IndyCar Road America: Herta takes last-gasp pole for Andretti

On the recently-repaved 4.048-mile road course, Dario Franchitti’s qualifying track record of 1m39.866s remained out of reach despite the new high-grip surface. The Fast Six shootout was an intriguing battle, with most cars running the harder primary tires but Arrow McLaren’s practice pacesetter Alexander Rossi gambled on the softer alternates.

O’Ward set the early pace with 1m41.9957s on primaries, which Rossi beat with 1m41.4587s on his alternates.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou then jumped to P1 on primaries at 1m40.7065s, ahead of Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden and Herta on the same compound. O’Ward grabbed provisional pole with 1m40.3643s, despite a scruffy end to his lap, but Herta beat that with 1m40.1945s to ensure the top spot for Sunday’s race.

Palou will start third in his hastily-rebuilt car after a hefty practice crash this morning, ahead of Newgarden, who spun at Turn 3 on his final lap.

Rossi was fifth, almost a second off the pace, ahead of Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood – who didn’t take part in the final session after his car expired earlier.

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	4	1'40.1945			144.223
2	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren	4	1'40.3643	0.1698	0.1698	143.979
3	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	4	1'40.4930	0.2985	0.1287	143.795
4	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	5	1'40.9530	0.7585	0.4600	143.140
5	Alexander Rossi	Arrow McLaren	5	1'41.1854	0.9909	0.2324	142.811
6	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Autosport	0
View full results

Fast 12 qualifying

In the second round of qualifying, Christian Lundgaard (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) set the pace early on with 1m41.0480s on primaries, three tenths up on Rossi, but Palou beat him with 1m40.9914s.

Times tumbled in the closing moments, with Palou taking P1 on primaries with 1m40.5572s, before Herta – who had earlier suffered a huge high-speed spin at Turn 1 on primaries – produced a last-gasp 1m40.5476s on alternates.

Kirkwood was third on primaries – before pulling off with a smoking engine – ahead of alternate runners O’Ward, Newgarden and Rossi.

Lundgaard will start seventh, after failing to improve on alternates, ahead of Ganassi’s Marcuses Armstrong and Ericsson, AJ Foyt Racing duo Benjamin Pedersen and Santino Ferrucci, and Devlin DeFrancesco (Andretti).

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	6	1'40.5476			143.717
2	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	6	1'40.5572	0.0096	0.0096	143.703
3	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Autosport	6	1'40.9322	0.3846	0.3750	143.169
4	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren	6	1'40.9393	0.3917	0.0071	143.159
5	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	7	1'40.9716	0.4240	0.0323	143.114
6	Alexander Rossi	Arrow McLaren	6	1'40.9948	0.4472	0.0232	143.081
7	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	6	1'41.0480	0.5004	0.0532	143.005
8	Marcus Armstrong	Chip Ganassi Racing	7	1'41.1737	0.6261	0.1257	142.828
9	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	6	1'41.2202	0.6726	0.0465	142.762
10	Benjamin Pedersen	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	6	1'41.4989	0.9513	0.2787	142.370
11	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	6	1'41.6314	1.0838	0.1325	142.184
12	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	5	1'41.8277	1.2801	0.1963	141.910
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Group stage qualifying

In Group 1, Herta set 1m40.7555s on primaries and then beat that with 1m40.5881s on alternates. Pedersen was second fastest, ahead of DeFrancesco, Newgarden, Kirkwood and Ferrucci.

David Malukas, who’d been rapid in practice for Dale Coyne Racing, just missed out on progression by 0.0481s. He will start 13^th, and outpaced Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing), Callum Ilott (Juncos Hollinger Racing), Romain Grosjean – who went off twice in his Andretti Autosport car, including a big flight over the curb on the exit of Turn 1, and declared “the car is broken” – Agustin Canapino (JHR), Scott Dixon (CGR) and Sting Ray Robb (DCR).

Ganassi built up a new chassis for Dixon, after his tub was found to be dented following the bizarre collision with Team Penske’s Will Power in practice this morning, but he struggled for pace and spun off at Turn 3. “The brake bias was at a really odd number, steering was off, it was just a bit of a mismatch,” he rued.

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	6	1'40.5881			143.659
2	Benjamin Pedersen	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	6	1'41.2255	0.6374	0.6374	142.755
3	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	6	1'41.2443	0.6562	0.0188	142.728
4	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	7	1'41.3132	0.7251	0.0689	142.631
5	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Autosport	5	1'41.4400	0.8519	0.1268	142.453
6	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	6	1'41.4723	0.8842	0.0323	142.407
7	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing	7	1'41.5204	0.9323	0.0481	142.340
8	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	6	1'41.7420	1.1539	0.2216	142.030
9	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	6	1'41.8005	1.2124	0.0585	141.948
10	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	7	1'41.8529	1.2648	0.0524	141.875
11	Agustin Canapino	Juncos Hollinger Racing	6	1'41.9247	1.3366	0.0718	141.775
12	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	7	1'42.2745	1.6864	0.3498	141.290
13	Ray Robb	Dale Coyne Racing	6	1'42.6862	2.0981	0.4117	140.724
View full results

In Group 2, Lundgaard set the pace on primaries at 1m41.0125s, as practice pacesetter Rossi – who was second fastest after the first runs – got a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane. O’Ward set a 1m40.9158s to top the session just before Ryan Hunter-Reay slammed the wall at the final corner, bringing out a red flag with 11s remaining.

The session resumed for a lap but nobody could improve their times, so Lundgaard was second quickest, ahead of Armstrong, a fortunate Rossi, Ericsson and Palou.

Missing out were Graham Rahal (RLL), Felix Rosenqvist (McLaren), Scott McLaughlin (Penske), Simon Pagenaud (Meyer Shank Racing), a livid Will Power (Penske) – who had a huge moment on the exit of the Carousel in his rebuilt car and is still angry with Dixon – Jack Harvey (RLL), Hunter-Reay and Helio Castroneves (MSR).

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren	6	1'40.9158			143.193
2	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	7	1'41.0125	0.0967	0.0967	143.056
3	Marcus Armstrong	Chip Ganassi Racing	8	1'41.0682	0.1524	0.0557	142.977
4	Alexander Rossi	Arrow McLaren	7	1'41.1788	0.2630	0.1106	142.820
5	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	8	1'41.2830	0.3672	0.1042	142.673
6	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	8	1'41.2868	0.3710	0.0038	142.668
7	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	8	1'41.5121	0.5963	0.2253	142.352
8	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren	8	1'41.5823	0.6665	0.0702	142.253
9	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	7	1'41.7005	0.7847	0.1182	142.088
10	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	8	1'41.7257	0.8099	0.0252	142.053
11	Will Power	Team Penske	7	1'41.9275	1.0117	0.2018	141.771
12	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	7	1'41.9329	1.0171	0.0054	141.764
13	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	7	1'42.0399	1.1241	0.1070	141.615
14	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Ed Carpenter Racing	5	1'44.1738	3.2580	2.1339	138.714
View full results