By David Morgan, Associate Editor
ARLINGTON, Texas – For the first time in his NTT IndyCar Series career, Marcus Ericsson will be starting on pole.
In a new Firestone Fast Six format for this weekend’s inaugural Java House Grand Prix of Arlington, the driver of the No. 28 Andretti Global Honda posted the fast time of 1 minute, 34.356 seconds to start the run for pole and held off all comers to secure the best seat in the house for when the green flag drops on Sunday.
“It feels really good. It’s been obviously, like you just mentioned, a lot of races in INDYCAR, but before that I did a lot of races in F1 and then GP2 was my last pole position in 2013, so it’s been like a lifetime since last pole position,” said Ericsson.
“It was really close to St. Pete already, obviously second there, just two hundredths of a second off pole. So, it was frustrating that night. I was thinking about, I could have done this and this different to get that first pole. It got me really fired up, because I knew we were going to have a good shot here in Arlington. It just feels amazing.
“I think the team has done a really good job, and the 28 crew has been — I think we’ve showed that already in St. Pete, obviously. Phoenix was a bit of a struggle. But really, really good to finish qualifying in P1 and then start from pole tomorrow.”
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He will be joined on the front row by four-time and defending series champion Alex Palou, who posted the fast times in Round 1 – Group 1, and in the Fast 12.
Palou was the last to roll out in the Fast Six to attempt to dethrone Ericsson, but ultimately fell short of that goal.
“Very happy. It was a lot of work,” said Palou. “It was exciting to see what we could do on this Fast Six. It was obviously the first goal we had today was to try to get to Fast Six. It’s been very close throughout the field, and you had to nail all the laps.
“Yeah, happy with a P2. Just a huge margin. Hopefully it’s because of tire temp, but it’s great to see, as well, so many Hondas up front. Seeing Marcus standing up front. It’s good.”
Pato O’Ward will start third as the lone Chevrolet in the first three rows, followed by Will Power, Felix Rosenqvist, and Marcus Armstrong.
The remainder of the top-10 starters will be Kyle Kirkwood, who many expected to compete for pole after his fast time in practice on Saturday morning but had to settle for seventh, along with Christian Rasmussen, David Malukas, and Alexander Rossi.
Kirkwood did scrape the wall during the Fast 12, but noted that had no effect on not advancing into the Fast Six to run for pole, adding that it was a combination of other issues that held them back.
“To be honest, between that, we had a little hiccup on pit lane, I just forgot which lap we needed to do our lap on,” Kirkwood explained. “For some reason, I had it embedded in my mind that it’s lap two, it’s lap two, but we had three laps of fuel in the car and I had a big mistake down in Turn 10 and still pitted for some reason.
“Just a bit of a messy run, no doubt, but man, this J.M. Bullion Honda is fast. I’m very disappointed. That one is on me…It’s very unfortunate. It’s never easy getting a pole in qualifying in IndyCar racing but I thought this was going to be one of the easier ones. Quite honestly, I just made a mental error.”
Despite the disappointment, Kirkwood was still optimistic for the pace they showed and what it could mean for Sunday.
“Our prime tire pace was incredible, which is a very good sign for tomorrow’s race. If I had new primes right now in qualifying, I probably would have used those.”
Josef Newgarden will start 11th in his backup car after his crash in practice earlier in the day.
Aside from Kirkwood not making it into the Fast Six, the biggest shock of qualifying came when Scott McLaughlin, the fastest driver in Friday’s opening practice, stuffed his No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet into the wall in Turn 8.
McLaughlin clipped the inside wall of the right-hander, which in turn sent him into the outside wall, damaging the left front of his machine. As a result, he will start shotgun on the field in 25th place.
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“The DEX Chevy was super quick. Just turned a bit early into Turn 8 there and clipped the inside wall,” said McLaughlin. “Yeah, I’m really bummed for the guys because, yeah, silly mistake, but it is what it is. You try and find the limits, but just don’t want to give them the work to be honest.”
Even having to start from the back, the incident in qualifying hasn’t dampened McLaughlin’s mood for what is to come in the race on Sunday.
“We’re going to have a heap of tires and a really fast car,” said McLaughlin. “Not giving up yet, we’ll charge through from the back and have some fun.”
Sunday’s inaugural Java House Grand Prix will start an hour earlier than originally planned, due to high winds forecasted for the Arlington area with the arrival of an approaching cold front. The race is now scheduled for 11:30 am ET, with the green flag planned to wave at 12:17 pm ET.
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