5 different teams were represented in the Firestone Fast Six. It was Graham Rahal though to stole the show on the alternate strategy who qualified on the Firestone primary tires compared to everyone else on the Firestone reds.
Rahal went 58.3195-seconds in his No. 15 Dallara-Honda to net his fifth career NTT INDYCAR SERIES pole. He went 105 races between poles and now has won 2 in the last 3 races.
The last time Rahal won multiple poles in a season was in 2009 when he won poles twice that year. He’s now done so in 2023.
The last two races here were won from the pole so is it a good omen for Rahal? He hopes so. He said his car on race pace is better than the one he has in qual trim too.
He beat last year’s pole sitter Scott McLaughlin for the pole by just .0330-seconds.
McLaughlin went 58.3525-seconds in his No. 3 Dallara-Chevrolet en route to his 7th front row qualifying effort in the last 8 races and 12th in 50 career starts.
Colton Herta (58.4576-seconds) and Scott Dixon (58.5803-seconds) will share Row 2 while Alex Palou (58.6492-seconds) and Pato O’Ward (58.6737-seconds) rounded out the Fast Six.
RLL Has Found Qualifying Pace
Graham Rahal just gave Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing their 4th pole of the season. That’s as many poles in 16 races run this season than they had in the previous 202 races combined.
Rahal had a pole in 2017 at Belle Isle. Takuma Sato had 2 poles in 2019 and one in 2020. That was it.
Then Christian Lundgaard won the pole for May’s GMR Grand Prix. He then won the pole in July at Toronto. Rahal then returned the favor in last month’s Gallagher Grand Prix and did so again on Saturday in Portland.
That’s four poles in 16 races this season with all coming in the last 12 races.
It’s a nice resurgence for RLL and shows how close they truly are to breaking out. The only thing lacking is qualifying on ovals. On road and street courses, they’ve been strong.
Lundgaard has qualified 6th (Barber), 1st and 2nd (Indy road course), 7th (Road America), 5th (Mid-Ohio) and 17th (Portland) on natural road courses. Rahal has been 19th (Barber), 8th, 1st (Indy road course), 14th (Road America), 2nd (Mid-Ohio) and 1st (Portland).
On streets, Lundgaard has qualified 11th (St. Pete), 17th (Long Beach), 18th (Detroit), 1st (Toronto) and 13th (Nashville). Rahal has been 20th (St. Pete), 24th (Long Beach), 27th (Detroit), 27th (Toronto) and 15th (Nashville).
On ovals, Lundgaard started 27th (Texas), 31st (Indy 500), 20th, 21st (Iowa), 20th (Gateway). Katherine Legge qualified 30th at Indy too. Rahal was 24th (Texas), DNQ (Indy), 13th, 6th (Iowa) and 23rd (Gateway).
McLaughlin Qualifying King
Scott McLaughlin is becoming a qualifying pro. This season, he’s started in the top six 9 times including 7 on the front row. 6 of his last 7 races have been on the front row at that. With him starting on the pole and winning this race last season, what can he do on Sunday?
McLaughlin’s finishes from the front row have been 7th (Detroit), 6th (Toronto), 2nd and 5th (Iowa doubleheader), 2nd (Nashville), 5th (Gateway – 10 spot grid penalty). Can he pick up the win and end his 12 race winless streak?
Ironically enough, his win this season didn’t come from the front row. It came from 4th in Barber.
Newgarden’s Mistakes Continue
For the Indy road course a few weeks ago, Josef Newgarden had a rough go of it and qualified only 19th. As a result of being that far back, they elected to take their fresh engine change and the six spot grid penalty that went with it. He would then start 25th. On the opening lap, he was collected in a crash and finished where he started (25th).
Last week in Gateway, he started on the front row but was pushing too hard and found the wall late in the race. Another 25th place finish.
On Saturday, Newgarden was pushing hard in qualifying and found the Turn 12 wall in Q2. Despite being second quickest in practice this morning, he’ll now start 12th.
Newgarden has now started outside the top 10 in 7 of the 16 races this season.
Friday’s Practice Didn’t Mean Much
The top 2 on Friday’s speed charts failed to get out of the first round of qualifying on Saturday. Christian Lundgaard was held up by slower traffic in front on his run on Firestone alternates which relegated him down to 9th in his group which equates to a 17th place start. It frustrated the Dutch driver as he felt like he never got a lap.
This was the first time all season that he didn’t make the second round on a natural road course. He qualified 6th (Barber), 1st and 2nd (Indy Road Course), 7th (Road America) and 5th (Mid-Ohio). Now, he starts 17th for the 5th time in the last 6 races that he’s started 13th or worse (20th, 21st, 13th, 2nd, 20th, 17th).
Kirkwood just didn’t have the pace. He was 8th in his group and will start 16th.
David Malukas, Romain Grosjean and Rinus VeeKay were P6-P7-P8 in practice on Friday but also failed to get by the opening round.
Malukas starts 24th, Grosjean 15th and VeeKay 13th.
Outside Of Herta, Andretti Autosport Just Didn’t Have It
While Colton Herta made it to the Fast Six the other three drivers all failed to advance past the opening round with both Romain Grosjean (15th) and Kyle Kirkwood (16th) sharing Row 8 and Devlin DeFrancesco starting 21st.
Grosjean had qualified 9th, 8th, 20th, 6th, 6th, 9th in the six races prior. Kirkwood has now started 18th, 17th, 8th, 15th, 13th, 16th in the last six races himself.
It wasn’t just qualifying that they were lacking. They’ve been off in practice too.
They only went 14-16-17-18 in Saturday morning’s practice and if you factor in their alliance team with Meyer Shank Racing (P21-P27) and you get the six combined cars in the bottom half of the speed charts.
MSR qualified 22nd (Helio Castroneves) and 27th (Tom Blomqvist).
Starting Lineup
Row 1: Graham Rahal, Scott McLaughlin
Row 2: Colton Herta, Scott Dixon
Row 3: Alex Palou, Pato O’Ward
Row 4: Will Power, Callum Ilott
Row 5: Alexander Rossi, Marcus Ericsson
Row 6: Felix Rosenqvist, Josef Newgarden
Row 7: Rinus VeeKay, Marcus Armstrong
Row 8: Romain Grosjean, Kyle Kirkwood
Row 9: Christian Lundgaard, Juri Vips R
Row 10: Ryan Hunter-Reay, Agustin Canapino R
Row 11: Devlin DeFrancesco, Helio Castroneves
Row 12: Santino Ferrucci, David Malukas
Row 13: Sting Ray Robb R, Benjamin Pedersen R
Row 14: Tom Blomqvist R
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