Palou Posts Fast Time to Lead Second Practice in D.C.

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

WASHINGTON – Alex Palou is back on top of the board as the first day of on-track action at the Freedom 250 Grand Prix on the streets of Washington, D.C. rolls on.

Palou put up the fastest lap of the session during the group running segment, putting down a lap of 56.614 seconds in his No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, as he continues on his path toward a fifth NTT IndyCar Series title.

“Super fun, honestly. The Open AI car has been really fast all day,” said Palou. “Looking forward to qualifying, it’s going to be really, really tight. The race is going to be tough, 250 miles here is going to be long, but we’ll try.”

Kyle Kirkwood backed up his speed in opening practice by timing in second fastest behind his closest rival in the points standings, followed by Scott Dixon, Nolan Siegel, Pato O’Ward, Christian Lundgaard, Scott McLaughlin, Alexander Rossi, Marcus Ericsson, and Christian Rasmussen.

Turn 6 was the trouble spot of the session, with both Rahal Letterman Lanigan Hondas running into problems in that bumpy area of the track.

Graham Rahal was the first to bring out the red flag of the weekend as braking issues caused his rear wheels to lock up and fishtail into the wall on the straightaway leading into the left hander covered in Boeing branding.

Rahal would climb from his car, but his practice session was over, leaving his No. 15 RLL team with work to do before qualifying at 5:00 pm ET.

A tough start to Practice 2 for the No. 15 of Graham Rahal 😳 pic.twitter.com/yaEdxbhdby

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“Honestly, I’ve been about 50% brake pressure because it locks like that and I went in there that lap same as any other and a rear just completely locked on the spot. And there’s nothing you can do,” said Rahal.

“Super frustrating. I mean, you can see, it just tosses it, but there’s nothing you can do. There’s no margin for error here. I would have loved to obviously get more running there and get a set of new tires in just to know what we’ve got.

“We’re struggling for sure. All three cars I think, just everything we’ve thrown at it so far, brake locking is a major issue. Just trying to figure out the right direction, right path to go.”

With less than 10 minutes remaining in the session, a second RRL entry in the No. 45 Honda of Louis Foster, ran into trouble in the same area of the track as Rahal.

Foster got out of shape as he passed under the bridge over that straightaway and spun unto the wall on the left-hand side of the track, damaging the nose of his machine.

Damage for Louis Foster in Practice 2. pic.twitter.com/NvwurXxfLW

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