Power on Top at Barber Test

By Josh Farmer, IndyCar Reporter

Will Power logged the quickest lap of today’s Verizon IndyCar Series open test at Barber Motorsports Park during a wild final hour.

With the help of the push-to-pass, the driver of the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet and two-time Barber winner led a flurry of activity and unseated Max Chilton in the final seconds of the test with a blistering lap of 1 minute 07.7518 seconds around the 2.38-mile road course. The lap was nearly a half second quicker than Takuma Sato’s fast time posted in the morning session (1:08.1705).

Chilton’s lap of 1:07.7591s held on for second place as he carried the flag for Honda and Chip Ganassi Racing.

2015 Barber winner Josef Newgarden recovered from an impact with the Turn 1 barriers to end up third (1:07.8402) and Juan Pablo Montoya was just a hair behind his Team Penske teammate (1:07.8406) despite being out of  IndyCar action since the season finale at Sonoma Raceway last September.

Marco Andretti led the charge for Andretti Autosport with the fifth quickest time followed by new team mate Sato who took sixth.

Four-time Barber runner-up Scott Dixon was the only other Ganassi car in the top ten in seventh (1:08.0255). Ryan Hunter-Reay was eighth and two-time Barber runner-up Graham Rahal was ninth. Last year’s IndyCar champion and Barber winner Simon Pagenaud rounded out the top ten.

The afternoon session was stopped four times due to yellow flags. Charlie Kimball stopped on course in turn six at nearly the same time Newgarden crashed in Turn 1. Tony Kanaan also made contact with the Turn 1 barrier late in the session.