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Chase Cabre Wins Pole for MNR Season Opener at Indianapolis

Chase Cabre has won the pole for the Monday Night Racing season seven opening race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Oct. 2.

Cabre went 237.708 mph on average over four laps in his second attempt at the Brickyard.

“Qualifying is so important, especially in these cars at this place,” Cabre told the Podium eSports broadcast team. “It’s so draft-oriented, but you get so tight behind people that it makes it very tough to get through the field, so track position is huge. And then Michael [Fisher] was second there, so that’s good.

“I think we’ll be pretty good for next Monday. I’m sure it’ll be a lot of people getting runs down the straightaway, passing and leapfrogging and stuff like that. Once you’re up front, I feel like it’s pretty easy to maintain that first three spots. Try not to get put behind early in the race because like I said, it is just so tough to get through the field, track position is key.”

Unofficially, Fisher is starting second while Monon Rahman begins third. Season six champion and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Corey Heim, who held the top spot for much of the session, starts fourth, while Blake McCandless rounds out the top five.

Presley Sorah starts sixth, Frontstretch’s Brandon Hauff is seventh and Corey Deuser is eighth. Ronnie Osmer and DJ Cummings complete the top 10 starters, unofficially.

See also
Tracking the Trucks: Talladega Packs a Punch for Many Drivers

In between seasons, MNR held a summer series which featured two champions in Gen 4 and on Superspeedways. James Bickford claimed the Gen 4 title, while Matt Stallknecht won the Superspeedway championship.

The nine-race regular season consists of various vehicles and racetracks before running seven races in the playoffs.

First up is the Dallara IR-01 cars at Indy next week. Then, Next Gen cars will take on Daytona International Speedway on Oct. 16. Gen 4 cars will run three times in the regular season, at Michigan International Speedway on Oct. 23, Charlotte Motor Speedway on Nov. 6 and the legacy Atlanta Motor Speedway on Dec. 4.

Drivers will run Pro 2 Trucks at Watkins Glen International on Oct. 30 and regular Trucks at Bristol Motor Speedway on Nov. 13. Defending champ Heim’s pick, the GT4 Porsche cars at Long Beach, is scheduled for Nov. 20. Then on Nov. 27, Wild West Motorsports Park will host the Pro 4 Trucks.

The Gen 4 cars at Miami on Dec. 11 start the seven-race playoffs, which feature a new format. Talladega Superspeedway hosts the Next Gen cars on Dec. 18 before a two-week break for the holidays. Then, on Jan. 8, drivers will pilot Late Model Stock cars at Richmond Raceway. Gen 4 takes on legacy Kentucky Speedway the following week, while MX-5 cars run the Daytona road course on Jan. 22.

Closing out the season is back-to-back races in the Gen 4 vehicles at Auto Club Speedway and Chicagoland Speedway.

The new playoff format is a bracket, with 16 drivers earning their way in on points alone. The driver with the most points will be against the one with the least number of points throughout the three-race first round, while No. 2 takes on No. 15, and so on. Points will reset in each round.

The season kicks off next Monday, Oct. 9 at Indianapolis with the Dallara IR-01 cars and will air on Podium eSports.

Joy Tomlinson

Joy joined Frontstretch in 2019 as a NASCAR DraftKings writer, expanding to news and iRacing coverage in 2020. She's currently an assistant editor and involved with photos, social media and news editing. A California native, Joy was raised watching motorsports and started watching NASCAR extensively in 2001. She earned her B.A. degree in Liberal Studies at California State University Bakersfield in 2010.