Two weeks after six teams made the trip to test at Sebring International Raceway, 14 more drivers took to the bumpy circuit to prepare for the upcoming NTT IndyCar series season. More than half of the 2021 field was represented today, with Team Penske’s four cars, both Rahal Letterman Lanigan Hondas, both Arrow McLaren SP cars, all four Andretti Autosport machines, and two Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolets.
Five of the drivers on hand had just finished up competing in the Rolex 24 this weekend at Daytona. Alexander Rossi was part of the overall-winning Wayne Taylor Racing team. Simon Pagenaud, Rinus VeeKay, Colton Herta, and Oliver Askew were the other four Rolex 24 participants on hand for today’s test. Askew was subbing in the No. 29 Andretti Honda for James Hinchcliffe, who was unable to make it down to Sebring in time.
Pato O’Ward put down the fastest lap of the day for the Arrow McLaren SP team, just beating out Rossi in the afternoon session. Here are the unofficial times from today’s test, according to RACER’s Marshall Pruett:
- Pato O’Ward, No. 5 AMSP Chevy (51.79s)
- Alexander Rossi, No. 27 Andretti Honda (51.93s)
- Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Penske Chevy (52.06s)
- Colton Herta, No. 26 Andretti Honda (52.06s)
- Oliver Askew, No. 29 Andretti Honda (52.24s)
- Felix Rosenqvist, No. 7 AMSP Chevy (52.26s)
- Takuma Sato, No. 30 RLL Honda (52.30s)
- Conor Daly, No. 20 ECR Chevy (52.31s)
- Graham Rahal, No. 15 RLL Honda (52.36s)
- Rinus VeeKay, No. 21 ECR Chevy (52.36s)
- Will Power, No. 12 Penske Chevy (52.36s)
- Simon Pagenaud, No. 22 Penske Chevy (52.38s)
- Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 28 Honda (52.46s)
- Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Penske Chevy (52.47s)
There were several new liveries on display today. Some were just being used for the test session, but others revealed what their cars will look like for the majority of the races this season.
Teams were once again using the 1.7-mile short course, which is the same as what was used during the previous test two weeks ago. All 14 cars ran at least 900 laps on the day, with Graham Rahal putting in the most with 157 total laps.
The first race on the IndyCar schedule comes on April 11 at Barber Motorsports Park.
Photos courtesy of Chris Owens/IndyCar
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