Hunter-Reay topped the time chart in the opening 45-minute practice session for the Chevrolet Indy Dual in Detroit presented by Quicken Loans with a lap of 1 minute, 18.8595 seconds on the 2.36-mile, 13-turn temporary street circuit on Belle Isle.
His best lap (10th of 12 total) in the No. 28 DHL car for Andretti Autosport was less than a second off the track record in its current configuration set by Dario Franchitti last year in qualifications for Race 1.
Justin Wilson, who won the 2008 race, was second quick (1:18.8816) in the No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing car and Indy 500 runner-up Helio Castroneves was third (1:18.8977) in the No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske car. Castroneves won his first Indy car race on Belle Isle in 2000.
Simon Pagenaud, who earned his maiden Verizon IndyCar Series race victory last year in Race 2, was fourth in the session (1:19.1652) in the No. 77 Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports entry, while Tony Kanaan was fifth (1:19.2083) in the No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car. Mike Conway, who won Race 1 last year, was sixth quick (1:19.2453) in the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka car for Ed Carpenter Racing.
Top 10 Results: Hunter-Reay, Wilson, Castroneves, Pagenaud, Kanaan, Conway, Briscoe, Hinchcliffe, Rahal and Kimball.
