Arrow McLAREN 2025 The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix Practice Report
"We have a lot of data to look into for strategy for the race"
Arrow McLaren took to The Thermal Club's 17-turn road course today for the opening session of the second race weekend in the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season.
After Practice 1, Pato was sixth quickest, Nolan in 21st and Christian in 24th.
| Location | Thermal, Calif. |
| Race Date | March 23 |
| Round | 2 out of 17 |
| Total Laps | 65 laps |
| Total Race Distance | 199 miles / 320.84 km |
| Length | 3.07Â miles / 4.94 km |
| Number of Turns | 17 |
Pato O'Ward, Driver, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet
| Practice 1 | 1:40.9092 | 6th |
| Total Laps | 13 laps | Â |
"Done with Practice 1 in Thermal, and what can I say, it still destroys tires. We have a lot of data to look into for strategy for the race. For Qualifying, I don't think we're perfect, but we're in a decent spot where we can work to get better and see where we stack up tomorrow. We're definitely in a better window than we were last year."
Nolan Siegel, Driver, No. 6 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet
| Practice 1 | 1:41.8854 | 21st |
| Total Laps | 13 laps | Â |
"It was a messy session. We did a lot of waiting for the track to get cleaned up, so we didn't turn as many laps as we would've liked. We learned a lot and made progress, but we're still not quite where we need to be. We're headed in the right direction, though, and hopefully the other two cars learned some stuff that can help me. We're not in a terrible spot, but it’s not how we wanted to roll off."
Christian Lundgaard, Driver, No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet
| Practice 1 | 1:42.1472 | 24th |
| Total Laps | 11 laps | Â |
"I think we were the first car on track for Practice 1. We were half a tenth slower than the fastest car that was on track at the time that we went out and did our first run, so by the time that everyone had done their first run in Group 1, we were P2, half a tenth off the fastest car. I think we were there. The Andretti cars seem to be super strong. They're also one of the only teams that tested here, together with PREMA. I think we're in the mix. We had an issue on our Firestone Alternate tire run, so we didn't get a representative run, but luckily Pato had a pretty decent run. I think there is a lot of information for us to look at for tomorrow. I'm pretty optimistic."
Remaining Session Times
| Practice 2 | Saturday, 10:00-11:00Â a.m. PST | FS1 |
| Qualifying | Saturday, 2:05-3:30 p.m. PST | FS1 |
| Warmup | Sunday, 8:02-8:27Â a.m. PST | FS1 |
| Race Tune In | Sunday, 12:00 p.m. PST | FOX |
| Green Flag | Sunday, 12:17 p.m. PST | FOX |