Colton Herta set the top time in the second practice session for IndyCar’s Music City Grand Prix on Saturday, leading Alexander Rossi on the time sheets.
This is Herta’s second consecutive session at the front, showing how well his car is working on the tricky course.
Both Andretti Autosport Hondas were under the 1 minute 16 second barrier, but Herta was nearly half of a second clear of his team-mate.
Even though Rossi ended near the front, the California-native ran long into turn 10 and hit the wall near the pit entrance near the end of the session.
His front wing and suspension took a hard hit, but he was upset with himself after driving back to his pit box unaided.
There were a few stoppages in the 45-minute session, with Scott Dixon and Scott McLaughlin both needing some help to get going again after spinning in the tight turns.
Dixon escaped with no damage, but McLaughlin backed his Team Penske Chevy into the barriers in the slow section after the bridge.
Then at the end of the session, in a final two-minute push, Dixon spun again along with a few other drivers who were pushing the limits.
Unfortunately for the six-time champ, he touched the wall when spinning his car around to resume running and broke the rear wing off his Chip Ganassi Honda.
Graham Rahal also had to cut his running short after he brushed the wall a couple times and ended up damaging his suspension in the process.
Hometown hero Josef Newgarden was mired all the way back in 18th, and will have his work cut out for himself in qualifying later in the afternoon.
The standings in practice may not be wholly representative of pace, however, as the interrupted session didn’t give drivers much time to put together a complete run.
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