IndyCar completed its first official session at Nashville Superspeedway since 2008 on Saturday morning, with 27 drivers taking to the oval for the opening practice session of the season finale weekend.
At the end of the allotted time, it was the championship leader Alex Palou that had set the fastest time around the 1.33-mile oval.
His fast lap was completed in 23.9565 seconds, just shy of the 200 MPH barrier at 199.862 MPH averaged across the lap.
Palou’s nearest championship rival Will Power was also near the top of the timesheets, completing the sixth fastest time of the session.
The two will be watching each other very closely throughout the weekend to calculate where they need to finish in Sunday’s race to get the best championship result.
Scott Dixon and Colton Herta set the second and third fastest times of the morning, with each bravely attempting to keep the throttle flat through the tricky banked corners.
The session was barely underway when it came to a screeching halt on account of Nolan Siegel, who backed his Arrow McLaren Chevy into the Turn 4 wall.
Siegel lost control as he drove over a bump that crosses the track directly between Turns 3 and 4. His can backed into the SAFER barrier hard, doing a lot of damage to his machine.
There was a 30 minute break in the action while the track crew attended to the damaged barriers, repairing a hole the #6 punched when it backed into the wall at high speed.
The Arrow McLaren crew has a lot of work ahead of them in order to repair the car before qualifying, which gets underway less than two hours after the conclusion of practice.
Multiple other drivers struggled with the bump in the track, with many having to lift the throttle in order to keep their cars under control.
Even with awareness of the treacherous feature, cars could be seen dancing sideways and moving up the banking immediately after crossing over the bump.
Firestone brought a primary and alternate compound tire to the track this weekend, giving teams a lot of new situations to adapt to.
The softer compound was decidedly quicker, although finding the correct balance and downforce levels were the most important tasks of the day.
Coming up next is qualifying, when drivers will do their best to keep their foot flat around the entire track. That session begins at 2:45 PM central time.
