Josef Newgarden in the No.2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet was fastest in practice as the NTT INDYCAR SERIES returned to the Milwaukee Mile on Friday.
The Tennessee native who set a fastest speed of 158.762MPH was happy with how his day went saying:
I think you definitely have your hands full midway through to the end of the (tire) stint,. “I liked our car a lot. It was tricky in the beginning. We had two different tires we were working with. The low-line running had like one balance by itself, and then it completely flipped when we went to this weekend’s tire.
“There was some tuning that went on there. I felt like we got into a good spot. The PPG car was really comfy at the end. Everyone is going to make their own decisions on how they view the tire usage and the mileage. It’s been really interesting the last couple of ovals on how people have strategized it.”
Speaking about finishing first on Friday and how that sets things up for the weekend, Newgarden commented saying:
It’s always tough these days. It’s a full grid, right? What do we have, 27 cars? A lot of people on track.
I’m sure there’s individuals that didn’t get a super clear lap, and there’s probably more to be seen from everybody. You just account for that. I think we’ve accounted for that at other ovals. You’ll see the same thing here.
It’s encouraging. Think our car was really good. I was happy. Took some tuning. The tire was very different on the low line tire that we ran, then we went to the current tire and it took a lot of work to get it where it needed to be.
When we got through the first 30 minutes, I was super happy with the car. The team did a great job feeling comfy and comfortable. Yeah, I think Team Chevy did a good job, too, at least from what I’ve seen preliminarily.
Two opportunities for us to have a nice result to end the year.