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David Malsher-Lopez

Barber IndyCar: VeeKay wins great battle, earns second pole

Firestone Fast Six

VeeKay lapped the 2.366-mile Barber Motorsports Park course in 66.2507sec to beat last year’s Barber polesitter Pato O’Ward by 0.15sec and land his first pole since the Harvest Grand Prix at IMS road course in 2020.

O’Ward of Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet reported he had to gather up a major slide as he tried to build momentum for his final run, so was quite content with his first front row of the season.

He will start just ahead of Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda, defending Barber race winner and defending series champion.

Scott McLaughlin, who has been Team Penske-Chevrolet’s pacesetter throughout the weekend, was fourth fastest. The sole Andretti Autosport-Honda representative was Alex Rossi in fifth, a remarkable comeback from his morning shunt, while Felix Rosenqvist ensured two Arrow McLaren SP-Chevys will start from the first three rows.

P

No

Name

FTime

Diff

Gap

FL

Laps

LapTime

LPit

Led

ST

FSpeed

Elapsed

Engine

Tire

Points

Team

1

21

Rinus VeeKay

1:06.2507

1:06.2507

0.000

4

4

1:06.2507

2

 

5

124.980

6:23.6806

Chevy

A

16

Ed Carpenter Racing

2

5

Pato O'Ward

1:06.4003

0.1496

0.1496

2

2

1:06.4003

0

 

1

124.698

3:46.9716

Chevy

A

4

Arrow McLaren SP

3

10

Alex Palou

1:06.4415

0.1908

0.0412

4

4

1:06.4415

2

 

6

124.621

6:39.2766

Honda

A

9

Chip Ganassi Racing

4

3

Scott McLaughlin

1:06.4967

0.2460

0.0552

2

2

1:06.4967

0

 

2

124.517

6:15.9596

Chevy

A

2

Team Penske

5

27

Alexander Rossi

1:06.5549

0.3042

0.0582

4

4

1:06.5549

2

 

3

124.409

6:30.2889

Honda

A

18

Andretti Autosport

6

7

Felix Rosenqvist

1:06.6410

0.3903

0.0861

3

3

1:06.6410

1

 

4

124.248

5:12.3679

Chevy

A

6

Arrow McLaren SP

Q2

Rinus VeeKay had to serve a drive-through penalty before his final flyer for breaking the pitlane speed limit, but that didn’t prevent him producing a 66.2732sec lap and that was enough to get him into the top five, especially when two of the fast Andretti Autosport cars failed to graduate.

Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist moved on for Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet with first and fourth fastest times respectively, sandwiching Scott McLaughlin’s Penske and Alexander Rossi’s Andretti Autosport machine.

Alex Palou was the only Ganassi car in the Firestone Fast Six, as teammate Marcus Ericsson threw his car off track at Turn 7 in the final two minutes and brought out the red flag and lost his best laps.

That incident meant that Colton Herta wasn’t able to complete his final flyer, having left pitlane late, so he will line up 10th, directly behind teammate Romain Grosjean who fell 0.07sec short of graduation.

Callum Ilott was kicking himself for making a minor error on his best lap, but his 11th spot on the grid was a great breakthrough for Juncos Hollinger Racing.

P

No

Name

FTime

Diff

Gap

FL

Laps

LapTime

LPit

Led

ST

FSpeed

Elapsed

Engine

Tire

Points

Team

1

5

Pato O'Ward

1:06.1054

1:06.1054

0.000

6

7

1:18.2831

4

 

3

125.255

10:44.8014

Chevy

A

4

Arrow McLaren SP

2

3

Scott McLaughlin

1:06.1474

0.0420

0.0420

6

7

1:18.8779

4

 

1

125.175

11:00.0722

Chevy

A

2

Team Penske

3

27

Alexander Rossi

1:06.1839

0.0785

0.0365

6

7

1:15.8329

4

 

9

125.106

10:50.8963

Honda

A

18

Andretti Autosport

4

7

Felix Rosenqvist

1:06.2721

0.1667

0.0882

7

7

1:06.2721

4

 

5

124.939

10:09.8087

Chevy

A

6

Arrow McLaren SP

5

21

Rinus VeeKay

1:06.2732

0.1678

0.0011

6

7

1:11.1331

5

 

8

124.937

10:41.6423

Chevy

A

16

Ed Carpenter Racing

6

10

Alex Palou

1:06.3153

0.2099

0.0421

7

7

1:06.3153

4

 

7

124.858

10:00.4075

Honda

A

9

Chip Ganassi Racing

7

2

Josef Newgarden

1:06.3348

0.2294

0.0195

7

7

1:06.3348

4

 

6

124.821

10:15.5444

Chevy

A

1

Team Penske

8

28

Romain Grosjean

1:06.3820

0.2766

0.0472

7

7

1:06.3820

4

 

2

124.733

10:02.8781

Honda

A

19

Andretti Autosport

9

15

Graham Rahal

1:06.6339

0.5285

0.2519

6

7

1:08.3823

4

 

11

124.261

10:25.9998

Honda

A

13

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

10

26

Colton Herta

1:06.7295

0.6241

0.0956

5

6

1:14.0744

4

 

4

124.083

10:51.7686

Honda

A

17

Andretti Autosport

11

77

Callum Ilott

1:07.2000

1.0946

0.4705

6

7

1:23.7307

4

 

10

123.214

11:10.0771

Chevy

A

26

Juncos Hollinger Racing

12

8

Marcus Ericsson

1:07.3561

1.2507

0.1561

2

6

1:06.4930

4

 

12

122.929

9:14.2238

Honda

A

7

Chip Ganassi Racing

Q1 Group 2

Andretti Autosport teammates Romain Grosjean and Colton Herta weren’t as quick as McLaughlin in the first group, but did enough to top their group, with three-time Barber winner Josef Newgarden in third for Penske-Chevrolet. Rinus VeeKay echoed the pace he showed this morning to get the Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy through to Q2 but the story of the session was Callum Ilott. The Juncos Hollinger Racing driver, the only IndyCar driver without a teammate, was fifth fastest, ahead of Marcus Ericsson.

Helio Castroneves suffered an incident exiting Turn 9 but got going again so didn’t cause a red flag, but he wasn’t quick enough to move on to Q2. Nonetheless, he was faster than his Meyer Shank Racing-Honda teammate Simon Pagenaud.

Rookie David Malukas also had a shunt after completing his final flyer, skating across the grass just after the timing line and making firm contact with a barrier.

P

No

Name

FTime

Diff

Gap

FL

Laps

LapTime

LPit

Led

ST

FSpeed

Elapsed

Engine

Tire

Points

Team

1

28

Romain Grosjean

1:06.2000

1:06.2000

0.000

5

7

1:18.0349

4

 

3

125.076

10:39.5417

Honda

A

19

Andretti Autosport

2

26

Colton Herta

1:06.3396

0.1396

0.1396

5

7

1:14.1598

4

 

2

124.812

10:26.2447

Honda

A

17

Andretti Autosport

3

2

Josef Newgarden

1:06.3799

0.1799

0.0403

6

7

1:15.3648

4

 

6

124.737

10:01.4408

Chevy

A

1

Team Penske

4

21

Rinus VeeKay

1:06.5477

0.3477

0.1678

6

7

1:15.7461

4

 

1

124.422

10:12.0223

Chevy

A

16

Ed Carpenter Racing

5

77

Callum Ilott

1:06.6649

0.4649

0.1172

5

7

1:32.3682

4

 

5

124.203

10:53.9240

Chevy

A

26

Juncos Hollinger Racing

6

8

Marcus Ericsson

1:06.7305

0.5305

0.0656

6

7

1:15.7568

4

 

4

124.081

10:22.9578

Honda

A

7

Chip Ganassi Racing

7

30

Christian Lundgaard

1:06.7462

0.5462

0.0157

6

7

1:19.8101

4

 

8

124.052

10:19.5219

Honda

A

21

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

8

06

Helio Castroneves

1:06.8138

0.6138

0.0676

2

6

1:31.5689

4

 

11

123.926

10:10.9903

Honda

A

5

Meyer Shank Racing

9

18

David Malukas

1:06.8898

0.6898

0.0760

6

6

1:06.8898

4

 

9

123.786

9:10.4265

Honda

P

14

Dale Coyne Racing with HMD

10

29

Devlin DeFrancesco

1:07.0242

0.8242

0.1344

5

6

1:07.9870

4

 

10

123.537

9:35.5054

Honda

A

20

Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport

11

20

Conor Daly

1:07.0350

0.8350

0.0108

6

6

1:07.0350

4

 

7

123.518

9:29.1603

Chevy

A

15

Ed Carpenter Racing

12

60

Simon Pagenaud

1:07.1052

0.9052

0.0702

6

7

1:19.8074

4

 

13

123.388

10:35.4696

Honda

A

25

Meyer Shank Racing

13

48

Jimmie Johnson

1:09.0075

2.8075

1.9023

2

6

1:11.4422

5

 

12

119.987

9:44.6181

Honda

A

23

Chip Ganassi Racing

Q1 Group 1

Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet’s Pato O’Ward set the fastest time on primary Firestones with a 66.8752sec lap ahead of Scott McLaughlin and Alex Palou before everyone dived for the pits to grab alternates. Alexander Rossi, whose team had got his car to pitlane with just eight minutes to spare after changing the whole rear end of the car following his shunt in morning practice, was fifth fastest on primaries.

With the reds on, McLaughlin got down to a 66.0289sec, ahead of the Arrow McLaren SP pair, ahead of defending race-winner Alex Palou, the hugely impressive Rossi, and Graham Rahal rebounded from a disastrous Friday to graduate to Q2.

Surprise exclusions at this stage were Ganassi’s Scott Dixon in seventh and Team Penske’s Will Power in 10th, both of them looking quite puzzled at their pace, having had no major complaints about their cars’ handling traits.

P

No

Name

FTime

Diff

Gap

FL

Laps

LapTime

LPit

Led

ST

FSpeed

Elapsed

Engine

Tire

Points

Team

1

3

Scott McLaughlin

1:06.0289

1:06.0289

0.000

6

7

1:13.3885

4

 

2

125.400

10:42.6708

Chevy

A

113

Team Penske

2

5

Pato O'Ward

1:06.2448

0.2159

0.2159

6

7

1:06.2518

4

 

1

124.991

10:23.5302

Chevy

A

63

Arrow McLaren SP

3

7

Felix Rosenqvist

1:06.3855

0.3566

0.1407

7

7

1:06.3855

4

 

9

124.726

10:10.3351

Chevy

A

42

Arrow McLaren SP

4

10

Alex Palou

1:06.3877

0.3588

0.0022

6

7

1:06.4958

4

 

3

124.722

10:03.9299

Honda

A

103

Chip Ganassi Racing

5

27

Alexander Rossi

1:06.3962

0.3673

0.0085

6

6

1:06.3962

4

 

10

124.706

10:00.4030

Honda

A

40

Andretti Autosport

6

15

Graham Rahal

1:06.5016

0.4727

0.1054

7

7

1:06.5016

4

 

6

124.508

10:32.9724

Honda

A

60

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

7

9

Scott Dixon

1:06.5142

0.4853

0.0126

7

7

1:06.5142

4

 

4

124.485

10:29.7859

Honda

A

83

Chip Ganassi Racing

8

45

Jack Harvey

1:06.6511

0.6222

0.1369

6

7

1:06.8740

4

 

5

124.229

10:45.0870

Honda

A

32

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

9

51

Takuma Sato

1:06.7541

0.7252

0.1030

7

7

1:06.7541

4

 

11

124.037

10:53.5935

Honda

A

44

Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR

10

12

Will Power

1:06.7775

0.7486

0.0234

7

7

1:06.7775

4

 

8

123.994

11:29.1153

Chevy

A

102

Team Penske

11

14

Kyle Kirkwood

1:06.8213

0.7924

0.0438

7

7

1:06.8213

4

 

7

123.913

10:18.3003

Chevy

A

38

AJ Foyt Enterprises

12

4

Dalton Kellett

1:07.6869

1.6580

0.8656

7

7

1:07.6869

4

 

12

122.328

10:50.7102

Chevy

A

23

AJ Foyt Enterprises

13

11

Tatiana Calderon

1:07.9248

1.8959

0.2379

6

7

1:11.2959

4

 

13

121.900

11:08.2244

Chevy

A

20

AJ Foyt Enterprises

 

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