Portland IndyCar: McLaughlin takes third pole ahead of teammates

Firestone Fast Six

Alex Palou went out on primaries for a sighting lap, but his 59.4992 was inevitably eclipsed by Christian Lundgaard who went out on Firestone reds straight away and produced a 58.4482sec. Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin went second and third with their first flyers, then Power moved to the top… but only briefly. He had messed up his lap by hitting his upchange gearshift paddle after adjusting his front anti-rollbar in Turn 4.

He was eclipsed by both his teammates, McLaughlin landing a 58.2349sec, a mere 0.078sec ahead of Newgarden whose grid penalty for an early engine change means he’ll start eighth and allow Power to start from the front row.

Lundgaard did a superb job on his first race weekend at Portland to qualify fourth ahead of Ganassi’s lead runner Palou, and Pato O’Ward in the top Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet.

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	3	Scott McLaughlin	58.2349	58.2349	0.000	2	3	58.3872	0		4	121.412	6:32.3956	Chevy		2	Team Penske
2	2	Josef Newgarden	58.3129	0.0780	0.0780	4	4	58.3129	0		1	121.249	6:22.1069	Chevy		1	Team Penske
3	12	Will Power	58.4254	0.1905	0.1125	2	3	58.9460	0		3	121.016	6:15.0173	Chevy		11	Team Penske
4	30	Christian Lundgaard	58.4482	0.2133	0.0228	2	5	58.5366	3		2	120.969	6:30.1441	Honda		21	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
5	10	Alex Palou	58.5075	0.2726	0.0593	4	5	58.5908	2		6	120.846	6:26.3869	Honda		9	Chip Ganassi Racing
6	5	Pato O'Ward	58.6090	0.3741	0.1015	3	4	58.7963	1		5	120.637	6:06.2517	Chevy		4	Arrow McLaren SP

On primaries, Power, Newgarden and McLaughlin went 1-2-3 for Team Penske-Chevrolet ahead of Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda, Power’s best effort on these harder compound tires being a 58.6447sec before pitting for reds.

Onto those soft Firestones, Power whittled his time down to 58.2516, then 58.0868sec, but he was shaded by Newgarden’s 57.9651sec, and Christian Lundgaard’s 58.0753.

Behind Power, teammate McLaughlin was fourth, while Pato O’Ward’s Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy and Palou were fifth and sixth.

O’Ward’s teammate Rosenqvist was less than a tenth slower but that was enough to keep him out of the Firestone Fast Six, yet ahead of Andretti Autosport-Honda’s Colton Herta and Alexander Rossi. That was still a relative success for Herta given his Round 1 issues (see below).

David Malukas of Dale Coyne Racing w/HMD-Honda will start 10^th, ahead of the second RLL-Honda and Rinus VeeKay’s Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy.

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	2	Josef Newgarden	57.9651	57.9651	0.000	8	8	57.9651	5		1	121.977	9:35.9633	Chevy		1	Team Penske
2	30	Christian Lundgaard	58.0753	0.1102	0.1102	8	8	58.0753	5		2	121.745	10:21.3252	Honda		21	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
3	12	Will Power	58.0868	0.1217	0.0115	8	8	58.0868	5		4	121.721	9:41.5522	Chevy		11	Team Penske
4	3	Scott McLaughlin	58.2504	0.2853	0.1636	8	8	58.2504	5		6	121.379	9:47.2022	Chevy		2	Team Penske
5	5	Pato O'Ward	58.2593	0.2942	0.0089	7	8	58.3420	4		3	121.361	10:09.7299	Chevy		4	Arrow McLaren SP
6	10	Alex Palou	58.3381	0.3730	0.0788	8	8	58.3381	4		12	121.197	10:02.0733	Honda		9	Chip Ganassi Racing
7	7	Felix Rosenqvist	58.3475	0.3824	0.0094	8	8	58.3475	4		10	121.177	10:29.6483	Chevy		6	Arrow McLaren SP
8	26	Colton Herta	58.3925	0.4274	0.0450	7	8	59.0863	5		9	121.084	10:06.2389	Honda		17	Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
9	27	Alexander Rossi	58.3983	0.4332	0.0058	8	8	58.3983	5		7	121.072	9:55.7431	Honda		18	Andretti Autosport
10	18	David Malukas	58.4038	0.4387	0.0055	8	8	58.4038	5		8	121.061	9:50.7053	Honda		14	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
11	15	Graham Rahal	58.4475	0.4824	0.0437	8	8	58.4475	5		11	120.970	10:17.6903	Honda		13	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
12	21	Rinus VeeKay	58.5356	0.5705	0.0881	7	8	59.4539	5		5	120.788	10:14.0275	Chevy		16	Ed Carpenter Racing

Q1 Group 2

Scott McLaughlin and Scott Dixon got down to 58.7s on primary tires before they joined the other frontrunners in pitting for Firestone alternate compound ‘reds’.

Alex Palou laid down a 58.4647sec lap on the softer rubber ahead, but although he worked down to a 58.1497, he only just got through, because up at the top of the times, rookie Christian Lundgaard and Will Power got down to 57.9, with Scott McLaughlin only 0.0811sec in arrears.

The remarkable David Malukas made it through to Q2 again for Dale Coyne Racing with HMD-Honda, ahead of Felix Rosenqvist of Arrow Mclaren SP-Chevy.

The surprise failures to graduate were Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s main title hopes Scott Dixon and Marcus Ericsson in eighth and ninth.

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	30	Christian Lundgaard	57.9218	57.9218	0.000	8	8	57.9218	5		3	122.068	10:35.9474	Honda		21	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
2	12	Will Power	57.9266	0.0048	0.0048	7	7	57.9266	4		1	122.058	9:42.5135	Chevy		11	Team Penske
3	3	Scott McLaughlin	58.0029	0.0811	0.0763	7	7	58.0029	5		2	121.897	8:59.2000	Chevy		2	Team Penske
4	18	David Malukas	58.0506	0.1288	0.0477	7	8	58.3007	5		6	121.797	10:00.8942	Honda		14	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
5	7	Felix Rosenqvist	58.1465	0.2247	0.0959	8	8	58.1465	4		11	121.596	10:45.5807	Chevy		6	Arrow McLaren SP
6	10	Alex Palou	58.1497	0.2279	0.0032	8	8	58.1497	4		7	121.590	10:04.9157	Honda		9	Chip Ganassi Racing
7	77	Callum Ilott	58.1988	0.2770	0.0491	8	8	58.1988	5		5	121.487	10:25.1429	Chevy		26	Juncos Hollinger Racing
8	9	Scott Dixon	58.2628	0.3410	0.0640	8	8	58.2628	5		4	121.354	10:11.7312	Honda		8	Chip Ganassi Racing
9	8	Marcus Ericsson	58.3064	0.3846	0.0436	8	9	58.3115	5		8	121.263	10:52.8265	Honda		7	Chip Ganassi Racing
10	20	Conor Daly	58.4398	0.5180	0.1334	8	8	58.4398	5		10	120.986	10:32.1383	Chevy		15	Ed Carpenter Racing
11	51	Takuma Sato	58.6058	0.6840	0.1660	8	8	58.6058	5		12	120.643	10:22.7849	Honda		24	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
12	29	Devlin DeFrancesco	58.6127	0.6909	0.0069	8	8	58.6127	5		9	120.629	10:15.5827	Honda		20	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
13	4	Dalton Kellett	59.0082	1.0864	0.3955	8	8	59.0082	5		13	119.821	10:29.7159	Chevy		3	AJ Foyt Enterprises

Q1 Group 1

With cool conditions of only 70deg, even on Firestone primaries the drivers were swiftly down into the low 59secs, Alexander Rossi and Josef Newgarden nailing 59.0s. However, Newgarden then ducked into the pits for reds, while Rossi was setting a 58.961.

Before he could make his switch, Colton Herta hit the Armco barrier at the Turn 1 apex with his right-front wheel.

Newgarden delivered a mighty 58.1605 once he got his reds up to temperature, and then lowered that to 58.0433sec before pitting.

Pato O’Ward’s Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet got within one tenth of that benchmark before he pitted, while Rinus VeeKay clocked third ahead of Rossi.

Remarkably, the #26 Andretti Autosport crew got Herta’s right-front fixed so that he was able to leap into fifth, ahead of Graham Rahal’s Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda, and thereby bumping out the still impressive Kyle Kirkwood’s AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet.

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	2	Josef Newgarden	58.0433	58.0433	0.000	7	7	58.0433	4		1	121.813	9:03.3217	Chevy		1	Team Penske
2	5	Pato O'Ward	58.1408	0.0975	0.0975	7	8	58.3202	4		5	121.608	9:59.1309	Chevy		4	Arrow McLaren SP
3	21	Rinus VeeKay	58.2292	0.1859	0.0884	8	8	58.2292	5		10	121.424	10:20.7853	Chevy		16	Ed Carpenter Racing
4	27	Alexander Rossi	58.2318	0.1885	0.0026	7	8	58.2895	5		4	121.418	10:11.3626	Honda		18	Andretti Autosport
5	26	Colton Herta	58.3020	0.2587	0.0702	7	7	58.3020	5		2	121.272	10:44.2223	Honda		17	Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
6	15	Graham Rahal	58.4106	0.3673	0.1086	8	8	58.4106	5		3	121.047	10:24.7370	Honda		13	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
7	14	Kyle Kirkwood	58.4865	0.4432	0.0759	8	8	58.4865	4		7	120.889	10:31.6046	Chevy		12	AJ Foyt Enterprises
8	28	Romain Grosjean	58.5097	0.4664	0.0232	8	8	58.5097	5		6	120.842	9:37.5304	Honda		19	Andretti Autosport
9	45	Jack Harvey	58.5332	0.4899	0.0235	8	8	58.5332	5		9	120.793	10:15.0072	Honda		22	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
10	60	Simon Pagenaud	58.6898	0.6465	0.1566	7	8	58.7332	5		8	120.471	9:51.5568	Honda		25	Meyer Shank Racing
11	06	Helio Castroneves	58.7534	0.7101	0.0636	7	8	58.9194	5		11	120.340	10:08.4641	Honda		5	Meyer Shank Racing
12	48	Jimmie Johnson	59.1933	1.1500	0.4399	8	8	59.1933	5		12	119.446	10:40.8633	Honda		23	Chip Ganassi Racing