IndyCar: McLaughlin wins pole for Nashville GP

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin won his 2nd career IndyCar pole position with a lap of 1m14.555s in his #3 Chevy on the streets of Nashville in qualifying for the Big Machine Music City GP.

“The car was phenomenal,” McLaughlin said. “We did that on one lap, used tires. One of those good laps.”

“Tell you what, this DEX car is really good, man,” McLaughlin said. “We’ve been going really fast in this car. Won the St. Pete opener with it. Won Mid-Ohio and now we’re pole at Nashville, which is an amazing racetrack.”

Romain Grosjean put the #28 Andretti Honda on the outside front row with a time 0.142s behind.

Rookie Christian Lundgaard continued his impressive street circuit performance with time of 1m14.7149s in his #30 RLL Honda. It was his best IndyCar starting position to date.

Lundgaard, who led practice Friday, came to Nashville after earning a career-best second-place finish last Saturday in the Gallagher Grand Prix on the IMS road course.

“I’m super happy at this point to put the Shield Cleansers car third. It was a rough qualifying session. I think we were very competitive in Q1, we were there in Q2. I made a mistake early in the session on my first lap and locked up. I was very close to hitting the barriers. I just missed it and spun around, and they gave me a drive through penalty. So not getting a banker lap in on the blacks was kind tough mentally to deal with knowing now you definitely need to go out and perform. And we did so, we got through Round 2 in fourth place. And honestly the first lap in the Fast Six, with that big lock up, it kind of just locked up instantly. We’ve struggled a bit with the brake stability this weekend and that just proves it. And pushing to the limits, it’s going to go wrong sometimes. We got there on the second set. Obviously, it didn’t help for confidence so it was a slightly less aggressive entry approach to the corner but I’m super happy being where we are. The whole team deserves it.”

Alex Palou was 4th in his #10 Ganassi Honda while Pato O’Ward rounded out the top-5 in his #5 Arrow McLaren Chevy.

6th quick Josef Newgarden made an interesting gamble that didn’t pay off. He was the only driver in the Firestone Fast Six to qualify on Firestone primary tires. The other five drivers used Firestone alternate tires, which this weekend are constructed with rubber derived from the drought-resistant guayule shrub native to the American Southwest. The primary tire lasts longer but isn’t as grippy as the alternate tire.

One notable thing about today’s delayed qualifying is that both AJ Foyt Enterprises drivers,  Dalton Kellett and Kyle Kirkwood, were in the fast 12 for the first time since 2018.  Kellett, driving the number 4 K-Line entry, will have his best starting spot of 12th, and his rookie teammate, Kirkwood, driving the number 14 Sexton Properties entry,  will start 16th.

Indy Lights

Linus Lundqvist moved one step closer to his first Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires championship Saturday when he was awarded the pole for the Indy Lights Music City Grand Prix, as lightning-laden thunderstorms that rolled through downtown Nashville forced the cancellation of qualifying.

The starting field was set by entrant points, per the series rulebook. Swedish driver Lundqvist leads the championship standings by 77 points over Hunter McElrea with four races remaining, with an identical gap in the entrant points with his No. 26 HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing entry. Lundqvist will start from the pole for the sixth time this season.

“I’m a little bit sad that qualifying got canceled,” Lundqvist said. “I think this place around a qualifying session would have been awesome. I think it would have been a good fight between us. But we’ll take starting on pole for the race. I’m definitely taking advantage of that aspect.”

Live coverage of Indy Lights’ debut race on the 11-turn, 2.1-mile temporary street circuit starts at 1 p.m. ET Sunday on Peacock Premium and the INDYCAR Radio Network. The race will be 35 laps or 55 minutes, whichever comes first.

McElrea, winner of the last two Lights races, will start second in the No. 27 Andretti Autosport car.

Row 2 will consist of Andretti Autosport teammates Sting Ray Robb and Matthew Brabham, starting third and fourth, respectively, in the No. 2 Sekady car and the No. 83 Andretti Autosport entry.

Perhaps the driver most dismayed to see qualifying canceled was Benjamin Pedersen. The Dane will start sixth despite leading practice Friday and this morning in his No. 24 Global Racing Group with HMD car.

Pedersen’s best lap Saturday was 1 minute, 21.0820 seconds. That was quicker than his practice-topping time of 1:21.8473 on Friday afternoon.

“This whole week has been a really great week so far,” Pedersen said. “The car is on rails. This place is super cool. Pretty disappointed about qualifying being canceled because I really feel we had a good shot at fighting for pole.

“But that’s how it is. We’ve had some great races this year in terms of moving forward positions, so I’m going to be super aggressive. I have nothing to lose.”

Lundqvist was fourth quickest in both practice sessions.

“We’ll see what tomorrow can bring,” Lundqvist said. “The weather looks a little bit dodgy. It might be wet. That will make things interesting, for sure.”

Lineup set by entrant points after qualifications were canceled due to weather.

1. (26) Linus Lundqvist, entrant points
2. (27) Hunter McElrea, entrant points
3. (2) Sting Ray Robb, entrant points
4. (83) Matthew Brabham, entrant points
5. (28) Christian Rasmussen, entrant points
6. (24) Benjamin Pedersen, entrant points
7. (68) Danial Frost, entrant points
8. (51) Jacob Abel, entrant points
9. (11) James Roe, entrant points
10. (99) Ernie Francis Jr., entrant points
11. (7) Christian Bogle, entrant points
12. (21) Kyffin Simpson, entrant points

Saturday Notebook:

Fourteen-year-old Brent Crews (No. 70 Ford), who became the youngest Trans Am winner in history last race at Road America, made it two in a row with a win in Saturday’s race. Crews, who started second, earned a 1.54-second victory over Connor Mosack (No. 28 Chevrolet) in the 70-minute timed race. Nashville’s Scott Borchetta (No. 48 Ford), who finished 3.213 seconds back of Crews, finished third for the first podium of his career. … Onofrio Triarsi went wire-to-wire take the win in the SRO GT America opener of the weekend doubleheader. Justin Wetherill finished runner-up to give Ferrari the top two spots. Jason Daskalos, in an Audi, was third with SRO3 drivers sweeping the podium. Robb Holland was the top GT4 finisher in a Porsche, taking 10^th overall. The weekend finale is a 40-minute, timed race that starts at 10:55 a.m. Sunday. … Matt Brabham won the opening race of the Speed Energy Stadium SUPER Trucks doubleheader weekend, edging Gavin Harlien by 0.7009 of a second in the 10-lap event. Max Gordon finished third. Brabham’s win was his first of the season and 24^th of his career, which ranks third all time.

Qualifying Results