IndyCar Harvest GP: VeeKay on pole, Newgarden second, Dixon 12th
Rinus VeeKay delivered pole position for Ed Carpenter Racing, while Josef Newgarden kept his title hopes alive with P2 while Scott Dixon lost out through misfortune.
In Group 1, Josef Newgarden led Team Penske-Chevrolet teammate Will Power by a tenth of a second and Meyer Shank Racing-Honda’s Jack Harvey by 1.5sec on the harder compound tires – and these proved to be the definitive times for Group 1.
The red flag flew for Takuma Sato spinning his Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda at Turn 4 on his out-lap on the Firestone reds, and with 5mins of guaranteed time elapsed and not enough time to retrieve his car before the checkers, the session didn’t restart.
As a result, Newgarden guaranteed himself a front-row start, Power and Harvey (the front row from the GMR Grand Prix of Indianapolis in July) lining up on the second and third rows.
The big news was that Scott Dixon was only sixth fastest on the harder compound, so will only be starting on the sixth row. Sato, had his best two laps deleted for causing the red, and will start from the back.
Apparently learning the lesson from Group 1’s misfortune, Helio Castroneves went straight out on reds in Group 2, but his best effort 0.37sec behind the best on blacks, Colton Herta (Andretti Autosport), and was also behind Max Chilton (Carlin) and Marco Andretti (Andretti Herta Autosport).
Felix Rosenqvist’s Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda guaranteed Group 2’s leader would be on pole when he lowered the top mark to 1min10.3, and then the times continued to tumble.
As the laps dropped into the 69s, suddenly it was Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet’s Rinus VeeKay who sprung to the top, and even Herta’s and Andretti’s last gasp efforts couldn’t usurp him.
This morning’s pacesetter Alex Palou will roll off on the ninth row, ahead of Castroneves whose tire tactics didn’t work out.
Group 1
| Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 4 | 1'10.470 | |
| 2 |  Will Power | Team Penske | 4 | 1'10.568 | 0.098 |
| 3 |  Jack Harvey | Meyer Shank Racing | 4 | 1'10.623 | 0.152 |
| 4 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Autosport | 4 | 1'10.650 | 0.179 |
| 5 |  Patricio O'Ward | Arrow McLaren SP | 5 | 1'10.729 | 0.258 |
| 6 |  Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 5 | 1'10.895 | 0.424 |
| 7 | Conor Daly | Ed Carpenter Racing | 4 | 1'10.937 | 0.466 |
| 8 |  Sébastien Bourdais | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 4 | 1'10.958 | 0.488 |
| 9 |  James Hinchcliffe | Andretti Autosport | 4 | 1'10.963 | 0.492 |
| 10 | Santino Ferrucci | Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan | 5 | 1'11.004 | 0.533 |
| 11 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | 5 | 1'11.048 | 0.578 |
| 12 |  Takuma Sato | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 4 | 1'14.898 | 4.427 |
| View full results | |||||
Group 2
| Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Rinus van Kalmthout | Ed Carpenter Racing | 8 | 1'09.690 | |
| 2 | Colton Herta | Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport | 8 | 1'09.704 | 0.014 |
| 3 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani | 7 | 1'09.714 | 0.023 |
| 4 |  Felix Rosenqvist | Chip Ganassi Racing | 8 | 1'09.800 | 0.110 |
| 5 | Max Chilton | Carlin | 8 | 1'09.819 | 0.129 |
| 6 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 7 | 1'09.883 | 0.192 |
| 7 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | 8 | 1'09.987 | 0.296 |
| 8 | Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 8 | 1'10.001 | 0.311 |
| 9 |  Alex Palou | Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh | 8 | 1'10.032 | 0.342 |
| 10 |  Helio Castroneves | Arrow McLaren SP | 7 | 1'10.396 | 0.706 |
| 11 | Sage Karam | Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | 6 | 1'10.622 | 0.932 |
| 12 | Charlie Kimball | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 8 | 1'10.750 | 1.059 |
| 13 | Dalton Kellett | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 8 | 1'10.995 | 1.305 |
| View full results | |||||
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IndyCar’s newest pole-sitter VeeKay: “We can go for the win”
About this article
| Series | IndyCar |
| Event | Grand Prix of Indianapolis Race 2 |
| Author | David Malsher-Lopez |
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