll do something. Who knows what but never seen that before. Got damage from that too, so maybe we were a little bit faster.”
“It was interesting to see. I couldn’t believe it,” Malukas said as he saw the situation unfold in the mirrors “I was very confused at the start. I thought something was wrong with Kirkwood and Power was towing him across like the “Cars” movie. It was interesting at first but then I realized it was not that.”
Saturday will see the cars take to the track again for final practice at 9 a.m. and qualifying at noon.