Saturday morning saw the second practice session for the NTT IndyCar Series, and the rains moved over Road America just in time to throw a wrench into everyone’s plans.
Teams were moving their cars to pit lane ahead of the session when race control declared a wet track and made sure that everyone fitted rain tires before leaving their pit box.
A few drivers headed out right away and tip-toed around the wet course. The recently-resurfaced tarmac was extra slick, and drivers immediately began running off in the braking zones.
Alex Palou was the first to need assistance from the track crew, bringing out the red flag just 12 minutes into the session.
Pietro Fittipaldi and Kyle Kirkwood also became stuck on the side of the road, with Kirkwood sliding through a sign in the grass before touching the tire barriers.
He did not appear to have suffered much damage, however, and should be able to go again this afternoon with only very minor repairs.
There were multiple others that slid of course, but most were able to get going on their own despite the extraordinarily wet grass.
Colton Herta mastered the tough conditions better than anyone else, completing a lap of the lengthy course in 2:07.3027.
Will Power and Christian Rasmussen were second the third on the charts, but were nearly two seconds slower than Herta
Part of the difference was due to the changing track conditions, which alternated between better and worse depending on the rain intensity.
Of the 27 drivers, only 23 ventured out in the rain. Newly appointed Juncos Hollinger Racing driver Nolan Siegel was one of the drivers that did not set a fast time, with the treacherous conditions being too much of a risk for the team.
With Siegel only getting 18 laps in yesterday, he has an extra tough job ahead of him to find an appropriate setup for qualifying and the Sunday’s race.
Scott Dixon, Pato O’Ward, and Jack Harvey also only turned install laps, and will hope that the track is dry by time qualifying comes this afternoon.
Teams are divided trying to predict what the conditions will be when qualifying begins at 2:25 PM central time, with forecasts showing that there may still be a lingering shower at that time.
