McLaughlin’s best effort pipped Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward by 0.0238s around the 1.5 mile oval, with O’Ward’s team-mate Alexander Rossi third fastest.
In the cool of the morning and with IndyCar having allowed extra downforce components this weekend, and drivers able to catch some strong tows, speeds looked startlingly good.
McLaughlin, who qualified and finished second in last year’s IndyCar round at TMS, was swiftly up to speed, clocking a 223.747mph lap in the #3 Team Penske entry, which equates to 23.169s around the 1.5-mile oval in Fort Worth.
Chevrolet looked strong at this stage, with O’Ward and Rossi also turning 223mph laps in their Arrow McLarens to run second and third, ahead of Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport.
Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevrolet
Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images
Josef Newgarden, Penske’s defending Texas winner, was also looking strong, just ahead of Takuma Sato – in his first outing for Chip Ganassi Racing – and Ganassi’s five-time Texas winner, Scott Dixon.
Dixon briefly vaulted his part-time team-mate but then Sato moved up to fifth, second fastest Honda driver, before pitting.
Also impressing at this stage was rookie Benjamin Pedersen, who with 15 minutes remaining, was in 11th for local team, AJ Foyt Racing. He eventually fell to 18th, but team-mate Santino Ferrucci took 12th.
With 12 minutes to go, Felix Rosenqvist, last year’s Texas polesitter, made it three Arrow McLarens in the top five. Then with under five minutes to go, series sophomore Callum Ilott sprung his Juncos Hollinger Racing entry into sixth, until Devlin DeFrancesco pushed him down with fifth best time.
The next time the cars are on track will be 11.15am local (Central) time for qualifying. There will then be a “high-line” practice to try and open up more grooves for tomorrow’s race, followed by an hour’s final practice.
Results: Practice 1