NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Scott McLaughlin won his second-career NTT P1 Award with a dramatic fast lap in the closing 10 seconds of Saturday’s Firestone “Fast Six” for Sunday’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix NTT IndyCar Series race.
With 10 seconds remaining in the session, McLaughlin crossed the timing line with a lap at 1:14.5555 around the 11-turn, 2.1-mile temporary street circuit in the No. 3 Chevrolet for Team Penske.
Rookie Christian Lundgaard had the top spot with 30-seconds to go before Romain Grosjean topped him 15 seconds later.
But it was McLaughlin who timed it perfectly with his pole winning lap.
“This car is really good and now we are on pole at Nashville,” McLaughlin said. “Oh, man. It’s one of those good laps. I think we have more of the same for the race. Have to think heads down, thumbs up. We need really good pit stops tomorrow.”
Grosjean will start second in the No. 28 DHL Honda for Andretti Autosport.
Lundgaard will start third in the No. 30 Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
“The weekend started out well,” Lundgaard said. “It was a very exciting session. I don’t normally like street circuits but after Toronto and today, I’m really starting to like them.”
Defending NTT IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou will lineup fourth with a lap at 1:14.9087 in the No. 10 NTT Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing. Pato O’Ward’s No. 5 Chevrolet was fifth at 1:14.9261 with Hendersonville, Tennessee’s Josef Newgarden rounding out the Fast Six at 1:15.1461 in the No. 2 Chevrolet.
Lundgaard had a massive lock up on his right front just two minutes into the session but was able to keep his No. 30 Honda off the wall. He drove into the pits to change tires.
As the clock neared one minute to go, McLaughlin’s No. 3 Chevrolet was on top at 1:15.2275 but had hot pursuit from the other five drivers in the session.
After a lengthy hold because of lightning in the area, qualifications finally began at 6 p.m. (EDT). It wasn’t long before Devlin DeFrancesco spun out coming down the hill from the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge to bring out the red flag in the first group of the first segment.
That meant he would not be allowed to advance into the next segment.
Instead of using Firestone “Reds,” the softer compound tires for this weekend were the Firestone “Greens” made from Guayule — a drought resistant, heat tolerant, woody desert shrub native to the American southwest.
The natural rubber can be extracted from the branches, bark and roots of guayule to produce national rubber (tires), resin (adhesives, additives for tires and diesel fuel) and a woody material called bagasse (energy, liquid fuels, building products).
Firestone is making a move to sustainable tires because Guayule can be grown and harvested in the southwestern United States.
Colton Herta, who had the dominant car in this race last year only to have a crash near the end, also brought out the red flag when he locked up the front wheels going into turn four.
That also meant he could not advance to the next segment.
It also meant Andretti Autosport driver Alexander Rossi was not going to advance into the second segment because Herta’s incident caused the clock to run out without Rossi having a chance to improve his time.
Rossi’s time was 1:21.4579, eighth in the group.
The drivers that advanced included Palou at 1:15.9983 in the No. 10 Honda, Jack Harvey’s 1:16.6324 in the No. 45 Honda, David Malukas’ 1:16.6882 in the No. 18 Honda, Josef Newgarden’s 1:16.7541 in the No. 2 Chevy, Rinus VeeKay’s 1:17.7101 in the No. 21 Chevrolet and — believe it or not — Dalton Kellett’s 1:17.7521 in the No. 4 Chevrolet.
It’s the first time Kellett has ever advanced into the second segment of a street and road course qualification.
Drivers who missed advancing were Simon Pagenaud at 1:19.4039 in the No. 60 Honda, Felix Rosenqvist’s 1:21.1784 in the No. 7 Chevrolet, Rossi’s 1:21.4579 in the No. 27 Honda, Callum Ilott’s 1:57.6982 in the No. 77 Chevrolet and Herta’s 3:26.3303 in the No. 26 Honda.
DeFrancesco had no time as did Simon De Silvestro.
In the second group, Jimmie Johnson was among the first to take a lap on the Firestone Greens as a “banker” lap in case more drivers brought out the red flag. The other drivers in his group were on the Blacks.
Johnson drove back onto pit lane to get another set of Firestone Greens in an attempt to improve his chances.
But up front, it was an exciting battle for the top position that had some familiar names mixed in with some newcomers.
At the end of the session, it was Power on top at 1:14.760 in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet.
He was followed by Team Penske teammate McLaughlin at 1:14.7742 in the No. 3 Chevrolet, rookie driver Christian Lundgaard’s No. 30 Honda at 1:14.8331, Roman Grosjean’s 1:15.1382 mph in the No. 28 Honda, Pato O’Ward’s No. 5 Chevrolet at 1:15.1494 and Graham Rahal’s 1:15.2383.
Drivers missing the cut included championship contender Scott Dixon’s No. 9 Chevrolet at 1:15.3179, Kyle Kirkwood’s Chevrolet at 1;15.4382, defending winner Marcus Ericsson’s Honda at 1:15.4501, Takuma Sato’s No. 51 Honda at 1:15.5935, Conor Daly’s No. 20 Chevrolet at 1:16.3955, Helio Castroneves’ No. 06 Honda at 1:16.5898 and Johnson’s No. 48 Honda at 1:17.5888.
“We’ll have to come up with a good strategy and then make it work in the race as well,” Ericsson said. “It’s a bit strange. We have a bit of work to do tonight and hopefully we’ll be competitive in the race tomorrow.
“If there is anyone in this pit lane that can fight from the back to the front, it’s this team. We’ll have to be smart. I’m sure we are going to come up with something clever.”
That set up a 12-driver battle in Segment 2.
In the second group, Lundgaard went from last to first with 2:30 left in the session. It was a highly competitive battle as Power and O’Ward traded the top position before Lundgaard came back with another lap to regain first.
As Lundgaard was in the pit, McLaughlin moved to first, but was knocked off by Palou a few seconds later.
When the session ended, the drivers that made it to the “Fast Six” included Palou at 1:14.6437 in the No. 10 Honda, McLaughlin’s Chevrolet at 1:14.6788, Romain Grosjean’s 1.14.7679, Lundgaard’s 1:14.8086, Newgarden’s 1:14.8284 and Power’s 1:14.8943.
Power’s fastest lap, however, was under review because he had driven off into the runoff area causing a local yellow.
Before he could return to the track, O’Ward’s car was on a flying lap. By bringing out the local yellow, per IndyCar rule, Power’s lap would not count and he was bounced back to eighth place at 1:14.9818 in the No. 12 Chevy.
That moved O’Ward into sixth place at 1:14.9373.
“It was good enough to be in the Fast Six, but I couldn’t pull off a big enough gap to VeeKay, and lost it,” Power said. “It’s always tough in qually with track position and penalties and getting caught by Red, it’s hard. We could have a great day tomorrow; we just have to have a good strategy and good pit stops and see what we’ve got.”
Missing the Fast Six were Malukas’ Honda at 1:14.9616, Power, Graham Rahal’s 1:15.3112, VeeKay’s 1:15.3897, Harvey’s 1:15.9758 and Kellett’s 1:16.5600.
That set the stage for the “Fast Six.”