Nashville IndyCar: Herta dominates to take pole position

Herta advanced from his Q1 group on primary tyres, which meant the Andretti Autosport driver had a set of fresh red soft tyres for the final segment of qualifying, and he duly delivered a scintillating 1m13.6835s with his third lap to grab pole position in the top six pole shootout.

In that context, six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon did a great job to deliver a lap 0.5492s slower, beating Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate and points leader Alex Palou in the process.

Alexander Rossi was second fastest of the Andretti Autosport drivers in fourth place and ahead of the fastest Chevrolet driver, Arrow McLaren SP’s Felix Rosenqvist, while Romain Grosjean landed sixth for Dale Coyne Racing with RWR.

But with IndyCar points leader Palou picking up a six-place grid drop for an unapproved engine change, the Spanish driver will start the Nashville race down in ninth place.

In Q2, Simon Pagenaud was the only driver to take used soft tyres from the start of the session, and he briefly held top spot but was eventually eclipsed before all drivers ducked into the pits for fresh softs.

Grosjean threw down a marker on his fourth lap in Q2 with a 1m15.0078s ahead of Palou and Herta, but was then bumped off top spot by the championship leader, and demoted further by Rosenqvist.

Romain Grosjean, Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda

Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images

Josef Newgarden, who lay sixth at the time, was attempting to set another flyer when he locked up into Turn 10 and smacked the wall hard with his right-front and the right-rear. The resulting debris spread on to the track was considered interference with the close-following O’Ward, so Newgarden had his fastest lap deleted, dropping him to 12th, alongside team-mate Will Power.

That didn’t help O’Ward who wound up ninth, while Jack Harvey’s Meyer Shank Racing missed the Fast Six by 0.12s but will start sixth - up one spot due to Palou's penalty.

Earlier in Q1's second group, Grosjean had a little spin in the Turn 10 run-off but was able to resume with a spin-turn.

Herta continued the form he’s shown in practice, and on primaries he delivered a 1m14.7067s – at that point a full second ahead of the opposition on primary tyres, and the first lap in the 101mph bracket.

Dixon eventually shaded that with a 1m14.6673s but needed a set of alternate compound tyres to do it. Harvey delivered third-fastest time for Meyer Shank Racing ahead of the impressive James Hinchcliffe, ahead of Pagenaud’s Penske and Grosjean in the Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda.

Ryan Hunter-Reay failed to advance, his cause not helped by being issued a drive-through penalty for speeding on pitlane, while Rinus VeeKay was kicking himself for tapping the wall with his Ed Carpenter Racing car, bending the rear suspension and leaving him starting behind team-mate Conor Daly, but ahead of Takuma Sato.

In Q1's first group, Jimmie Johnson drove his Chip Ganassi Racing into the wall at Turn 10 on his out-lap, which caused a red flag and meant the qualifying segment only got going with 3m30s remaining, forcing all the remaining drivers on to the soft tyres with no sighting laps. Johnson’s team-mate Palou landed top spot with a 1m15.3385s, a few hundredths ahead of Andretti Autosport’s Rossi and the Arrow McLaren SP of O’Ward.

Scott McLaughlin, who suffered an incident this morning, was eliminated after brushing the wall with his right-front wheel, as were the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing cars of Graham Rahal and Santino Ferrucci, and Meyer Shank Racing’s Helio Castroneves, who is making his first IndyCar road/street course start of the year.

IndyCar Nashville Music City Grand Prix - Qualifying results

Fast Six

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	26	Colton Herta	1:13.6835	1:13.6835	0.000	3	3	1:13.6835	0		3	102.601	6:34.5151	Honda	A	260	Andretti Autosport
2	9	Scott Dixon	1:14.2327	0.5492	0.5492	3	3	1:14.2327	0		4	101.842	6:47.4532	Honda	A	328	Chip Ganassi Racing
3	10	Alex Palou	1:14.6316	0.9481	0.3989	4	4	1:14.6316	2		1	101.298	6:42.6637	Honda	A	384	Chip Ganassi Racing
4	27	Alexander Rossi	1:14.6646	0.9811	0.0330	4	4	1:14.6646	1		2	101.253	6:51.1960	Honda	A	201	Andretti Autosport
5	7	Felix Rosenqvist	1:15.0045	1.3210	0.3399	2	2	1:15.0045	0		5	100.794	4:23.1241	Chevy	A	94	Arrow McLaren SP
6	51	Romain Grosjean	1:15.3980	1.7145	0.3935	3	3	1:15.3980	0		6	100.268	5:09.0088	Honda	A	151	Dale Coyne Racing w/Rick Ware Racing

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	10	Alex Palou	1:14.4578	1:14.4578	0.000	6	7	1:28.2003	4		1	101.534	11:08.2736	Honda	A	384	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	27	Alexander Rossi	1:14.5252	0.0674	0.0674	6	7	1:34.2125	4		3	101.442	11:20.5486	Honda	A	201	Andretti Autosport
3	26	Colton Herta	1:14.7232	0.2654	0.1980	6	7	1:24.3425	4		4	101.173	10:44.6331	Honda	A	260	Andretti Autosport
4	9	Scott Dixon	1:14.8394	0.3816	0.1162	6	7	1:29.8086	4		2	101.016	11:07.5382	Honda	A	328	Chip Ganassi Racing
5	7	Felix Rosenqvist	1:14.8476	0.3898	0.0082	5	6	1:15.0847	3		7	101.005	10:20.3461	Chevy	A	94	Arrow McLaren SP
6	51	Romain Grosjean	1:15.0078	0.5500	0.1602	4	6	1:15.3512	3		12	100.790	10:08.5260	Honda	A	151	Dale Coyne Racing w/Rick Ware Racing
7	60	Jack Harvey	1:15.1309	0.6731	0.1231	5	6	1:18.8060	3		6	100.624	10:49.0169	Honda	A	170	Meyer Shank Racing
8	22	Simon Pagenaud	1:15.1354	0.6776	0.0045	6	6	1:15.1354	3		10	100.618	10:14.2719	Chevy	A	271	Team Penske
9	5	Pato O'Ward	1:15.1914	0.7336	0.0560	5	6	1:15.6485	3		5	100.543	10:30.9797	Chevy	A	345	Arrow McLaren SP
10	29	James Hinchcliffe	1:15.3255	0.8677	0.1341	6	7	1:28.2633	5		8	100.364	11:22.5185	Honda	A	131	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
11	12	Will Power	1:15.4678	1.0100	0.1423	7	7	1:15.4678	4		11	100.175	10:41.1497	Chevy	A	209	Team Penske
12	2	Josef Newgarden	1:15.5062	1.0484	0.0384	3	6	1:14.8873	4		9	100.124	9:10.5438	Chevy	A	315	Team Penske

Q1 Group 2

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	9	Scott Dixon	1:14.6673	1:14.6673	0.000	7	7	1:14.6673	4		2	101.249	10:49.5509	Honda	A	7	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	26	Colton Herta	1:14.7067	0.0394	0.0394	4	4	1:14.7067	0		1	101.196	6:11.4099	Honda	A	16	Andretti Autosport
3	60	Jack Harvey	1:15.2585	0.5912	0.5518	6	6	1:15.2585	3		7	100.454	10:53.2964	Honda	A	24	Meyer Shank Racing
4	29	James Hinchcliffe	1:15.2646	0.5973	0.0061	6	7	1:21.9789	4		10	100.446	11:03.8075	Honda	A	19	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
5	22	Simon Pagenaud	1:15.3661	0.6988	0.1015	6	6	1:15.3661	3		6	100.310	10:17.1165	Chevy	A	15	Team Penske
6	51	Romain Grosjean	1:15.3730	0.7057	0.0069	5	6	1:19.0267	3		8	100.301	10:26.8508	Honda	A	22	Dale Coyne Racing w/Rick Ware Racing
7	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	1:15.4984	0.8311	0.1254	7	7	1:15.4984	4		11	100.135	11:00.8162	Honda	A	18	Andretti Autosport
8	14	Sebastien Bourdais	1:15.6055	0.9382	0.1071	6	7	1:16.2396	4		3	99.993	11:06.3270	Chevy	A	10	AJ Foyt Enterprises
9	8	Marcus Ericsson	1:15.6379	0.9706	0.0324	5	6	1:24.6842	4		4	99.950	9:36.8593	Honda	A	6	Chip Ganassi Racing
10	20	Conor Daly	1:15.6685	1.0012	0.0306	6	6	1:15.6685	4		12	99.909	10:05.5522	Chevy	A	13	Ed Carpenter Racing
11	21	Rinus VeeKay	1:15.7029	1.0356	0.0344	4	5	1:19.4737	3		5	99.864	9:22.2453	Chevy	A	14	Ed Carpenter Racing
12	30	Takuma Sato	1:15.8503	1.1830	0.1474	6	6	1:15.8503	5		13	99.670	10:29.8487	Honda	A	20	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
13	18	Ed Jones	1:15.8770	1.2097	0.0267	6	6	1:15.8770	3		9	99.635	10:13.5519	Honda	P	12	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan
14	52	Cody Ware	1:17.6115	2.9442	1.7345	6	6	1:17.6115	4		14	97.408	10:23.3143	Honda	A	29	Dale Coyne Racing w/Rick Ware Racing

Q1 Group 1

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	10	Alex Palou	1:15.3385	1:15.3385	0.000	4	4	1:15.3385	2		2	100.347	10:24.2266	Honda	A	384	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	27	Alexander Rossi	1:15.3721	0.0336	0.0336	4	4	1:15.3721	2		1	100.302	10:20.5337	Honda	A	201	Andretti Autosport
3	5	Pato O'Ward	1:15.4160	0.0775	0.0439	4	4	1:15.4160	2		4	100.244	10:39.4848	Chevy	A	345	Arrow McLaren SP
4	7	Felix Rosenqvist	1:15.5305	0.1920	0.1145	4	4	1:15.5305	2		3	100.092	10:31.0183	Chevy	A	94	Arrow McLaren SP
5	2	Josef Newgarden	1:15.5474	0.2089	0.0169	4	4	1:15.5474	2		9	100.070	10:09.8026	Chevy	A	315	Team Penske
6	12	Will Power	1:15.6309	0.2924	0.0835	4	4	1:15.6309	2		7	99.959	10:15.1820	Chevy	A	209	Team Penske
7	15	Graham Rahal	1:16.1097	0.7712	0.4788	4	4	1:16.1097	2		8	99.330	10:29.0798	Honda	A	256	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
8	06	Helio Castroneves	1:16.3479	1.0094	0.2382	4	4	1:16.3479	2		6	99.020	10:54.8523	Honda	A	103	Meyer Shank Racing
9	45	Santino Ferrucci	1:16.4647	1.1262	0.1168	4	4	1:16.4647	2		10	98.869	10:44.6213	Honda	A	127	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
10	4	Dalton Kellett	1:17.1516	1.8131	0.6869	4	4	1:17.1516	2		13	97.989	10:49.7348	Chevy	A	95	AJ Foyt Enterprises
11	59	Max Chilton	1:17.5553	2.2168	0.4037	4	4	1:17.5553	2		12	97.479	10:36.9498	Chevy	A	77	Carlin
12	3	Scott McLaughlin	1:18.1899	2.8514	0.6346	4	4	1:18.1899	2		5	96.688	10:36.5183	Chevy	A	198	Team Penske
13	48	Jimmie Johnson	No Time	---	---	--	---	--.---	0		11	---	1:46.2978	Honda	P	56	Chip Ganassi Racing