NEWTON, Iowa – Dean Stoneman set the bar early in his first trip to Iowa Speedway, posting the fastest lap of the day during today’s two practice sessions for Sunday’s Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires race.

The Andretti Autosport driver turned a lap of 19.7097 seconds (163.290 mph) in the No. 27 Stellrecht Dallara IL-15 during the cooler early afternoon session that held up as the quickest lap of the day. Stoneman noted that the team established a good baseline setup when he tested at the 0.894-mile oval a few weeks ago and they were able to improve on it this weekend.

“We practiced here a couple of weeks ago and we went away working on how we can improve the car and we come back and we’ve improved it,” said Stoneman. “In the first session this morning, we’ve improved what we needed to and we know we have a good qualifying car now.”

Stoneman, who is second in the championship, was closely followed by Juan Piedrahita in the No. 2 Pawco/Petrosur entry from Team Pelfrey (19.7270 seconds, 163.147 mph). Points leader Ed Jones of Carlin turned the third-quickest time with a lap of 19.8035 seconds (162.517 mph) in the No. 11 Jebel Ali Resorts and Hotels Dallara IL-15.

Qualifying takes place at noon ET Sunday, with the 115-lap race starting at 3:15 p.m. Both sessions will stream live on RaceControl.IndyCar.com.