Alexander Rossi earned his first NTT P1 Award in more than three years, taking the top spot Saturday for the Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America presented by AMR.
Rossi’s final lap secured his seventh career pole and first since June 2019 at Detroit, as he produced a time of 1 minute, 44.8656 seconds in the No. 27 NAPA AUTO PARTS/AutoNation Honda. That lap also ensured there was a different pole winner for the first eight races of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season, a feat last achieved in 1961 when nine different drivers claimed pole positions to start the season.
Two-time series champion Newgarden will join Rossi on the front row after his best qualifying lap of 1:44.9371 in the No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet. Newgarden, in a change of strategy from last year, joined Pato O’Ward as the only drivers using alternate tires for their flying laps in the Firestone Fast Six.
Defending series champion Alex Palou, who led the final warmup session on Saturday afternoon, qualified third at 1:45.3822 in the No. 10 The American Legion Honda. Teammate and 2022 Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge winner Marcus Ericsson will join Palou in the second row after his best lap of 1:45.4240 in the No. 8 Huski Chocolate Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
Colton Herta will start fifth after his top lap of 1:45.5388 in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda, while O’Ward rounded out the Firestone Fast Six at 1:45.6826 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet.
Rossi and the No. 27 Andretti Autosport team have turned around their season after a rough start. Rossi was 18th in the championship standings after finishing 11th in the GMR Grand Prix on May 14 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Since then, Rossi has finished fifth in the Indianapolis 500 on May 29 and second in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear last Sunday to vault to seventh in the standings, 74 points behind leader Will Power.
It also was announced last week Rossi will leave Andretti Autosport after seven seasons to join Arrow McLaren SP starting next year. But Rossi vowed to continue with maximum effort in 2022 for the Andretti team, and he backed that up again Friday by turning the quickest lap in practice before winning the pole today.
The 55-lap race starts at 12:55 p.m. (ET) Sunday (5:55am Monday NZ time)
Qualifying results (qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, engine, time and speed )
1/ (27) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 01:44.8656 (137.799 mph)
2/ (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 01:44.9371 (137.705)
3/ (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 01:45.3822 (137.124)
4/ (8) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 01:45.4240 (137.069)
5/ (26) Colton Herta, Honda, 01:45.5388 (136.920)
6/ (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 01:45.6826 (136.734)
7/ (28) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 01:45.1543 (137.421)
8/ (7) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 01:45.2307 (137.321)
9/ (3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 01:45.2412 (137.307)
10/ (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 01:45.2446 (137.303)
11/ (60) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 01:45.2759 (137.262)
12/ (77) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, No Time (No Speed)
13/ (30) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 01:45.4024 (137.097)
14/ (18) David Malukas, Honda, 01:45.6017 (136.839)
15/ (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 01:45.4227 (137.071)
16/ (06) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 01:45.6217 (136.813)
17/ (21) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 01:45.5581 (136.895)
18/ (20) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 01:45.7234 (136.681)
19/ (51) Takuma Sato, Honda, 01:45.7045 (136.706)
20/ (45) Jack Harvey, Honda, 01:45.9420 (136.399)
21/ (29) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 01:46.0785 (136.224)
22/ (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 01:45.9951 (136.331)
23/ (4) Dalton Kellett, Chevrolet, 01:46.9755 (135.081)
24/ (14) Kyle Kirkwood, Chevrolet, 01:46.6130 (135.541)
25/ (11) Tatiana Calderon, Chevrolet, 01:47.5661 (134.340)
26/ (48) Jimmie Johnson, Honda, 01:47.3134 (134.656)
27/ (16) Simona De Silvestro, Chevrolet, 01:48.1033 (133.672)
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