NASHVILLE — Nearly four hours after the NTT INDYCAR SERIES was originally slated to hit the 2.17-mile Nashville street circuit for qualifying, they finally were able to get underway at 5:24 p.m. locally to set the field for Sunday’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix (12 p.m. ET, NBC, INDYCAR Radio Network).
Just like a delay in last year’s session, Scott McLaughlin topped the Fast Six session en route to his fourth career NTT P1 Pole Award and first since Portland last year (14 starts ago). McLaughlin (1:14.6099-seconds) was untouchable in that round by beating Pato O’Ward by .3296-seconds and Colton Herta by 6-tenths too.
That mega lap was all due to how strong of a lap that he had in the first round he says.
“Really satisfying because it all started in Q1 for us,” said McLaughlin. “Pumped a decent lap out there. 6/10ths better than P2. We were able to do one lap on our greens. Bolted those on for Q3. I just had to make sure we got to the Fast Six, which we did. Every lap in quallie, nailed it pretty good. A really satisfying qualifying session, probably the best of my INDYCAR career, to be honest.”
This will be his fourth consecutive front row starting spot and fifth in the last seven races. Unfortunately for him, he’s not won in any of them. Can he deliver on Sunday?
“That was the money one, really nice, juicy. I’m really happy with that,” McLaughlin continued.
“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.”
O’Ward nets his 3rd top 5 starting spot in the last four races with a time of 1:14.9395-seconds in his No. 5 Dallara-Chevrolet. He’s qualified 8th and 5th here in the previous two years and notes that starting 2nd is better for him anyways since he’s winless from the pole (0-for-5).
“I was super happy with my car,” O’Ward said. “I think we were really strong in Q2. I thought it would be a couple 10ths slower in Q3 because it’s not new alternate.
“I’ve never won from pole, so I’m not angry I’m starting second (smiling).”
Herta was frustrated with the timing stand of Romain Grosjean for calling him out on top of Herta costing him a potential pole. Herta went 1:15.2416-seconds in his No. 26 Dallara-Honda to net him his fifth top six starting spot in the last six races. He had one in the previous 7.
Points leader Alex Palou never went to the Firestone alternates in the final round saying that the blacks worked better of his No. 10 Dallara-Honda. That’s why he’ll start fourth. David Malukas and Grosjean rounded out the Fast Six on a humid, sunny end to a soggy Saturday in Music City.
Palou Leads Otherwise Rough Session For Ganassi Camp
Chip Ganassi Racing is 2-for-2 here from 2 different drivers. They’ve made magic out of nothing in each. Which is why despite having just 1 car in the Fast Six on Saturday, I’m not as concerned about them on Sunday.
Marcus Ericsson was shockingly off in qualifying only 20th for Sunday’s race. That’s his worst starting spot of the season, however, he’s also only qualified 18th in both races prior too. How far can he rebound on Sunday?
Marcus Armstrong was only 16th, two spots better in Group 2 than Ericsson and also didn’t advance himself.
Alex Palou and Scott Dixon did, but Dixon crashed out with 18 seconds left when he got into the Turn 11 wall in his No. 9 Dallara-Honda signaling a 12th place start. He qualified on the front row in 2021 but was 14th last year. He took his 14th starting spot for a win.
Lundqvist, Malukas The Stars Again
On Friday, both Linus Lundqvist and David Malukas were the stars of the show. In a crowded room of two Penske’s, two Ganassi’s, two McLaren’s, two Andretti’s and the last street race winner and pole sitter in Lundgaard came Malukas in the middle of all in P7. Lundqvist was right behind with another Ganassi, Penske and Andretti car behind him with P11.
In qualifying, there they were again. Lundqvist in 11th for the best qualifying effort for this No. 60 Dallara-Honda all year while Malukas advanced all the way to the Fast Six in earning a fifth place starting spot.
The two former Indy NXT teammates are shining this weekend.
These two finished P2 (Malukas) and P3 (Lundqvist) in points that season as teammates and while Malukas moved up to Indy Car last season, Lundqvist came back. He’d end up winning the Indy NXT championship on the heels of 5 wins and 9 podiums in 14 races.
Unfortunately, the Road to Indy funding was severely cut for which Lundqvist found out the hard way on the night of the banquet. Without the proper prize money fund, he lacked the resources to land a full-time gig this season. It kept him out of the three-race scholarship too.
So, Lundqvist has been on the sidelines patiently waiting. He’s tested for multiple teams, but nothing has come to fruition.
Until MSR called.
Pagenaud was injured in a frightening practice crash back on July 1 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. While he walked away and felt okay afterwards, he’s not passed any tests after to return to the cockpit.
Conor Daly was a last minute addition in Mid-Ohio while Tom Blomqvist ran the street race in Toronto. Daly was back for the Iowa doubleheader before Lundqvist getting the nod to make his INDYCAR debut this weekend.
Luckily, he’s been here before, winning the Indy NXT race on these same streets a year ago. However, he’s not raced an Indy Car before and doing so with a team that’s struggling this season in MSR could be a massive task.
Instead, he’s turning heads.
Lundqvist was 11th on Friday and qualified 11th on Saturday.
By comparison, Pagenaud qualified 25th, 22nd, 14th, 16th, 19th, 22nd and 8th and 20th respectively. Tom Blomqvist also qualified 20th in Toronto. Conor Daly was 23rd and 15th in Iowa.
Lundqvist shows up and gets into the second round with as impressive of a debut that we’ve seen in quite some time.
For Malukas, the speed continues. He was quick in Road America practice. He qualified 12th and finished 6th in Mid-Ohio. Toronto was rough but a pair of top 10 starts (9th, 3rd) in Iowa and finishes of 12th and 8th that weekend have him beaming with pride. To make the Fast Six with a pair of Andretti’s, a McLaren, a Penske and a Ganassi is saying something.
“I mean, we’ve kind of been on a consistent trend I feel like these past few races. I feel like we want to keep onto that,” he said.
“Our goal from the start of this season, if we get a top 10 finish by the end of the race, we’ll be ecstatic. I think that will be a very good result for us. I think that stays going into this weekend.”
Palou With Chance To Extend Points Lead
This race has been a messy one for which starting spot hasn’t mattered. However, you can’t plan for it not to either for which Alex Palou is sitting really pretty right now.
He’ll start 4th on Sunday and look to extend his 80-point advantage leaving here and heading to Indy next week.
Second in points, Josef Newgarden, starts 9th. Third in points, Scott Dixon will roll off from 12th. Marcus Ericsson is fourth in points and starts 20th.
Starting spots of Top 5 finishers in 2021: 18th, 2nd 10th, 14th, 13th
Starting spots of Top 5 finishers in 2022: 14th, 1st, 4th, 17th, 23rd
This year, track position is back. 3 of the 4 races were won from the pole and the other from fourth. In fact, 6 of the last 9 street races in general were won from the front row and 7 of the 9 from the top two rows.
Grosjean Once Again In Fast Six, Can He Deliver
Romain Grosjean has been a superb qualifier on street courses this season. He’s just not delivered. In five races on them, he’s made the Fast Six in 4. Grosjean qualified 1st (St. Pete), 3rd (Long Beach), 3rd (Detroit), 9th (Toronto) and 6th (Nashville). Can he find a way to get his first win in his 43rd career start on Sunday?
He’s crashed out in 3 of the 4 street races too.
In St. Pete, he led 31 laps but crashed on Lap 71 while battling Scott McLaughlin for the lead after the final pit stops. In Detroit, he crashed while running in the top 10. In Toronto he crashed again with losing his steering wheel from his grasp in a bumpy corner. In those races, he finished 18th, 24th and 22nd respectively.
Long Beach he didn’t have troubles and came away in 2nd. He had two runner-ups in a-row in April.
Since?
11th, 30th, 24th, 25th, 13th, 22nd, 11th and 12th.
That’s dropped him from 4th in points to 13th.
For Nashville, he’s qualified 5th and 2nd the last 2 years but finished 16th in both.
Chevy Sweeps Front Row
Honda is a perfect 4-for-4 on street courses this season with taking 9 of the 15 podiums too. It went Ganassi-McLaren-Ganassi in St. Pete, Andretti-Andretti-Ganassi in Long Beach, Ganassi-Penske-McLaren in Detroit and RLL-Ganassi-Andretti in Toronto.
In saying that, Chevy swept the front row on Saturday but has 4 Honda’s lined up behind too.
Big Machine Music City Grand Prix Starting Lineup
Row 1: Scott McLaughlin, Pato O’Ward
Row 2: Colton Herta, Alex Palou
Row 3: David Malukas, Romain Grosjean
Row 4: Will Power, Kyle Kirkwood
Row 5: Josef Newgarden, Alexander Rossi
Row 6: Linus Lundqvist R, Scott Dixon
Row 7: Christian Lundgaard, Felix Rosenqvist
Row 8: Graham Rahal, Marcus Armstrong R
Row 9: Helio Castroneves, Callum Ilott
Row 10: Rinus VeeKay, Marcus Ericsson
Row 11: Santino Ferrucci, Jack Harvey
Row 12: Agustin Canapino R, Sting Ray Robb R
Row 13: Benjamin Pedersen R, Devlin DeFrancesco
Row 14: Ryan Hunter-Reay
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