NASHVILLE – Colton Herta obliterated the competition on the streets of Nashville Saturday, winning the Bryan Clauson Pole Award by six-tenths of a second for Sunday’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix.
Herta’s No. 26 Honda lapped the 2.1-mile, 11-turn street course in 1:13.6835. That was better than Scott Dixon, who turned a fast lap at 1:14.2327.
It’s Herta’s sixth career pole and his second this season. Herta won from the pole in St. Petersburg, Fla., in April. The last three times the 21-year-old Herta won the pole, he also won the race.
RESULTS: Big Machine Music City Grand Prix Qualifying
The last time there was an inaugural event in IndyCar was Circuit of the Americas in 2019. Herta was the winner.
“We have the best car, for sure,” Herta said. “We came here, and we rolled off the truck. It was just really good. It has a lot to do with Honda and their simulator, how accurate it actually was. I think a lot of guys and teams were kind of wondering if it was going to be like the real thing, where the barriers and bumps were.
“I thought it was really accurate. That kind of helped us get the car kind of where you wanted to. You never fully want to rely on the simulator. But we kind of got it in an operating window where we liked it. We kind of brought that car here and it worked right away. Just minor changes to keep up with the track evolution. The car was good.”
The runner-up qualifying effort is Dixon’s best since winning Indianapolis 500 pole in May and his third front row start this season.
“All the Ganassi cars rolled off fairly well and the cars were fast,” Dixon said. “I think for qualifying for me, it was probably a little too cautious on the first two qualifying sessions to make sure I could get through the first two groups because I’ve been making a bit of a struggle to get around the track in one piece this weekend.
“Once we got there, I knew we could push a little bit harder. We made a good gain on the second run on Red tires. We knew with Herta saving that set of Reds, he was going to be almost impossible to beat. He has been all weekend. Class of the field. Congrats to him.
“All in all, a great starting for us on the PNC Bank No. 9. Kudos to Honda, I think they’ve done a tremendous job all weekend and have been super-fast.”
Alex Palou, who leads the NTT IndyCar Series standings by 36 points over Pato O’Ward, qualified third at 1:14.6316 in the No. 10 NTT Data Honda, but will start ninth because of a six-grid position penalty for changing engines at a recent test session.
Alexander Rossi qualified fourth at 1:14.6646. Felix Rosenqvist was the fastest Chevrolet driver at 1:15.0045 for Arrow McLaren SP. Romain Grosjean rounded out the Fast Six at 1:15.3980.
In the earlier rounds of knockout qualifying, Jimmie Johnson crashed on his out-lap, but the clock kept ticking in the session. The green flag came out with 3:20 left and by the end of that first session, the drivers that advanced were Palou, Rossi, O’Ward, Rosenqvist, Josef Newgarden and Will Power.
Herta showed the dominance of his Honda in the second group when he went 1:14.7067 seconds on a pair of the harder compound Firestone Blacks. That saved him one set of the faster Firestone Reds that he was able to utilize later in qualifications.
Herta finished second in that group behind Dixon’s 1:14.6673, but the use of the Black tires was very important.
“That was the biggest thing – It made it a lot easier,” Herta explained. “I don’t know if I could have done that on used Reds because I was struggling a little bit more on the reds. It was important that we had that set.
“We have a good car. We had a really good car on Blacks. I think we’ll know more after warmup. But probably going to be like every other race where you run the blacks primarily and you start on new reds. Have to wait and see what happens in warmup.”
Others who advanced were Jack Harvey, James Hinchcliffe, Simon Pagenaud, and Romain Grosjean.
One of the most pivotal parts of qualifying came in the second round when Newgarden, safely in the Fast Six, crashed on a lap that he didn’t need to improve and destroyed the front end of his car in turn 11. Because he caused a crash that brought out the yellow, he lost his time, which would have advanced him into the Fast Six.
That moved Grosjean into the Fast Six and dropped Newgarden to 12th.
“Well, you saw it – I just wrecked,” Newgarden explained. “It was disappointing. Not what I wanted to do. I’m pretty pumped for tomorrow, but we will just have to claw my way up. You can’t wreck and not get penalized. That one is on me. That’s how this thing works.
“You take a swing at a new track like this and it’s either right on or off. We’ve gotten some more performance back. I feel like I was a lot closer, and I just overstepped.”