Newgarden beats Sato to Detroit IndyCar pole

Josef Newgarden maintained Chevrolet and Penske’s strong street course form by becoming the seventh different polesitter in as many IndyCar races this season in Detroit.

Newgarden, who won the last street course race in Long Beach, had to put in a monster lap at the Belle Isle circuit to unseat Takuma Sato of Dale Coyne Racing at the top of the order, which he did with his last lap of the Fast Six.

Sato held on for second, with the crash- and traffic-heavy sessions in Detroit opening up qualifying for some more unexpected team and driver combinations in the Fast Six.

Behind Sato, Meyer Shank Racing duo Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves were third and fourth, with both disappointed not to make the front row.

Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward looked favourite for pole through qualifying but his lap was only good enough for fifth, ahead of David Malukas.

Rookie Malukas, Sato’s Coyne team-mate, was guaranteed his best IndyCar qualifying yet as soon as he made the Fast Six for the first time, a week on from being snubbed for rookie of the year at the Indy 500 in a vote won instead by Jimmie Johnson.

Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta was the first driver to miss out on the Fast Six although after his nightmare Indy 500 driving a car for the first time in the race after his primary car was smashed in a practice shunt, seventh on the grid was still an upturn. He admitted he didn’t have the pace for pole and made a mistake on his flying lap.

Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson will start behind Herta in eighth – blaming Ganassi team-mate Scott Dixon for holding him up and saying that he should have fought for pole. Dixon blamed others for holding him up, too.

Dixon said up until qualifying he had one clean lap from two practice sessions, saying “it’s ridiculous what’s going on in these short sessions, it’s a mess”.

Scott McLaughlin rounded out the top 10 with the red flag that ended the Fast 12 costing him dearly given his risky strategy to wait until the last to set a fast time.

Alexander Rossi was 11th ahead of Romain Grosjean, who brought out the red as he hit the wall at Turn 12 and then spun into the wall at Turn 13.

A hard hit for @RGrosjean.

Round 2 of qualifying came to an end after this incident.

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Kyle Kirkwood couldn’t quite make good on his practice one-topping pace from Friday after crashing in the following practice, but still managed to qualify in the top 15 with a damaged hand that will test his stamina over his double duty in the IMSA SportsCar Championship this weekend as well. He has been in the news this week as he will race for Andretti Autosport next year, taking the seat being vacated by Arrow McLaren SP bound Rossi.

Two big names came behind, with Will Power in 16th. He almost won this race last year before a red flag and a lack of cooling meant his car didn’t restart from the lead in the closing stages.

Champion Alex Palou will start from 18th, which is at least an improvement on his 19th-place qualifying at this race last year, which then got even worse with an engine penalty.

Felix Rosenqvist starts from the back of the pack after a qualifying infringement penalty for an error in communication between himself and the pitfall which led to Rosenqvist holding up Johnson.

Qualifying Results