Sarah Fisher Hartman’s young ace Josef Newgarden led Sunday morning warm-up at Barber Motorsports Park when Charlie Kimball brought the session to a halt at half-distance with a sizable crash at Turn 12.

Kimball was on his 10th lap of the session when the rear of his Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing entry stepped out over a slight undulation, went broadside and slid at unchecked speed across the damp grass into a tire wall, rear-end first. The barrier did its job and the popular American got out of his car unaided, appearing unharmed. However, the No. 83 crew have a busy couple hours ahead of them to rebuild the rear end in time for the race.

Newgarden’s P1 time was set on worn reds, and he remained on these for a full nine laps. He headed Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves, Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay, and then the remaining pair of Penske cars. All cars other than Newgarden ran blacks.

Reigning champion Scott Dixon had a minor off, flat-spotting his left front, and wound up only 15th quickest, but there was some encouragement for Ganassi – Ryan Briscoe, who has struggled with setup the past two days, looks strong on black tires, just 0.3sec off Castroneves’ best on the same tires.

A further issue may be the weather. Heavy rain is approaching the area, and is supposed to hit at 1 p.m. Even if it’s gone by start time (2:12 p.m. local), it will turn the track “green” again, rendering much of this morning’s setup work quite meaningless.