Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Saturday Practice – Dixon Sets Fast Lap

Scott Dixon  - St Pete Fast Lap (IndyCar - Owen)

ST. PETERSBURG, FL - RIS –  Scott Dixon pushed his No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Honda to the top of Saturday’s Practice 3 speed chart with a fast lap of one minute 0.76 seconds. The four-time IndyCar champion was followed by defending Verizon IndyCar champion Joseph Newgarden in the No. 1 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet. Newgarden, from Nashville, Tennessee, trailed the New Zealander by a mere 0.11 seconds. Will Power, Penske teammate of Newgarden set a slightly slower time just thousands of a second behind

Saturday morning practice for Sunday’s Verizon IndyCar Series’ Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg ended two minutes early due to single car incident. English rookie Jordan King lost control of his race car in Turn 13 and drove the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet into the tire barrier. The driver appeared uninjured. His Chevy suffered front-end damage.

The new driver from Warwick, England, set the fourth quickest lap behind Australian Will Power – a two-time St Pete race winner (2010 and 2014).

Dixon’s Practice 3 time held up under the combined results of the three practice sessions. Ryan Hunter-Reay followed, with Josef Newgarden, Will Power and James Hinchcliffe rounding out the top five of the combine practice.

Saturdays IndyCar Schedule:

11:10 am Verizon IndyCar Series Practice (stream)

2:20 pm IndyCar Firestone Fast 6 Qualifying (stream)

Sunday’s IndyCar Schedule:

8:45 am Verizon IndyCar Series Warm-up (stream)

12:30 pm IndyCar Series Race (ABC)

Dave Chess

Dave Chess has been writing for RIS since the late 1980s during the CompuServe days. His work has also appeared in Auto Week magazine, Chicago Gearhead News newspaper, ATA airlines in-flight magazine, National Speed Sport News and on many websites.

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Volume 2018, Issue 3, Posted 12:30 PM, 03.10.2018