The next test for IndyCar’s prototype windscreen will take place on a road course.

The windscreen has been tested twice, including the 1-mile ISM Raceway near Phoenix with Scott Dixon as the test driver in February and last Monday at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden behind the wheel.

"For the windscreen, the first test was with our most decorated driver," IndyCar president of Competition and Operations Jay Frye said. "Scott Dixon has the most championships. We wanted him in there first. That was we thought a pretty cool moment with him. We checked the box with Honda. (One April 30) we did it with our new champion, Josef Newgarden, checked the box with Chevrolet. Both manufacturers have had an opportunity.

"We learned a lot. We went 220 (miles per hour) with the windscreen. It's very transparent. There are times when you actually look at the car, it was very hard to see it on the car. The Opticor product is spectacular. We put it on the ground, the sun hits it a certain way, it almost disappears. We're really encouraged about where we're at today.

Josef Newgarden gives the windscreen a tryout at a recent test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Joe Skibinski

"The next thing we'll do is get it on a car in a road course, see how that works, a street course. I think it certainly has great potential."

Dr. Terry Trammell is an IndyCar safety consultant and has been involved in the windscreen project since the series began exploring ways to further protect drivers in the exposed open cockpit. This came after Justin Wilson was killed when the nosecone from Sage Karam’s crashed race car flew through the air and hit Wilson in the helmet at Pocono Raceway on August 23, 2015.

The impact knocked out Wilson, who never regained consciousness and died the following day.

Trammell was impressed with Dixon’s initial feedback in February and indicated Newgarden gave some additional information following his test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on April 30.

"He’s a good test pilot," Trammell told Autoweek, referring to Newgarden. "He is very observant and very helpful. Everybody we get to work with gives us information we didn’t have before. At the end of two tests, we don’t have a consensus yet. Nothing bad, though."

Jeff Horton is IndyCar’s director of engineering and safety and told Autoweek that several drivers wanted to test the windscreen before this weekend’s IndyCar Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.

Frye said that remains a small possibility but would rather do it on another road course later this summer.

"We’re looking at it and maybe," Frye said. "It would be the easiest way to do it (at Indianapolis), but it’s unlikely. It’s more likely we will try to piggyback on some tests at road courses over the summer. We talked about doing it where we could do it at an event without it affecting the event. But there are more things coming down the road this summer.

"We will now go back and take all of his comments and see what we can do with the car. We have data from Phoenix and from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, two different car manufacturers and two different drivers. We will compile all of that and that will help us through the process what our next steps are. It’s much different than Phoenix, it happens much quicker. At Phoenix, we tested at night. It’s all great stuff and we will work on it as much as we can.

"The next step will be on a road course and we aren’t sure when that will be. But Josef went 224 miles an hour so overall, it was a good day."

There remains plenty of testing on the windscreen, such as impact testing. Frye reiterated it will not be used in competition until 2019 at the earliest.

"There is still a lot of testing that has to be done," Frye said. "There's a cause and effect to everything you do. A lot of times you have a cause and effect. Even though we have a lot of smart people working on it, there's things we are not completely aware of things that could happen. That's why you go through the process to test it.

"The next part of the process will be to get it on a road course at some point. The manufacturing process we have we think a good plan for that. It will be a 2019 thing. It won't happen this year on our car full-time."

Crew members peel a tearoff from the windscreen at Indianapolis. Chris Jones

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