Fans in the stands and cars in race-trim under the lights, no, it wasn’t an official IndyCar Series race—that happens on March 12 in St. Petersburg—it was the final open testing session at Phoenix International Raceway.
The night session saw Honda cars surge to the top of the session leaderboard. By the end of the night six Honda-powered cars occupied the top-10. Paced by Andretti Autosport driver Ryan Hunter-Reay in the No. 28 Honda. Dale Coyne Racing driver and Rolex 24 winner, Sebastien Bourdais was P2 in the No. 18 Honda.
Twitter: There’s the checkered flag for the final open test session at @PhoenixRaceway! Here are the final results for tonig… https://t.co/RkM3fYLSxy (@IndyCar)
While the night session showed the ability of the Honda-powered cars, overall the open test weekend belonged to Chevrolet. The No. 21 of Ed Carpenter Racing driven by JR Hildebrand, took top honours on the overall timesheet. Putting in a 00m19.0401s time during Practice 3 with a top speed of 193.234mph, unofficially the quickest ever around Phoenix Raceway. Chevy-powered cars took the top five spots on the overall timesheets.
The final night session also saw plenty of incidents, but fortunately saw no injuries.
JR Hildebrand, the star of Practice 3, crashed in Turn 3 late in the session after an incident with Team Penske’s Will Power.
“(I) just clipped Will (Power) with the right front wing on his left rear pod and it must have just torn off part of the front wing.
“I bent it into Turn 3 and was being cautious with it, but I just picked up huge understeer from not having part of the front wing. Couldn’t really avoid getting to the outside wall there, tried to hit the brakes to slow down and it just turned me straight into the inside wall on the front straightaway,” Hildebrand explained.
Graham Rahal also damaged his No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda replicating Alexander Rossi’s spin from Practice 3, going into the SAFER barrier at Turn 2. Takuma Sato of Andretti Autosport also spun at Turn 2 into the SAFER barrier.
Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden and Bourdais previewed how close racing between a Chevy and Honda could be in 2017. Newgarden and Bourdais touched into Turn 1, but both continued on without further incident.
With cars in race-trim for the first time and the mixing of the timesheet, the IndyCar Series has made fans anxious for the start of the 2017 season. One thing is certain, racing will be close again this year.
The IndyCar Series will return to Phoenix Raceway on April 29 for the Phoenix Grand Prix.
