Ericsson, Honda Pace INDYCAR Spring Training
The Thermal Club
・Defending Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson heads the time sheets for Honda and Chip Ganassi Racing in NTT INDYCAR SERIES "Spring Training"
・Honda drivers claim top three positions in full-field test at The Thermal Club
・2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES opens March 5 in St. Petersburg, Florida
Honda-powered drivers and teams starred at NTT INDYCAR SERIES "Spring Training" at Southern California's The Thermal Club, with Marcus Ericsson leading the full 27-driver field over two days of testing at the 2.9-mile Thermal circuit. Second-year Honda driver Christian Lundgaard ran second quickest for Honda and his Rahal Letterman Lanigan team, with Andretti Autosport's Kyle Kirkwood rounding out the top three.
In addition, Andretti Autosport's Colton Herta, led both sessions in Thursday's opening day of Spring Training, while Ericsson's time on Friday morning was quickest for overall honors. Completing a Honda sweep of all four practices, the final timed session was headed by Kirkwood.
Fast Facts
・This week's INDYCAR Spring Training is the first such open test for the entire series since 2020; and marks INDYCAR's first visit to The Thermal Club for an event of any type.
・INDYCAR's last previous Spring Training full-field test was held in 2020 at the Circuit of the Americas, just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic reaching the United States.
Yeah, it's been two good days here at Thermal. For all of us, this was an important week, our only real test before the season opener in St. Pete. So we had quite an intensive testing program, and we went through all of it. I feel like both Chip Ganassi Racing and Honda have done a good job over the winter. But we need to keep pushing, trying to improve our package as a whole. A good start, and I think we're ready for St. Pete.
Honestly, it's been a pretty good test, for both the Rahal crew and in general. It's been quite difficult as we're not going to race here, while we're trying to get as much knowledge as possible that will help us throughout the season. We were very strong this morning in the cooler temperatures, but it's just great to get back in the car and work with this [Rahal] team once more.
Learned Thermal was quite a bit different than we expected, there was more grip than we thought would be here. But really, these two days were about 'knocking the rust off', rather than trying to develop the car. We had a few gremlins, and I put it in the gravel one time that lost us about an hour, but overall, we were fast. I think a Honda led every single [practice] session, and that's a real positive coming into the first race of the season.
It's nice to get everybody back together again, and it's always nice to be back in California again. Looking forward to St. Pete [the season opener], I think we've always brought great cars there. I've had a podium and a win there in the past two years, so it's been a track that's been great for me.
For a first test, it was great. It was interesting. I had to learn a new car, a new track, new people, new procedures, all that. I felt like I worked well with the team, they understood what I wanted from the car and at the same time, I was learning from them, as they've won so many championships before.
