IndyCar: Herta wins pole at Road America

Despite Road America being repaved and billiard table smooth, Dario Franchitti’s 23-year-old IndyCar Road America lap record of 1m39.866s is safe. It was set with a CART IndyCar in an era when there were no soft qualifying tires.

Despite spinning in practice, F1 hopeful Colton Herta turned a lap of 1m40.1945s in his #26 Andretti Honda to win the pole position for tomorrow’s NTT INDYCAR Series race at Road America. He was 3/10ths of a sec short of breaking the record.

It was Herta’s 10th career pole position for the 23 year old.

Pato O’Ward was 2nd for Arrow McLaren, 0.1698s behind.

Alex Palou, who had a big crash this morning, recovered to qualify 3rd, 02985s behind in his #10 Ganassi Honda.

Josef Newgarden was 4th, but spun on his final lap and could not improve.

Alexander Rossi and Kyle Kirkwood rounded out the top-6.

Andretti Autosport’s Kirkwood secured the sixth position in the Fast Twelve session right before a puff of smoke came out his exhaust pipes.   He was not able to run in the Firestone Fast Six due to the engine failure.

Colton Herta

Herta and Team Owner Michael Andretti   Photo by Penske Entertainment: Joe Skibinski

Colton Herta had a crazy day of spins and off track excursions.  The American even spun during qualifying but did not cause any trouble for anyone else.

“I had more problems today than I did yesterday as far as off tracks and whatnot. I think it’s just difficult. It’s hard to get the cars in the operating window. It seems like some cars like different tires than others. ”

“It’s just a very strange feeling, at least for me, inside the car. I’m sure it’s different team to team and whatnot.  For me it’s a very strange feeling at the wheel. I think it shows by how many guys have been kind of trickling off the track, just having weird spins.”

“It’s a lot tougher when you hit something. When you just spin, go off, have a spin, it’s
really not that big of a deal. I did it again during qualifying, right? ”

“For me, it’s been one of the tougher tracks to get ahold of. It’s almost like there’s very little feedback from the wheel, so you’re seeing guys spin, just don’t really know it’s going to happen, which was the way it was for me a few times.”

“But, yeah, it’s a feeling that seems to be going away the more and more we run.  Obviously the speed is there in the track. They did a great job with the repaving.  Super
smooth. Obviously the more rubber that goes down, we’re just going quicker and quicker and quicker.”

Pato O’Ward

Pato O’Ward just missed the pole by the slightest of amount.  Being a teammate with Herta in their go carting days and running against each other in other series before coming to IndyCars, the Mexican was disappointed with the second starting stop.

“I don’t know, man. I think obviously the following will be different to what it’s been in the last few years just because offline, the balance, the car just turns upside down if you go offline.”

“I think that’s obviously going to make passing tricky. It will make guys trying to get a bit of cleaner air on at least half of their wing. There is a penalty to pay for that. It doesn’t
seem to pay off yet.”

“Yeah, I see it being there’s maybe a lane and a half of, like, very high grip. But you go off of that, and it’s like ice. I think that’s also why there’s just been a lot of excursions. You miss it by just a tad, and it’s like, What happened to the car?”

“To extract the lap time, especially now with the new pavement, like there is so much more grip, but it’s only in the line. You have to commit so much into the corners where a lot of the times it kind of bites once you’re already committed. I think that’s why you see a lot of spins, a lot of guys going off, just a lot of random snaps. It makes you feel like there’s unlimited amounts of grip, but there’s obviously limits to everything.”

Will Power

Will Power did not have a good day today.  After a morning tangle with Scott Dixon which required Team Penske to rebuild Power’s entire car with only two hours before qualifying, the Aussie almost punched Dixon.

After having a run through the grass during Round 1 of qualifying, Power returned to the pits.  While being interviewed by USA Network, Power said “Romain Grosjean should be punched in the the face”.   Seems that the French Andretti Autosport  driver was holding up the Team Penske driver during the session.

“(Romain) Grosjean is a piece of crap.” – @12WillPower pic.twitter.com/d4XmzxO1nu

— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) June 17, 2023

Qualifying Results

Pursuant to rule 8.3.7.3 , Car 28 has lost their fastest lap to this point. Pursuant to rule 8.3.7.3 , Car 9 has lost their fastest lap to this point.Pursuant to Rule 8.3.6, Car 20 has lost their 2 fastest laps.Pursuant to rule 8.3.7.3, Car 26 has lost their fastest lap to this point.Pursuant to rule 8.3.7.3, Car 2 has lost their fastest lap to this point.