A very large crowd is out early at Pocono Raceway here in Long Pond, PA. The stands are filling up nicely, whilst pit road was mobbed with fans getting their first up close and personal look at the stars and machines of the IZOD IndyCar series. They were not disappointed either, seeing not just the IZOD IndyCar series, but also the Firestone Indy Lights running laps faster than the current NASCAR Cup pole record. As it stands, the Lights are set to shatter the Cup pole record by 9MPH.
Marco Andretti ran the fastest lap among the IZOD IndyCar series teams with a blistering lap of 221.883 MPH, about 10 MPH faster than Emerson Fittipaldi’s overall track record set in the summer of ’89. The atmosphere is electric with excitement as fans from all disciplines of motorsports have converged inside the triangle in Long Pond for Pole Day.
The lone incident was a yellow flag for Will Power’s #12 Verizon Chevy, which just stopped on track around the tunnel turn. It came back in on the hook with no physical damage visible, and was back on track minutes later. Dario’s problems this season, and at Pocono continue with him only turning the 16th fastest lap. Graham Rahal also is highly disappointed with the slowest lap of 23 cars on track.
Here are the rest of the speeds from practice 1:
P1 Marco Andretti 221.883 MPH
P2 Tony Kanaan 220.819 MPH
P3 Charlie Kimball 220.683 MPH
P4 Simon Pagenaud 220.226 MPH
P5 Helio Castroneves 220.219 MPH
P6 Scott Dixon 220.217 MPH
P7 Takuma Sato 220.139 MPH
P8 Will Power 219.757 MPH
P9 James Hinchcliffe 219.753 MPH
P10 Alex Tagliani 219.727 MPH
P11 Ryan Hunter-Reay 219.623 MPH
P12 Tristan Vautier 219.563 MPH
P13 EJ Viso 219.496 MPH
P14 Simona De Silvestro 219.092 MPH
P15 Josef Newgarden 219.047 MPH
P16 Dario Franchitti 218.576 MPH
P17 Sebastien Bourdais 218.433 MPH
P18 Pippa Mann 218.221 MPH
P19 Ed Carpenter 218.002 MPH
P20 Sebastian Saavedra 217.819 MPH
P21 Justin Wilson 217.670 MPH
P22 James Jakes 217.225 MPH
P23 Graham Rahal 217.053 MPH