Colton Herta will start from the pole position for Sunday’s (July 2) NTT IndyCar Series Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Herta’s team made the call to use the primary black tires, and it worked in his favor.
“It was a tough call (going to blacks),” Herta said. “It seemed like reds and blacks were pretty close on second runs. It wasn’t an easy one but they gave me a good car that was good on both tire compounds so we had the option to run both. The Gainbridge Honda was flying, and real happy to get two in a row.”
This is Herta’s first race with new race strategist, Rob Edwards, who replaced Scott Harner. At the previous race at Road America, Herta had a shot to win the race, but was called into the pits one lap earlier than the rest of the leaders and had to save fuel the last stint on the four mile road course.
Ohio native Graham Rahal will start second, his first front row start in four years. The Rahal team has a long history at the track, dating to when the team’s namesake Bobby Rahal raced for Trusports and Jim Truman who owned Mid-Ohio in the 1980s.
The rest of the top six was Kyle Kirkwood, championship leader Alex Palou, Christian Lundgaard, and six-time Mid-Ohio winner Scott Dixon.
Prior to the start of qualifying, Simon Pagenaud was not cleared to drive after his morning practice crash that saw him flip multiple times. The Frenchman was able to walk away from the wreck. In case Pagenaud is not cleared by IndyCar medical personnel, NBC Sports reported that Conor Daly, who was released from his ride at Ed Carpenter Racing before the Road America race, is on stand-by to drive tomorrow.
Firestone Fast Six
Herta snatched the pole away from Rahal on the last timed lap, taking his eleventh career pole. Rahal, who has struggled this year, including missing the Indy 500, has his best start of the season and at the track in which he won at in 2015.
1. Herta
2. Rahal
3. Kirkwood
4. Palou
5. Lundgaard
6. Dixon
Round 2
Championship leader Palou was able to squeak into the Firestone Fast Six. Teammates Rahal and Lundgaard, both in need of positive results, made it to the final round.
Team Penske drivers Will Power and Scott McLaughlin both missed advancing and will start together in row four.
2022 Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson, who is 74 points behind teammate Palou in the standings, was unable to make up ground and gain the point for winning the pole. He will start ninth.
7. Power
8. McLaughlin
9. Ericsson
10. Felix Rosenqvist
11. Jack Harvey
12. David Malukas
Round 1 Group 1
Early in the session, Arrow Mclaren driver Pato O’Ward spun in while he was atop the leaderboard. The red flag came out for the driver fourth in the championship standings and took away his two fastest laps and prevented him from advancing. He will start 25th.
This left slightly less than six minutes for the rest of the group to put red, alternate tires on and run.
Team Penske driver and two-time Mid-Ohio winner Josef Newgarden was unable to advance out of the session. The American, who is third in the championship, will start 15th.
Harvey and Malukas, who stated Friday that he was unlikely to return to Dale Coyne Racing, advanced to Round 2.
13. Alexander Rossi
15. Newgarden
17. Ryan Hunter-Reay
21. Agustin Canapino
25. O’Ward
27. Pagenaud (did not run a lap)
Round 1 Group 2
Andretti Autosport had two of its cars advance, but the real story was that all three Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing cars will compete in Round 2.
14. Romain Grosjean
16. Rinus VeeKay
18. Marcus Armstrong
20. Callum Ilott
22. Sting Ray Robb
26. Santino Ferrucci
IndyCar Qualifying Results at Mid-Ohio
About the author
Tom is an IndyCar writer at Frontstretch, joining in March 2023. Besides writing the IndyCar Previews and the occasional Inside Indycar, he will hop on as a fill-in guest on the Open Wheel podcast The Pit Straight. His full-time job is with the Department of Veterans Affairs History Office and is a lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard. After graduating from Purdue University with a Creative Writing degree, he was commissioned in the Army and served a 15-month deployment as a tank platoon leader with the 3d ACR in Mosul, Iraq. A native Hoosier, he calls Fort Wayne home. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomBlackburn42.
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