Newgarden continues Detroit dominance with Race 2 Pole

Josef Newgarden picked up where he left off yesterday by taking the pole for this afternoon’s Chevrolet Grand Prix of Detroit Race 2.

The battle for pole was a reversal from yesterday with Alexander Rossi being the first to draw blood for the pole, having gone out in the first group. The driver of the No. 27 Napa Auto Parts Honda for Andretti Autosport was the class of the field in the opening group, setting the quickest lap of 1 minute 15.1825 seconds.

The lap was nearly four tenths quicker than his closest competition in Harding Steinbrenner Racing rookie Colton Herta who held on to second ahead of Scott Dixon, who battled steering issues in the 12-minute session.

The second qualifying group was halted four minutes in when an ample amount of water unexpectedly leaked out of the Turn 6 tyre barrier. Safety officials spent 50 minutes drying the track and vacuuming out the barriers.

Newgarden made a procedural flyer on blacks of 1:16s but saw his run eclipsed by a lap of 1:15.7367s set by two-time Detroit winner Sebastien Bourdais. Newgarden pitted for a set of softer Firestone Reds to prepare for a shot at the pole.

The 2017 NTT IndyCar Series champion delivered an unconquerable lap of 1:14.8607s to take his seventh career pole and move Rossi to the outside of the front row. His Team Penske teammate Will Power was close enough to challenge but smacked the Turn 6 wall while on his final lap which dropped him to 11th.

Zach Veach was the “best of the rest” as he turned his best career qualifying performance to start from third alongside Herta.

Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports driver James Hinchcliffe ended up fifth while Scott Dixon his rebuilt Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to sixth place ahead of teammate Felix Rosenqvist in seventh.

Carlin Racing’s Patricio O’Ward was the quickest Chevrolet in the opening group and ended up eighth ahead of Sebastien Bourdais in ninth and Spencer Pigot in tenth.