Dario Franchitti led a clean sweep of the top three positions for Chip Ganassi Racing in the second IZOD IndyCar practice session at New Hampshire.
As was the case earlier, the defending series champion – again running a new color scheme this weekend, this time prompting Nikon – featured near the top of the times from the time he ventured onto the circuit and ended up quickest in a time of 21.567sec. His teammates Scott Dixon and Graham Rahal completed the top three, each one of them within 0.1sec of Franchitti's best time.
Surprisingly, it was not the Penske or Andretti Autosport drivers who posed the greatest threat to the Ganassi trio, but those of KV Racing. Tony Kanaan was the best of them in fourth with Takuma Sato and EJ Viso completing the top six. James Hinchcliffe and Oriol Servia put both Newman/Haas cars in the top eight while Ryan Hunter-Reay and Charlie Kimball completed the top 10 for the Andretti Autosport and Ganassi squads.
The Penske drivers all appeared off the pace with Ryan Briscoe, Helio Castroneves and Will Power 12th, 16th and 19th, respectively.
Pippa Mann, who is making her first IndyCar appearance since the Indianapolis 500, spun at Turn 2 midway through the session, clipping the tire barrier with her Rahal Letterman Lanigan car's rear wing and causing damage to its suspension (see separate story).
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Dario Franchitti Chip Ganassi Racing 21.5665 97
2. Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 21.6204 + 0.0539 89
3. Graham Rahal Chip Ganassi Racing 21.6644 + 0.0979 99
4. Tony Kanaan KV Racing 21.7368 + 0.1703 101
5. Takuma Sato KV Racing 21.7713 + 0.2048 121
6. Ernesto Viso KV Racing 21.7743 + 0.2078 79
7. James Hinchcliffe Newman/Haas Racing 21.8161 + 0.2496 131
8. Oriol Servia Newman/Haas Racing 21.8200 + 0.2535 112
9. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport 21.8232 + 0.2567 109
10. Charlie Kimball Chip Ganassi Racing 21.9192 + 0.3527 63
11. Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport 21.9689 + 0.4024 85
12. Ryan Briscoe Team Penske 22.0330 + 0.4665 90
13. Mike Conway Andretti Autosport 22.0649 + 0.4984 129
14. Tomas Scheckter Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 22.1047 + 0.5382 117
15. Sebastien Bourdais Dale Coyne Racing 22.1133 + 0.5468 92
16. Helio Castroneves Team Penske 22.1375 + 0.5710 93
17. Danica Patrick Andretti Autosport 22.1589 + 0.5924 105
18. JR Hildebrand Panther Racing 22.1779 + 0.6114 95
19. Will Power Team Penske 22.2861 + 0.7196 113
20. Vitor Meira AJ Foyt Enterprises 22.2904 + 0.7239 111
21. Alex Tagliani Sam Schmidt Motorsports 22.3055 + 0.7390 89
22. James Jakes Dale Coyne Racing 22.4246 + 0.8581 92
23. Ed Carpenter Sarah Fisher Racing 22.7104 + 1.1439 103
24. Ana Beatriz Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 22.7242 + 1.1577 80
25. Simona de Silvestro HVM Racing 23.1201 + 1.5536 81
26. Pippa Mann Rahal Letterman Lanigan 23.5376 + 2.0008 15
27. Sebastian Saavedra Conquest Racing 23.6379 + 2.0714 103