Road America – Day One Wrap-Up
Practice One for the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America is now in the books. I spoke to more than a few people this morning who thought that Marcus Armstrong was going to break through with his first career IndyCar win this weekend. He got off to a nice start by leading the first practice, with a time of 1:44.2714. Armstrong was about a tenth of a second quicker that his teammate, Indianapolis 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist. Don’t forget, Rosenqvist got his only other career IndyCar win right here at Road America in 2020.
Points leader Alex Palou was third quickest. He is back in his familiar DHL livery, after being in the HRC (Honda/Honda) livery for the past two races. Pato O’Ward and Nolan Siegel rounded out the Top-Five in their McLarens. Teammate Christian Lundgaard was thirteenth quick on the day.
AJ Foyt rookie Caio Collet continues to impress. He was sixth quick in his Chevy powered Dallara. Scott Dixon looked consistently strong with a time good enough for seventh quick for the session. Mick Schumacher turned a few heads with a time that proved to be eighth quick. Marcus Ericsson and Santino Ferrucci rounded out the Top-Ten.
I am hopeful that Ericsson can back up his strong showing at Gateway two weeks ago, with another strong showing here at Road America. He is in the last year of his contract at Andretti Global, and needs a good second half of the season to continue there. I’m hoping he can stay there, since he is having a better season this year, compared to his first two seasons there.
There was one incident this afternoon. Sting Ray Robb brought out a red flag when he lost control of his car in Turn Fourteen and slapped the wall. The car wasn’t heavily damaged, but he was done for the day. After getting in only nine laps of practice, he is now behind for the weekend.
Other drivers having a rough day of practice were Graham Rahal, who was only twenty-second quick on the day. Romain Grosjean was gtwenty-fourth quick, only outpacing Sting Ray Robb for the day. Scott McLaughlin was nineteenth quick and Alexander Rossi was just ahead of him at eighteenth fastest. As expected, Josef Newgarden is still hampered by an injury to his left foot. He has performed well at this track in the past, but he only managed to be fourteenth quick on the day. David Malukas was only two spots quicker in twelfth. A lot of top drivers need to make big gains tomorrow.
During practice I got a text from my good friend Paul Dalbey. He was apparently watching practice from work and spotted me walking in the background. Unfortunately, I was carrying Susan’s camera bag for her, and he interpreted that as a purse. In fact, his caption was “nice purse”. Fortunately, I can take a joke.
Tomorrow is another full day at the track. Practice Two gets underway at 11:00 am EDT on FS1, then Qualifying starts at 2:00 pm on FS1.
As I wrap this up, it looks like we are in for more rain tonight, but the forecast for tomorrow is good. I can live with rainy nights, over raining at the track during the day. We are headed to our usual Friday night Fish Fry spot that we have been going to for ten straight years. I’ll close with some of the photos that Susan took today. Please check back here tomorrow morning.
George Phillips
June 19, 2026 at 7:10 pm
I was watching that interview and saw you and Susan walk by. Good stuff.