Road America IndyCar: Newgarden takes pole with ace strategy

Firestone Fast Six

Colton Herta was the first driver to get below 1min47sec as the teams debated over whether to run used reds which were degrading rapidly, or the primary tires which were capable of squeezing out three rapid laps, even if the ‘peak’ lap wasn’t necessarily higher.

Only Newgarden and engineer Gavin Ward, who had seen their #2 Penske clock fastest times on either kind of tires in previous practice session, had the courage of their convictions and stuck to their primaries, and their reward was pole by almost quarter second over Herta’s Andretti Autosport-Honda, turning a 1min46.0186sec. Newgarden admitted he was surprised no one else had done the same.

Jack Harvey was an impressive third fastest in the Meyer Shank Racing-Honda, and will start alongside Will Power who switched toward Newgarden’s setup before qualifying.

Alex Palou’s car looked a handful on blacks or reds, but he will be the highest of the Chip Ganassi Racing Hondas, ahead of Simon Pagenaud in a third Penske-Chevy.

Q2

On black tires, Power, Pagenaud, Herta, Newgarden, Harvey and O’Ward was the top six, Power’s best time being 1min46.5745sec. Palou’s first flyer on reds was over four-tenths quicker than that, while Romain Grosjean’s Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda fell a tenth short of that, before nailing a 1min45.9 with his next effort.

However, he was by no means safe, and the times tumbled in the last three minutes, with Jack Harvey nailing a brilliant 1min45.3612 to go 0.16sec faster than semi-teammate Colton Herta.

Behind him three Penske drivers and Alex Palou bumped Romain Grosjean out of the Firestone Fast Six shootout, although he was faster than two more Andretti-Hondas, those of Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi.

Championship leader Pato O’Ward could only claim 10^th for Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy, ahead of Bourdais and Jones.

Q1 Group 2

Max Chilton, Dalton Kellett and IndyCar debutant went straight out on reds. Meanwhile on blacks, Jack Harvey of Meyer Shank Racing-Honda clocked a 1min46.1294 on primaries, going half a second faster than Josef Newgarden, Alexander Rossi and seven tenths up on Pato O’Ward.

Then everyone dashed into the pits with just enough time to set a couple of flyers on the alternate compounds.

Newgarden was the first to deliver a ‘red’ time, landing a 1min46.0125sec, with Ed Jones of Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan-Honda coming just 0.06sec short of beating it. Then Newgarden went 0.4sec quicker again, and this time it was teammate Will Power who fell just 0.06sec short.

Somehow Alexander Rossi found the gap between them to go second fastest, while Pato O’Ward landed fourth ahead of Jones and Harvey.

Not making it, surprisingly, were Graham Rahal, who had looked strong in the RLL-Honda in practice but came up a quarter-second short in qualifying, and Oliver Askew, subbing for the injured Rinus VeeKay at Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy.

The latest new winner in the series, Marcus Ericsson, was only ninth fastest in the #8 Ganassi, ahead of Takuma Sato in the second RLL car.

Q1 Group 1

Colton Herta got down to a 1min46.0084 on Firestone primaries before pitting for fuel and soft red tires, 0.66sec ahead of his nearest opposition, the closest of which was Romain Grosjean.

On reds, Alex Palou was the first to deliver a representative time, with a 1min45.8821sec run, because Herta set the best time in Sector 1 but then made a mistake in Sector 2 while his tires were at their best. Nevertheless he eased off, saved his tires and made a second charge and hit the top of the times, 0.13sec ahead of Palou.

Sebastien Bourdais also advanced, while Simon Pagenaud’s #22 Penske did enough to bump out Scott Dixon, who had only run one lap on reds this morning, due to debris damaging his car’s underwing.

Also eliminated at this stage was Kevin Magnussen, substituting for Felix Rosenqvist in the #7 Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy who was 1.5sec off the ultimate pace, half a second up on Jimmie Johnson, who went straight out on reds.

Qualifying results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	1'46.018
2	26	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport with Curb-Agajanian	1'46.261	0.243
3	60	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing	1'46.720	0.702
4	12	Will Power	Team Penske	1'46.823	0.805
5	10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'46.863	0.844
6	22	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	1'47.127	1.108
7	51	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing with RWR	1'45.901
8	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	1'45.951
9	27	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	1'46.103	0.085
10	5	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	1'46.106	0.088
11	14	Sébastien Bourdais	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1'46.222	0.203
12	18	Ed Jones	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan	1'46.227	0.208
13	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'46.342	0.324
14	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'46.277	0.259
15	20	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	1'46.397	0.379
16	21	Oliver Askew	Ed Carpenter Racing	1'46.290	0.271
17	3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	1'46.862	0.843
18	8	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'46.406	0.388
19	29	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport	1'47.029	1.010
20	30	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1'46.513	0.494
21	7	Kevin Magnussen	Arrow McLaren SP	1'47.377	1.359
22	59	Max Chilton	Carlin	1'46.555	0.536
23	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	1'47.788	1.770
24	4	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1'46.978	0.960
25	52	Cody Ware	Dale Coyne Racing with RWR	1'47.732	1.713
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