Newgarden on Pole for Final Belle Isle Race

Firestone Fast Six

On used reds, Helio Castroneves was the first driver to set a quick lap in Q3, a 1:15.4538-minute tour of the bumpy 2.35-mile, 14-turn circuit. That survived the initial attacks from Newgarden and rookie David Malukas in the HMD-Honda Dale Coyne Racing, but then Takuma Sato in the second Coyne car took the lead with a 1:15.3490.

Newgarden then set a lap of 1m15.2153s, an average of 112.477s, to go fastest at 0.1337s and take his 16th place^th Poles.

Still, Coyne can be content with his drivers finishing second and sixth, sandwiching the two Meyer Shank Racing Hondas and one of last year’s Detroit winners, Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet’s Pato O’Ward.

Q2

Simon Pagenaud clocked a 1:15.4429 on the primary tyres, while Josef Newgarden landed a 1:15.5094 on fresh reds on his first flyer and 15.0289 on his second. However, this was quickly eclipsed by rookie David Malukas – 1min 14.8, just as he produced in Q1 – and then Pato O’Ward jumped the Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy to the lead with a 1min 14.6681.

Scott Dixon and Alexander Rossi were on their last flying laps when Romain Grosjean hit the wall at Turn 12, seemed to flex his rear suspension and then spun hard into the wall at Turn 13. That brought out the red flag and prevented Dixon and Rossi from progressing, allowing Newgarden to breathe a sigh of relief as he got through to the Firestone Fast Six.

Marcus Ericsson was unhappy with teammate Dixon approaching him trying to find a gap for his flyer, but it was the type of incident seen across the field, throughout the session and throughout the weekend.

Q1 group 2

David Malukas in the Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda topped the primaries, 1:16.3251, ahead of the Andretti Autosport-Hondas of Alexander Rossi and Colton Herta, followed by Scott Dixon (Ganassi), Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing) and Willpower (Team Penske).

Alex Palou was the first big runner to switch to alternative tires but his 1’15.9493 was quickly pushed down by Felix Rosenqvist, Rossi, Malukas, VeeKay and then Scott Dixon produced a 1’15.3309.

Josef Newgarden then found a 1:15.2262 minute but that was beaten by Malukas, who set the first 74 second lap of the weekend, a 74.8833 second. Rossi and Herta also improved, demoting Newgarden, but he, Dixon and Sato held on to progress into Q2.

Surprise eliminations during this period included ECR’s VeeKay, Penske’s Will Power and defending champion Palou. Rosenqvist was sent out of the pit lane in the path of Jimmie Johnson, lost his best laps due to an interference in qualifying and will start on the last row.

Q1 Group 1

Devlin DeFrancesco drove directly on alternative tires and on his second lap he clocked a 1:17.0199 but the best drivers on primary tires were able to eclipse him.

Another reserve driver, Christian Lundgaard, then set the top times for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda, posting a 1:16.3068 minute, but Scott McLaughlin was just two tenths away for his Penske-Chevrolet team.

Out came the big guns on the deputies, with Helio Castroneves coming in a 1:15.7374 ahead of Marcus Ericsson’s Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda, Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy’s Pato O’Ward and Simon Pagenaud’s second MSR car. Castroneves and O’Ward then improved on their second flying laps and Helio came down to 1:15.4367s.

Conor Daly missed the race by just 0.0087 seconds, as did Friday’s pacesetter Kyle Kirkwood, who served a drive-through for a pit speed violation.