Tires Are The Barber Question; Ericsson Leads Practice

Marcus Ericsson topped NTT IndyCar Series practice Friday at Barber Motorsports Park. (Paul Hurley/Penske Entertainment photo)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Friday’s opening practice session for the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park may have generated more questions than answers.

In the debut of a new NTT IndyCar Series practice format, with a 40-minute kickoff followed by two 12-minute groups, it was Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson who led the way on the overall speed charts at the 2.38-mile, 17-turn natural road course.

Ericsson’s best lap of the day came in the first practice block – a one minute, 7.7470 second clip at 122.219 mph – with the No. 28 Bryant Heating & Cooling Honda.

It was his 15th of 26 laps total in opening practice, making the Swedish driver the early target entering the fourth of 17 races on the IndyCar Series calendar.

However, the interesting factor of the afternoon was that there seemed to be minimal lap time differences between the black primary Firestone tire compound and the softer, red-sidewall alternate compound.

Three-time and defending Indy car champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing was second-quick at 1:07.7602 (122.196 mph), less than two hundredths of a second off the practice lead, in the No. 10 Honda.

Ericsson’s Andretti Global teammate Colton Herta landed third (1:07.7728/122.173) overall, followed by the Chevrolets of Team Penske’s Will Power (1:07.7869/122.147), Ed Carpenter Racing’s Alexander Rossi (1:07.8098/122.106), and a second Penske driver in Josef Newgarden (1:07.8667/122.004).

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Devlin DeFrancesco, who sat second after the first 40 minutes of practice, ended the day seventh with his lap of 1:07.9302 (121.890 mph) in the No. 30 Honda.

The debate started quickly afterward as to which tires would be preferred as the weekend wore on, with different drivers having varied opinions on the subject.

Herta told reporters during his post-practice media availability that he didn’t feel a major difference from one tire compound to the other when he was on-track Friday.

“I wouldn’t say the blacks are faster than the reds. I think if that happened for some guys, it’s probably because they made mistakes or they had a big balance shift. But, no, I would say the overall lap time – it is closer I would say than normal, the gap between the two … but there definitely is lap time gain on the reds.”

Pato O'Ward in action Friday at Barber Motorsports Park. (Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment photo)

Asked by Motorsports Hotspot his thoughts, Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward – the 2022 Barber winner – tipped he believes the alternates will be the faster choice, but that tire wear will determine if they’ll be the preferred option for a majority of Sunday’s race or not.

“Similar to Colton, the delta doesn't really seem that big or as big as I thought … because I think Firestone told us the prime is more durable,” said O’Ward, who was 14th on single-lap speed in practice.

“The red is the [2023] red [compound], I believe, so there should be a pretty significant gap in terms of performance,” O’Ward added. “But I don't think we saw as big of a gap as we were expecting, at least I didn't see as big of a difference. So I don’t know. Surprise, surprise I guess.”

It’s likely yet another variable – rain tires – will be in play also, at least for qualifying on Saturday, with a roughly 50-percent chance of showers for most of the day throughout the Birmingham area.

O’Ward knows that he doesn’t have any pull with the weather, so the 25-year-old from Mexico is just going to take the conditions as they come.

“It’s obviously under no one’s control beside Mother Nature. It can say that it’s going to be maybe crazy, and then it decides to kind of clean up a little bit … or maybe a window opens up in qualifying where half of it’s going to be dry and half of it [is] not. It doesn’t look like that, but you can't count any of that out.

“Tomorrow obviously, if it rains, it’s going to change things a lot for everyone,” he added. “We just need to stay on top of it and really just kind of know what we need from – or at least I need to know what I need – from the car in order to get it done in qualifying.”

So, what will be the best plan of action over the next two days?

“Who knows what will happen?” Herta quipped. “I haven’t driven here in the wet in a long time, so we’ll see how that plays a role or if it does.”

Of note, two-time defending Barber winner Scott McLaughlin was eighth fastest, putting all three of owner Roger Penske’s cars inside the top 10 for the day at a track where Team Penske has visited victory lane nine times in 14 tries.

However, McLaughlin’s Friday didn’t come without drama, as he skidded off into the grass twice during the first half of practice – including one moment where he drifted the tires all the way through turns 13 and 14 before regaining control of the No. 3 Chevrolet.

Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist also had an off midway through practice, keeping his car rolling but spraying chunks of gravel across the turn-five portion of the Barber course.

Pre-qualifying practice for NTT IndyCar Series teams is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. CT Saturday, followed by time trials at 1:30 p.m. ET, where the NTT P1 Award will be awarded at the end of three rounds of knockout qualifying.

Team Penske continues to chase its 700th pole position across all forms of motorsports. McLaughlin was last year’s Barber polesitter and the race has been won from the first starting spot six times.