By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter
FORT WORTH — Tony Kanaan led teammate Scott Dixon in the opening practice session for tomorrow evening’s Firestone 600k at Texas Motor Speedway.
Kanaan, who won at TMS in 2004, set a quick lap of 216.745 mph on his eighth lap of the day to pace this afternoon’s practices session. Dixon led much of the session with a top average speed of 216.613 mph before being overtaken by his teammate late in the session.
The Ganassi pair were followed by Josef Newgarden of Ed Carpenter Racing who was third quickest at 216.242 mph while Charlie Kimball made it three Ganassi cars in the top five with the fourth quickest speed of the session.
Marco Andretti led an Andretti Autosport and Honda sweep of the next three spots followed by Indianapolis 500 runner up Carlos Munoz in sixth and Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi in seventh. Team Penske claimed the next two positions with Juan Pablo Montoya in eighth and Will Power in ninth while Ryan Hunter-Reay ended the session with the 10th quickest time.
Two on track incidents stopped the session first with Gabby Chaves spinning in turn 4 and backing into the SAFER Barrier after just logging four laps. The Dale Coyne Racing crew is making repairs to the #19 car and is using structural parts of the car Pippa Mann drove in the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil in order to get the car ready.
Graham Rahal also suffered a gearbox failure with around 45 minutes remaining in the session. The Rahal Letterman Lanigan racing crew is working to get the car ready for qualifying, which is set to begin at 3:15 CST. Qualifying will also be broadcast live on the NBC Sports Network at 3:00 pm CST.
