Colton Herta earned his first NTT P1 Award of the season by taking the top spot Saturday for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear on the streets of Detroit. Herta drove to his 12th career pole with a lap of 1 minute, .5475 of a second in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda fielded by Andretti Global w/Curb-Agajanian.
The pole continued a strong weekend for Herta. He led practice Saturday morning and set a track record with his session-leading lap of 1:00.2304 in the Round of 12 qualifying that preceded the Firestone Fast Six. Andretti Global teammate Kyle Kirkwood set the previous track record of 1:01.5305 in June 2023, the first year for this nine-turn, 1.645-mile temporary street circuit in downtown Detroit.
Reigning NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion and current points leader Alex Palou will join Herta on the front row after qualifying second at 1:00.6995 in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Palou won this race last year.
Reigning two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden celebrated his contract renewal with Team Penske by qualifying third at 1:00.9607 in the No. 2 Hitachi Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet. His teammate Scott McLaughlin will join him in Row 2 after qualifying fourth at 1:01.3344 in the No. 3 Gallagher Team Penske Chevrolet.
Six-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Scott Dixon will start fifth after a best lap of 1:01.3905 in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
Kirkwood rounded out the Firestone Fast Six at 1:04.2926 in the No. 27 AutoNation Honda. He was third on the provisional grid, but his best two laps were erased as a penalty for overshooting Turn 1 and stalling on his final flying lap, triggering a red flag.
That red flag with slightly more than one minute to go gave the remaining five drivers in the Firestone Fast Six one final lap to gain ground. But none improved upon their existing times due to the difficulty of finding open track during a last-gasp dash on the tight, bumpy circuit.
Theo Pourchaire was the top-qualifying rookie, a career-best seventh at 1:00.7342 in the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet in his fourth NTT INDYCAR SERIES start.
Formula 2 champion Pourchaire just missed earning a spot in the Firestone Fast Six for the first time by .0287 of a second. His previous best starting spot was 18th at the Sonsio Grand Prix last month on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Qualifying Results (qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, engine, time and speed in parentheses)
1/ (26) Colton Herta, Honda, 01:00.5475 (97.808)
2/ (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 01:00.6995 (97.563)
3/ (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 01:00.9607 (97.145)
4/ (3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 01:01.3344 (96.553)
5/ (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 01:01.3905 (96.464)
6/ (27) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 01:04.2926 (92.110)
7/ (6) Theo Pourchaire, Chevrolet, 01:00.7342 (97.507)
8/ (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 01:00.7612 (97.464)
9/ (28) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 01:00.8505 (97.320)
10/ (14) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 01:01.0351 (97.026)
11/ (45) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 01:01.1663 (96.818)
12/ (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 01:03.0479 (93.929)
13/ (20) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 01:01.3930 (96.461)
14/ (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 01:01.1336 (96.870)
15/ (77) Romain Grosjean, Chevrolet, 01:01.4933 (96.303)
16/ (30) Pietro Fittipaldi, Honda, 01:01.3684 (96.499)
17/ (7) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 01:01.5905 (96.151)
18/ (78) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 01:01.5566 (96.204)
19/ (21) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 01:01.6040 (96.130)
20/ (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 01:01.7406 (95.917)
21/ (8) Linus Lundqvist, Honda, 01:01.6297 (96.090)
22/ (60) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 01:01.7441 (95.912)
23/ (4) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 01:01.7770 (95.861)
24/ (41) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 01:01.8454 (95.755)
25/ (51) Tristan Vautier, Honda, 01:02.2091 (95.195)
26/ (66) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 01:01.9687 (95.564)
27/ (18) Jack Harvey, Honda, 01:02.1185 (95.334)
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