NEWTON, Iowa – It shouldn’t be a surprise that an Andretti Autosport car led Friday’s opening practice for the Iowa INDYCAR 250’s given their rich history at the 7/8 mile track. They have dominated at Iowa by winning seven times in the last 13 seasons.

But it wasn’t three-time Iowa winner Ryan Hunter-Reay, 2011 Iowa winner Marco Andretti or Alexander Rossi at the top of charts. Second-year driver Colton Herta put his No. 88 Capstone Turbine Honda in P1 with a lap of 171.990 mph (18.7127 seconds) at the “Fastest Short Track on the Planet.”

CLICK HERE: Practice 1 Results

Herta’s lap was a few hundredths of a second quicker than Conor Daly’s lap in the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet. Daly, who finished sixth with Carlin in the series’ only other oval race at Texas, turned in a lap of 171.488 mph (18.7675 seconds).

Will Power (171.092 mph), Santino Ferrucci (171.080 mph) and two-time Iowa race winner Josef Newgarden (171.077 mph) rounded out the top five.

Teams have a quick turnaround  to perfect their setups for NTT P1 Award qualifying at 5:30 p.m. (ET) on NBC Sports Gold. The field for tonight’s Race 1 (8:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN) will be set by the times set on the first lap of a driver’s two-lap run, while Saturday’s Race 2 ((8:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN) will be set by their second lap.