PLYMOUTH, Wisc — The 4.048-mile racing surface at Road America wasn’t ready for activity until May 5. While nothing was altered to the actual track layout, a repave is something that isn’t taken lightly. That’s why despite this being the same circumstances for everyone, some teams took to the scenic Wisconsin road course to test prior to Sunday’s Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America (1 p.m. ET, USA, INDYCAR Radion Network).

That’s also why it wasn’t too surprising to see Arrow McLaren Racing and Dale Coyne Racing found up front in Friday’s opening 75-minute long session.

“I think we as a group would be pretty disappointed, considering we tested here, if we didn’t roll off the truck pretty strong. I think it’s still early days,” said the days fastest driver, Alexander Rossi.

Rossi went 1:41.7790-seconds in the incident free session. That was almost four seconds faster than his time in last year’s opening practice session, for which he led too.

“It was interesting for us, having tested here last week, to understand the difference in the tire that Firestone brought for this weekend because no one that tested here had the actual tire,” he said. “Obviously trying the reds for the first time. So it was an interesting session.

“Yeah, definitely lots to digest overnight.”

David Malukas also credited the test for him being P2 some .0862-seconds arrears.

“Yeah, it was very good,” Malukas said. “We tested here, we found a couple things. At the end of the day we were kind of like, Speed is still there, car feels very good. Our hopes were high coming into today.”

The sophomore driver was P2 on Friday at 1:41.8652-seconds in his No. 18 Dallara-Honda. It was a much better way to start things after entering the weekend with five straight finishes of 19th or worse.

“Obviously went out and, again, we definitely found something,” Malukas continued. “I think we’re a little bit closer now and kind of can restart our season. The way I’m explaining it is we had a mid-season slumber, the car was sleeping, getting ready, now we’ve awakened and we’re ready for the second half.”

The first two races though saw him finish in the top 10, so is this the start to getting back to that strength, especially since they figured that these types of tracks would be their struggle point this season.

“Feels really good because if you just look back from the start of the season, our expectations were that we were going to struggle on road courses,” Malukas said. “Barber, Indy GPs was kind of what we expected.

“Going into this weekend, it feel goods that we’ve found a few things. We knew it at the test. We made some key changes. I said, Okay, well, that felt very, very good.

“Coming into this weekend, it kind of seems like we’re there. Now we can kind of start focusing and making the small changes to catch up with all these frontrunners.”

Rossi tempered his expectations though. While he was joined by his teammates up front in having all three cars in the top eight, he feels like there’s still more to be had still.

“Yes, certainly the potential is there,” he noted. “It wasn’t a very clean run or laps by me, so I think there’s certainly quite a bit more in it, which is a good sign.

“So, yeah, it’s just about really diving into, again, the tire differences because it’s a chunk slower than our pace in testing. So understanding the differences there and making any adjustments to the car to kind of combat that going into tomorrow.

“Obviously track evolution is going to continue being a thing, and other cars are going to keep improving, so you can’t stay still, you have to keep improving.”

The reason for the quicker times this year is all due to a recent repave of the racing surface between last year and this for which contributed to much faster speeds this time around. In fact, all 27 drivers on Friday were quicker in Session 1 than Rossi’s pole winning time of last June.

“Really you don’t do anything different,” Rossi said of the repave. “I think it’s just there’s more potential from the car and the tire, so you have to have probably a higher level of commitment than you did last year.

“Last year with the surface, I never thought it was particularly bumpy, but the car slid around on the track quite a bit more than it does now. It’s quite a bit in the track, similar to what Watkins Glen was like when it was repaved, what Barber was like when it was repaved. You feel the car digging in more than you did before. But everyone has that advantage now.

“Really your approach is no different whether it was low grip or high grip.”

Malukas, felt like it was a big change for him though.

“Yeah, it’s massive change. I remember at the testing, when we tested last week, I was just in shock but how much more you could push the braking zones. It’s almost more than double,” he noted.

“Other than that, the characteristics very much the same. Carrousel, the Canada Corner all has the same feeling. Just so much more grip.

“This track was already one of my favorites before, but now it’s officially taken the top spot.”