LEEDS, Ala. — From humble beginnings come the best of results for Nolan Siegel.
The California native qualified sixth for Sunday’s (May 4) Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park, the fourth round of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season.
Not bad for a driver whose IndyCar season-opening race on the streets of St. Petersburg back in March ended after only three turns.
The No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet went around the 17-turn, 2.3-mile road course in 1 minute and 8.174 seconds to average 121.681 mph. Siegel was a little over three-quarters of a second slower than polesitter and IndyCar points leader Alex Palou.
“It was really good, I feel like we executed everything well and it’s nice to come away from a session feeling like we maximized it,” Siegel said. “Long Beach was close and we didn’t get the lap in and here it just came together, did a good lap, had a good car, everything was timed well and executed well and it feels good.”
Siegel was fifth in his first round qualifying group to advance to the second round of qualifying. In the second round of qualifying, Siegel was .0787 seconds faster than teammate Christian Lundgaard to put Siegel into the Firestone Fast Six.
Fellow Arrow McLaren teammate Pato O’Ward qualified eighth for a 6-7-8 effort from the team.
Ahead of Siegel were Palou and Scott McLaughlin on the front row, with Colton Herta and Will Power on row two and Rinus VeeKay in fifth-place.
Siegel has started in the top six rows in two of the first three races of the 2025 IndyCar season. After a chaotic 2024 which saw him start the year in Indy NXT, Siegel then missed qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 before Arrow McLaren brought Siegel in to drive the No. 6 car for the final 10 races of the season.
Stability has helped Siegel and the team work together even better and the qualifying results are starting to reflect that effort even if his best race finish is 19th.
“This year has been way better than last year in so many ways and it’s nice to see everything kind of coming together,” Siegel said. “We knew it was there and hasn’t all really come together yet and this was the first qualifying session when it did.”
“It’s nice to feel like we’re a front running car and the goal is to stay there through the month of May, certainly, and for the rest of the season, so it feels really good.”
Sunday’s race will be broadcast live on FOX with the broadcast starting at 1:30 p.m. ET and the race starting at 1:47 p.m. ET.
“It’s nice to feel like we’re a front-running car and the goal is to stay there.”@nolan_siegel on his first Firestone Fast Six appearance with some congratulatory…words… from @12WillPower.#IndyCar #IndyBHM pic.twitter.com/3s2Ie3u28D
— Christopher DeHarde (@CDeHarde) May 3, 2025
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.