Fresh off a victory in the most recent race at Barber Motorsports Park, Ryan Hunter-Reay threw down the fastest lap in Friday's practice sessions for the Toyota Grand Prix at Long Beach (Sunday, 4 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network), a blitz of 1 minute, 9.4224 seconds around the 1.97-mile street circuit.
However, the top story from Friday was Mike Conway, who is racing this weekend on a one-off for Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Conway, the 2011 GPLB champion, was second-quickest in the No. 17 machine, posting a fast lap of 1 minute, 9.4603 seconds to serve notice that he may be a potential threat.
"We wanted to get through a few changes during that session," Conway said. "But the car feels good from the moment we stepped on the track. I'm just happy to be here. Trying to do a good job for these guys. [The car] feels good. Pretty happy with the balance. I think we have some areas to work on. But to still be running around the top two in the last two sessions is pretty encouraging."
Defending GPLB winner Will Power was third-fastest on Friday (1:09.5166), followed by rookie Tristan Vautier (1:09.5657) and current points leader Helio Castroneves (1:09.6608).
