[ad_1]
Numbers: Race 1 starting lineup | Firestone Fast 12 | Quality group 1 | Quality group 2
Pato O’Ward’s confidence in his car and ability helped him earn the NTT P1 award for Chevrolet Dual Race 1 in Detroit on Saturday at Belle Isle in Detroit.
O’Ward produced the best lap of the 12-driver Firestone Fast 12, one minute, 15.5776 seconds on No. 5 Arrow McLaren’s SP Chevrolet Square with a bumpy, challenging, 14 turn, 2.35-mile temporary street circuit. It was his second hub this season as he also earned the best spot in the season’s opening race in mid-April at Barber Motorsports Park.
“You have to believe in this place so much,” O’Ward said. “You have to believe in the car that it will stick, but when you nail your lap, you can say you’ve nailed it.
Even compared to St. Pete, the faster you go here and the more you attack, the more grip you have. But when you don’t attack, you don’t feel the grip. It’s like, “Well, is it going to give it to me?” So you just have to meet it. “
The 70th round of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES weekend, Race 1, begins today at 2:05 p.m. (ET), and live broadcasts from NBC and the INDYCAR radio network will begin at 2 p.m.
2016 Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi joins O’Ward in the front row after leveling out the best qualifying spot of the season. He finished second at number 1: 15.6584 No. 27 AutoNation / NAPA AUTO PARTS in Honda, his fourth straight front row start in Belle Isle.
Series rookie Romain Grosjean leads the second row of Dale Coyne Racing. Grosjean finished third with number 1: 15.7433 at NURTEC ODT Honda No. 51. Teammate Ed Jones was fourth with number 1: 15.8119 No. 18 at SealMaster Honda.
Double-set champion Josef Newgarden rounds out the top five with 1: 15.8697 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet in second place.
2014 Series champion Will Power, practically the fastest Friday, will start after the seventh best round at the 1: 16.0877 Verizon 5G Team Penske Chevrolet race. Power brushed the wall and tire barrier in separate events late in its final round of flight qualifiers, which from early time splits showed it could challenge the hub.
Championship manager Alex Palou will face a steep challenge this afternoon as he starts the last 25 cars on the field after qualifying for 21st place in The American Legion Honda. Palou will move to the back of the field for departure due to a six-point penalty caused by an unauthorized engine change before the 105th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.
Six-time and series-defending champion Scott Dixon, Palou’s teammate and closest scorer, starts 11th after the best round of Firestone Fast 12 at 1: 17.8680.
Rossi did not waste time announcing his intention and showing his speed in the first qualifying group. He turned the fastest lap by more than three-quarters of a second, 1: 15.8507. Grosjean was second fastest at 1: 16.6715 in the NURTEC ODT Honda No. 51.
Power, the fastest practice on Friday, just barely made it Firestone Fast 12. He was the sixth fastest in the first group, the last driver to make the cut, in his final lap in the final lap of the Verizon 5G Team Penske Chevrolet race. .
Dixon also just squeezed into Firestone Fast 12 when he was sixth in the second group of PNC Bank Grow Up Great Honda. Newgarden put the top two of the first two qualifying groups in the second session, 1: 15.6606, in second place for Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet.
[ad_2]
picture credit