IndyCar: McLaughlin takes the Pole in Nashville

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, turned the fastest lap of 1m14.4609s to win the pole for the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix race tomorrow.

Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward will start second after turning a lap of 1m14.9395s around the Nashville Street Circuit.

“Congrats to Scott. I don’t think I had three-tenths of a second in there to get a little bit closer; I maybe had one. But I was super happy with my car. I think we were really strong in Round 2. I thought it would be a couple tenths slower in the Firestone Fast 6 just because I wasn’t on the Firestone Red Tires. I’ve never won from pole, so I’m not angry I’m starting second.”

Colton Herta was the fastest Honda qualifier, turning a lap of 1m15.2416s in his #27 Andretti Gainbridge Honda.

“I’m happy with how we ended up. I think that’s as close, or as good as, we were going to get,” said Herta.

“We might have been able to get Pato (O’Ward), but we didn’t have it for P1. Not this time. P3 is a great spot to start, it’s close to the front and we are within striking distance of a win from there. We have a great car. The Gainbridge Honda has been awesome all weekend. We have a few tweaks tonight to make it a little bit better and then go for the win tomorrow.”

Alex Palou was 4th in his #10 Chip Ganassi Honda, while David Malukas rounded out the top-5 with an impressive result for Dale Coyne Racing.

Palou matched a personal best qualifying result on the Nashville street circuit, as he started last year’s race in the same starting position before scoring a podium finish. He will look to earn valuable points in the No. 10 American Legion Honda in Sunday’s race and build on his 80-point championship lead.

“Honestly, we had a good car and a fast car. Happy to be out there and fighting for pole. Made a small mistake on my second lap, but pretty happy with P4. It is going to be an entertaining day tomorrow for sure. We don’t really know what the long run looks like here since we haven’t had the opportunity with the weather. We’ve been good all year and we just need to work a little bit more tonight and get ready for tomorrow.”

“It’s been a long day of waiting but we finally went out, and we managed to qualify fifth at the end of it all,” said Malukas.

“The team worked really hard, and we managed to get a good result today. Going into it I knew that our car succeeds when the grip is low and with the rain we had, there wasn’t going to be a lot of grip and we went out and did the best we could and we got a P5.

“I can’t thank the Dale Coyne Racing with HMD team enough. We really needed it. We’ll see how the race goes tomorrow. We’ll be going into it a bit blind without a warm up, but it’s the same for everybody and we’ll give it our best.”

Three drivers in the top five of the standings – Josef Newgarden, Dixon and Ericsson – didn’t advance into the Firestone Fast Six and will start outside of the first three rows Sunday.

Newgarden will start ninth after his best lap of 1m15.4862s in the No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet during the Fast 12.

Six-time series champion Dixon made a rare mistake and clipped the inside wall in Turn 11 with 30 seconds left in the Fast 12, hurtling his No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda across the track into the outside retaining wall.

Dixon was unhurt, but the front and front right of his car suffered heavy damage. He will start 12th.

Scott McLaughlin

“Yeah, look, honestly, same car as what we ran last year. It’s just been unreal. The Chevy has been awesome. Been a lot of gains everywhere. I think we’ve made improvements.”

“Overall just to come here with the same philosophy, just nail laps, it’s a good feeling, especially with the interruptions between sessions. I actually wanted it to rain. I was excited with the rain. The rain was a lot of fun this morning, had a blast. Learn a ton every time I’m in the rain.”

“Nice to be fast in the wet and dry.”

“Every qualifying we go into, we want a pole. That’s how it is. It’s INDYCAR. It’s just so hard to nail it. That’s why it feels good when you have the margin.”

“Everybody is so bloody good now. It’s just a matter of putting it together. I still think a front row start is still bloody good. Getting in the Fast Six is tough these days. You
can miss it by half a 10th.”

Linus Lindqvist

The weekend rookie, Linus Lindqvist, impressed everyone with his first qualifying effort in the NTT INDYCAR Series today with an eleventh place starting spot tomorrow.  Using two sets of the alternative (green) tires in the first qualifying session allowed the Swede to make his first Fast 12 session.

AR1 asked the smiling 24 year old how he felt after his first qualifying attempt in the series.

“It was awesome.  I am so happy.”

“I want to start off by saying a great big ‘Thank you’ to the team, to AutoNation and Sirius XM and Honda for giving me such a great car.   We knew that it was going to be a tough weekend with no preparation at all for the weekend. ”

“We knew the challenges just to transfer to the Fast 12 and we did the double greens, maximizing what we could.  And we managed to do it.  I am just happy with that.”

“I am proud of what I did but I also want to win.   So I look at my mistakes I made and I think we could have done a little bit better job.”

“Happy to be here this weekend and chance to run this race.”

The final practice that was scheduled for 5:25 p.m. today was canceled due to the delay.

Qualifying Results

Pursuant to Rule 8.3.6, Car 55 has lost their 2 fastest laps and will not advance.Pursuant to rule 8.3.7.3, Car 30 has lost their fastest lap to this point.Pursuant to rule 8.3.7.3, Car 18 has lost their fastest lap to this point.Pursuant to Rule 8.3.6, Car 9 has lost their 2 fastest laps and will not advance.