O’Ward defeats Rossi to win IndyCar pole at Barber

It came down to the fastest six drivers for pole at Barber Motorsports Park and in the end Pato O’Ward in the #5 Arrow McLaren Chevy defeated the #27 Andretti Honda of Alexander Rossi to take pole position for the GP of Alabama by 0.07s.

Rossi led the second practice this afternoon in the No. 27 NAPA AUTO PARTS/AutoNation Honda but when it really counted, he could not deliver.

The Arrow McLaren SP driver spent much of qualifying pushing right on the ragged edge, and topped both his Q1 group and the second qualifying session. He then set a time of 1 minute 5.8479 seconds in the Fast Six, outdoing second placed Rossi by just under 0.07s.

“It takes, cojones to win pole at this place,” said O’Ward.

“Yeah, it takes big ones to throw down a lap around this place. But man, it feels good when you nail it.”

For Chevrolet, it was their 100th pole start in 150 NTT INDYCAR SERIES races since returning to engine manufacturer competition in 2012

Alex Palou was third quick for the Chip Ganassi team ahead of Team Penske’s Will Power and his Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon.

Power chose to set his Fast Six times on used tires, but had enough to beat reigning champion Scott Dixon, while Marcus Ericsson rounded out the fast six.

Impressive in his IndyCar debut, driving the #51 Dale Coyne Honda was former F1 driver Romain Grosjean in 7th.

Rarely far from the top of the timing sheets throughout qualifying, the ex-Renault, Lotus, and Haas driver was second fastest in group two of the first part of qualifying, then looked set to advance from the second session, but for a late fast lap from Power that bumped him out of a transfer spot.

Grosjean did however better two-time series champion and three-time Barber winner Josef Newgarden who could only manage eighth.

Colton Herta and Conor Daly rounded out the top-10, ahead of Jack Harvey and Scott McLaughlin.

Select Quotes

Pole Winner Pato O’Ward

WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE IN QUALIFYING?

“We made some changes after Practice 2 that helped. We’ve been working so hard in the off-season and we’re clicking. Everybody on the team is working well together and I knew exactly what time I needed to get out of the reds (alternate tires) and we just had to maintain pace on (primary) blacks because I thought we were pretty strong. We did that and we’re starting on pole. It feels good. These guys deserve it and we’ve got a race to win tomorrow. I’m really hungry and I love this place to death.”

THIS HAS TO MEAN A LOT TO BOTH YOU AND THIS TEAM. YOU ARE THE FOCAL POINT OF IT.

“Oh man, these guys deserve it. We’ve been working so hard in the off-season. We had great testing and now it was time to put it to the work. Zak (Peterson) and Sam (Schmidt) are here; all the big guys are here. What a better place to try and put it on the pole, which we achieved that now. Man, I am so happy for them. I’m happy for myself, It’s the best view that you can get into Turn 1 tomorrow and let’s go win this race, man. We’re hungry. We’re really hungry and I love this place. I love this place to death. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON 5G TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 4^TH:

“Hey guys, I just completed qualifying, and we made it to the Fast Six, and we qualified fourth. Obviously, it’s a very tight field and very tough to get though each round; but we probably didn’t quite have the tire strategy in the Fast Six. Maybe we should have waited and done two laps at the end. But I’m pretty happy with the Fast Six. There are a lot of quick guys there and I look forward to a good day tomorrow.”

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 PPG TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 12^TH. CONTENDING FOR ROOKIE-OF-THE-YEAR:

“Unbelievable to get back in the PPG Chevy in full-on race conditions. Coming to a track I know, I tested here twice, gave me with some bit of confidence. Came here with a really good car. Jonathan my engineer gave me a really good car felt like a pretty good car initially. Picked my way through practice one and two. It felt really strong for qualifying and our goal was to make it to the second round and the top-12, and we did that. Probably not so proud of my Q2 run. Probably not the best run of my life, but, to get our first goal for 2021 is good for this whole group, and we can build on it from there. Looking forward to a good race tomorrow”

Rookie Romain Grosjean – 7th

“What a day, seventh in qualifying, that’s clearly above expectations!” expressed Grosjean. “But being so close to the Fast 6, obviously, I was really hoping we would get in but it’s still really great. The Dale Coyne Racing with RWR team really helped me to understand the qualifying tires. We’ve done really good work with the set up and I think we know where to look to go faster which is very positive. We’re going to enjoy this today but let’s focus on tomorrow. We have 90 laps of racing to do, I need to learn tire degradation, fuel saving, refueling, pit stops, how an IndyCar race goes. So, still a lot to learn tomorrow but I’m really happy with today.”

Qualifying Results