Scott Dixon, the unofficial “Master of Mid-Ohio” with four career IndyCar race victories – including wins in three of the last four years – led the first of two IZOD IndyCar Series practice sessionsFriday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, and appeared headed to a sweep of the day, until a last-lap effort by Will Power in the final moments of the second session dropped Dixon to second overall, by the narrow margin of just over one-thousandth of a second.
Dixon’s Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Dario Franchitti, was second-quickest in the morning practice, and finished the day fourth overall; while series rookie Luca Filippi made an impressive debut for Honda and Barracuda Racing, finishing fifth on the day. Also driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, Charlie Kimball posted the sixth-fastest time in practice, with Detroit race winner Simon Pagenaud ninth for Schmidt Hamilton HP Racing. Justin Wilson was sixth quickest in the morning, but had his afternoon practice halted by fuel pressure failure and dropped to 19th overall, while the A.J. Foyt Racing effort of Takuma Sato saw its track time limited by transmission issues.
Activities at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course continue tomorrow with final practice, followed by qualifying at 2 p.m. EDT. Sunday’s 90-lap race, the 14th round in the 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series, starts at 3:30 p.m. EDT, with live television coverage on the NBC Sports Network.
Scott Dixon(#9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda Dallara) 2nd quickest in practice Friday: “It was a pretty decent day. Both cars [Dixon’s and teammate Dario Franchitti’s] rolled out of the trailer and were fast this morning [running 1-2 in the first practice session], but I think we need to do a bit more tuning for the race on Sunday. It’s going to be super tight out there this weekend; you’re already seeing guys fighting to find hundredths and thousandths of a second, and I think that trend will continue. This is a track that’s been good to us, but you can’t rely on that, just like you can’t rely on the good run [of race victories] we’ve been having lately. You still have to work hard for everything you gain.”