Is this the boost Scott McLaughlin has been searching for? The Kiwi took a commanding NTT IndyCar P1 Award.
After IndyCar qualifying was moved to the early evening due to heavy showers. The was sun shining onto the Nashville Street Course. Conditions were drastically different from second practice, but that didn’t seem to bother McLaughlin one bit. For the 2nd year in a row at Nashville, McLaughlin was able to land his No. 3 Team Penske machine on pole for Sunday’s Music City Grand Prix.
McLaughlin grabbed his 4th career IndyCar pole position award with a hot lap of 1:14.6099 outpacing Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward in his No. 5 Chevrolet by .3296 seconds.
“Really satisfying because it all started in Q1 for us, McLaughlin said. Pumped a decent lap out there. 6/10ths better than P2. We were able to do one lap on our greens. Bolted those on for Q3. I just had to make sure we got to the Fast Six, which we did. Every lap in quallie, nailed it pretty good. A really satisfying qualifying session, probably the best of my INDYCAR career, to be honest.”
Yeah, congrats, Scott. I don’t think I had 3/10ths in there to get a little closer, O’Ward stated. Maybe one. Pretty stellar lap. I was super happy with my car. I think we were really strong in Q2. I thought it would be a couple 10ths slower in Q3 because it’s not new alternate. I’ve never won from pole, so I’m not angry I’m starting second.”
Row 2 will be headlined on Sunday by Andretti Autosport driver Colton Herta. The Andretti Autosport driver drove his quickest lap of the session at 1:15.2146 seconds. However, there was miscommunication between the Andretti teammates. Resulting in an unusual fast six qualifying effort from Herta. The Californian only did one run on alternates at the end of the session. His third place should still give him a good shot at victory.
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) August 6, 2023
Lining up alongside Herta is Alex Palou. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver posted a lap of 1:15. The current IndyCar championship leader was the only CGR driver to make it to the fast six. Teammate Scott Dixon crashed in the fast twelve, while Marcus Ericsson and Marcus Armstrong got eliminated in Round 1.
Row 3 will belong to David Malukas and Romain Grosjean. Malukas impressively made it into the final part of qualifying ahead of Will Power, Josef Newgarden and Alexander Rossi. Lil’ Dave will certainly hope to have enough pace to mix it up with the big boys in the race. Grosjean experienced a good qualifying effort. The Frenchman is still seeking his 1st NTT IndyCar win since moving to IndyCar in 2021. The former Formula 1 driver can use a bit of momentum following a string of accidents in the last couple races.
After qualifying today, a lot of eyebrows were raised in the paddock by the impressive driving of rookie Linus Lundqvist has done for Meyer Shank Racing. Lundqvist for just the 2nd time this season was able to advance an MSR entry into the 2nd round of qualifying and will roll off P11 tomorrow making him the highest qualifying rookie in the field.
Music City, are you ready?#INDYCAR // #MusicCityGP pic.twitter.com/cS1Zr81GQz
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) August 6, 2023
Up Next: Race, Sunday 12:00 PM / ET
