PLYMOUTH, Wisc — Will Power has a list of folks he’s pissed at. Romain Grosjean is mad at his car and his team. 2 of the 3 Penske drivers failed to make it out of the opening round. Scott Dixon joined them. So did Grosjean.
On a wild day of activity at Road America for which saw the last three NTT INDYCAR SERIES champions crash in morning practice, Colton Herta overcame a spin in the second round to score his 10th career pole on a wild day on Saturday from the 4.014-mile scenic road course.
“First off, it’s good to be back in here. I forgot what a media center looked like, I’ve been qualifying so poorly,” Herta joked.
“Yeah, it feels nice to be back, kind of on form. Our qualifyings have been kind of lackluster the last few weekends. Luckily we put it all together today and ended up on the pole.”
He’s not wrong. Herta, the usual pole master, had qualified 14th, 14th, 21st and 24th respectively the last four races. In his last nine knockout qualifying tries, he’s made the Fast Six just once (St. Pete).
“Super happy. The car was great. Happy,” Herta continued.
The second-generation driver went 1:40.3643-seconds in his No. 26 Dallara-Honda to net his second career pole here. In fact, 60% (6-for-10) of his poles have come on natural terrain road courses like this one. Can he turn this pole into a win?
57.1% (4-for-7) of his wins came from starting on the pole, so he has a shot. Herta was ninth and second respectively in practice this weekend.
He’ll be joined on the front row by former Indy NXT teammate Pato O’Ward. The Arrow McLaren Racing driver qualified fifth here a year ago but now has started in the top six in 7 of the 8 races run this season. This though, is his first front row appearance as his previous best start was third (St. Pete and Barber).
Alex Palou (1:40.4930-seconds) will start third while Josef Newgarden (1:40.63331-seconds), Alexander Rossi (1:41.1854-seconds) and Kyle Kirkwood (No Time) rounded out the Fast Six.
It was a treacherous session for which we saw several drivers get off course.
Part of the incidents was with this being qualifying day and the margin between advancing to the next round and not being to the slimmest of times, you have to get everything out of your car each lap. That’s why in this practice session this morning and qualifying this afternoon, you push the limits for which is why we saw so many drivers getting wide in the corners. With the track being so smooth via the repave, getting off the line is still slick and once you do so, you’re a passenger.
As far as why, it’s because in last week’s test and all the practice and qualifying thus far, everyone is using the same line and building up rubber in those spots. As a result, there’s no rubber or grip off the line and it’s creating chaos.
Here are my top five takeaways from qualifying day.
Nice Rebound For Palou
Just seven minutes into Saturday morning’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice session, Palou crashed hard into the Turn 14 tire barriers.
He wasn’t the only victim that practice session as the other three that crashed failed to make it out of the opening round.
That’s why Palou was happy just to advance all the way to the final round. It was a nice rebound. However, the points leader also says that if he didn’t crash, he likely would be the one on the pole.
Instead, Palou starts third in his No. 10 Dallara-Honda (1:40.4930-seconds). Still, it’s his sixth straight start in the top four and in all of those races, he’s finished in the top five.
The last time he started third? He won the GMR Grand Prix by nearly 20 seconds.
He has a car capable of doing so on Sunday at a track that he won from fifth in 2021. He did start third last year but finished 27th too.
Rossi Doesn’t Net Pole
Alexander Rossi entered Saturday’s knockout qualifying as the favorite to win the pole. After being quickest in both practice sessions this weekend and scoring the pole here a year ago, he was a disappointing fifth in the Fast Six round. In fact, he was slowest among the drivers because Kyle Kirkwood didn’t make a lap after having a mechanical problem at the end of the second round.
That’s got to be disappointing for Rossi to not back up that early speed with a pole, but he at least has to see the silver lining in the fact that he said all season that he would be excited for a top five starting spot.
He said that qualifying was their Achilles Heel.
“We’ve had a really strong pace on Sundays, we just haven’t gotten the results that we feel like we deserve. We’re missing a little bit on Saturdays,” he admitted. “I mean, it’s a very different car than I’m used to. I just haven’t quite found my happy spot for like the ultimate lap. It’s close. It seems like we’re permanently qualifying 10th, 11th or 12th. It’s not a disaster. We’re certainly much better in race pace, or have been so far this year.
“I mean, it’s not the end of the world. We’ll get there. It’s competitive, and you can’t be missing a 10th of a second. Ultimately that’s what we’re missing.”
Entering the weekend, Rossi had qualified between 10th-13th in 5 of the 7 races. The only two he didn’t were on the oval at Texas and Indianapolis to where he qualified 3rd and 5th respectively.
Now, he starts fifth and has a car capable of more. That’s a good sign for them even though they have to be somewhat disappointed to not be even further up.
Big Names Ousted In 1st Round
2 of the last 3 NTT INDYCAR SERIES champions were eliminated in the opening round. So were the top two finishers in Barber this spring. It was a wild day that saw not only Alex Palou, Scott Dixon and Will Power crashing in practice this morning only to see Dixon and Power join the likes of Romain Grosjean, Scott McLaughlin, Simon Pagenaud, Helio Castroneves, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Felix Rosenqvist all eliminated in the opening round of qualifying on Saturday afternoon.
For Dixon and Power, they missed the boat because of their crash during practice a few hours prior.
Dixon spun in Canada Corner all by himself and was able to get back going right in front of both Grosjean and Power. Dixon knew Grosjean was coming so he allowed him to pass to Dixon’s inside. Afterwards, Dixon veered to his right to get out of the way. Unfortunately, Power was already there and the two locked wheels and skated into the concrete wall.
Power jumped out of his car and went to confront Dixon. He even pushed him before the two were separated by the safety team.
Dixon made mention that he didn’t even know Power was there and said the two spoke in the medical car and that Power understood.
With just a few hours between that crash and the start of qualifying, it wasn’t enough time to truly get these cars right.
Dixon said the No. 9 Dallara-Honda, which was a backup car, didn’t have the right braking dialed into it nor steering either. He didn’t think it was truly ready, but did note that it had speed to get by, but his spin in Turn 3 kept him out. He’ll start 23rd.
Power’s car wasn’t truly right either and like Dixon, he got off track pushing too hard. He was none too pleased with Dixon still even with him understanding what happened. Power blamed Dixon’s mistake for them being in this position to qualify 22nd.
He even took a shot at Grosjean too for the Andretti Autosport driver blocking him down the backstraight into Canada Corner this morning.
Grosjean was also pissed on Saturday, but at his team not anyone in the cars. He’s having a brutal weekend for which he was 18th and 22nd respectively in the pair of practice sessions and after getting off track in Turn 14 in Round 1, he qualified a disappointing 19th.
He said the car is broke and told the team on the radio to do whatever they want to it. He climbed out of the car and sped off on his scooter back to the paddock while being visibly frustrated.
What’s wild is, Dixon and Grosjean were the only drivers in their organizations to not advance out of the opening round.
Newgarden Carries Team Penske
It’s also been a brutal weekend for Team Penske too. They were 15-16-17 in Friday’s practice and just 9-12-15 on Saturday morning. In qualifying, Scott McLaughlin (18th) and Will Power (22nd) were both eliminated in Round 1. McLaughlin was just 15th and 9th in the pair of practices while Power was 17th and 25th.
Josef Newgarden (16th, 12th in practice) advanced to the Firestone Fast Six and will start fourth in his No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet.
Foyt Cars Advance, Coyne Cars Both Eliminated in Round 1
Dale Coyne Racing was shaping up to have a strong weekend in Road America. David Malukas was P2 and P4 respectively in practice. Sting Ray Robb was 14th and 20th. However, they struggled in qualifying. Both were eliminated in the opening round with Malukas qualifying 13th and Robb in 25th.
Malukas was dejected to not advance out of the first round saying that it wasn’t what they wanted and very frustrating.
On the opposite side, AJ Foyt Racing shined. Just like they did at Indy, both drivers made the top 12 in qualifying, but this time, it was on a road course. For the first time since 2018, both drivers were out of the first round and into the second.
They didn’t advance past that, but rookie Benjamin Pedersen starts 10th and Santino Ferrucci in 11th.
Ferrucci was 13th and sixth respectively in practice while Pedersen was 24th and 14th.
Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America Starting Lineup
Row 1: Colton Herta, Pato O’Ward
Row 2: Alex Palou, Josef Newgarden
Row 3: Alexander Rossi, Kyle Kirkwood
Row 4: Christian Lundgaard, Marcus Armstrong R
Row 5: Marcus Ericsson, Benjamin Pedersen R
Row 6: Santino Ferrucci, Devlin DeFrancesco
Row 7: David Malukas, Graham Rahal
Row 8: Rinus VeeKay, Felix Rosenqvist
Row 9: Callum Ilott, Scott McLaughlin
Row 10: Romain Grosjean, Simon Pagenaud
Row 11: Agustin Canapino R, Will Power
Row 12: Scott Dixon, Jack Harvey
Row 13: Sting Ray Robb R, Helio Castroneves
Row 14: Ryan Hunter-Reay
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