By David Morgan, Associate Editor
NEWTON, Iowa – With the sun shining over Iowa Speedway, in contrast to Friday’s thunderstorms and tornado warnings, the on-track action around the 0.894-mile oval began bright and early with practice for the doubleheader weekend.
The Chevrolet teams finally got their legs under them after an inauspicious start to the season in which the Bowtie brigade has been shut out from Victory Lane in the first 10 races of the year.
Scott McLaughlin piloted the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet to the top of the board with a 17.537 second lap at 183.514 mph to lead the way during the session as he looks to go back-to-back at Iowa, having won the first race of the 2024 doubleheader.
He would be followed by five other Chevrolets, including Nolan Siegel from Arrow McLaren in second, and Alexander Rossi from Ed Carpenter Racing in third. Another Arrow McLaren Chevrolet driven by Pato O’Ward clocked in fourth fastest, with six-time Iowa winner Josef Newgarden rounding out the top-five.
Christian Rasmussen gave Ed Carpenter Racing two cars in the top-six before tagging the wall late in the session. Luckily, it appeared there was no significant damage to his machine as a result.
https://twitter.com/IndyCar/status/1944055974160920615
“We had a really good test here a couple of weeks ago, even though we had the accident,” said ECR team owner Ed Carpenter prior to the Rasmussen crash. “The cars were fast, the balances were good, so the only real unknown coming here was the new tire, but it doesn’t seem to be a big change for us.
“It’s always nice to start strong in the high line session and here. It’s tough to get a clean lap in these qual sims, but both guys are pretty happy.”
Alex Palou was the fastest Honda in seventh, as he looks to continue to pad his points lead by adding another oval win to his resume after winning the Indy 500 in May.
The remainder of the top-10 went to Conor Daly, Marcus Armstrong, and Scott Dixon.
Next up for the NTT IndyCar Series will be qualifying to set the field for both of the doubleheader races at 1:30 pm ET on FOX Sports 1, followed by the Synk 275 Powered by Sukup at 5:00 pm ET on FOX
Sunday will feature the second race of the doubleheader weekend, the Farm to Finish 275 at 1:00 pm ET, also on FOX.
Kirkwood Runs into Trouble in High Line Practice
A high-line session kicked off the day to try and get the top lane rubbered in after last season’s single file parade around the bottom.
Kyle Kirkwood was the first to run into issues during the session, when he ducked low to try to get around another car in Turn 4, nicking the white line on the apron, causing him to lose control of his car.
Though he fought valiantly to try to save it before his No. 27 Andretti Global Honda made contact with the wall, he ultimately lost the battle and slapped the outside wall, causing damage to both the front and rear wheels on his machine.
An early issue for Kyle Kirkwood in INDYCAR practice at Iowa Speedway. pic.twitter.com/H6ToffTC1u
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) July 12, 2025
After being checked and released from the IndyCar Medical Unit, Kirkwood explained what happened to get him in the predicament of playing catch-up for the remainder of the day.
“I don’t really know what happened there,” said Kirkwood. “We were running fine up top and I was nearly flat on the top. Then I got in the wake of, I think it was Rinus [VeeKay] right in front of me. Yeah, I went down low, which is a place that should have more grip and it just did not.
“Maybe the track was just green down there. I’m not sure what happened, but it just got loose and it was ‘See ya later’ down low. Just not much grip down there yet.
“Just a mistake on my part. Sorry to the team. It’s a compact day, right? This is not something you want to see happen. Just really caught me off guard there.”
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