LEEDS, Ala. — Honda has put the IndyCar community on notice after the first practice session for Sunday’s (May 1st) 2022 Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama.
The brand’s IndyCar engines finished first through fourth in the first hour-long practice session on the 17-turn, 2.3 mile natural terrain road course as Colton Herta led the 26-car field with a fastest lap of 1 minute, 6.5149 seconds in the No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda.
“Really happy with how the car was,” Herta said. “Obviously we were one of the lucky ones that got to test here so we kind of did a lot of stuff on that day to kind of help us prepare for this weekend. It showed. We came here, rolled off the truck, the car was really nice right away.”
Alex Palou was second in his No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda ahead of Alexander Rossi and Romain Grosjean, while Scott McLaughlin was the first Chevrolet in fifth place.
Of note, Callum Ilott was the top rookie in eighth place in his No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet. Ilott races for the only single-car team on the IndyCar grid in JHR and the team seems to have hit on a good setup right out of the gate.
“What’s different with this track is we did [the time] on the same set of tires as everyone else,” Ilott said. “There’s no rookie excuse on that one, which is good. It’s nice to finally find a bit of pace validly.”
Jimmie Johnson Goes Back to the Beginning
After racing in NASCAR for two decades, Jimmie Johnson started his open wheel racing career last year at Barber Motorsports Park. The seven-time Cup series champion finished 19th in his open wheel debut, avoiding a first lap incident and spinning his car early in the race.
Testing a Formula Regional Americas open wheel car helped Johnson get immersed in his new environment, but after a full year in IndyCar racing the gains are clearly visible for the Californian.
“It’s a big change, I mean we were here a month ago and tested and I was two seconds faster than what I…
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