DETROIT – Josef Newgarden’s pole-winning ride around the 2.35-mile, 14-turn raceway at Belle Isle road course was so wild, it looked like he was evading the police.
“That’s a good description,” Newgarden said. “That was one of the most satisfying pole laps I’ve ever had because of the difficulty of it. It was on the edge. It was not easy at all.
“Some laps you put together, the car is so hooked up and so good you’re kind of just steering it. Makes it sound a little bit too basic and simple. It feels that way at times.
“Today was not that case. It felt like you really had to go and attack and work for it. Like I said earlier, the way I started the lap was so promising. I was up already from the Q2 lap. I said if I can just really push this thing in the middle section of the track, I’m going to try to go for it. If I hit the fence, that’s what it’s going to be today. Fortunately, we had just enough to not do that, had plenty of speed to put it on pole.
“It was on the edge through turns 4, 5 and 6, I thought those three corners I was going to hit the wall, and we stayed off.”
Newgarden’s wild ride in the No. 2 Hitachi Chevrolet was on the ragged edge to wring as much speed as possible as the only car left on the track.
The result was the fastest lap in the Firestone Fast Six to win the Verizon P1 Award for Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.
Newgarden’s time in the No. 2 Chevrolet for Team Penske was 1:15.2153 around the 2.35-mile, 14-turn street course street course. That knocked Takuma Sato’s Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda off the pole and claim the 16th pole of Newgarden’s career.
Simon Pagenaud was third in a Honda at 1:16.3951 in the No. 60 Meyer-Shank Racing Honda. His teammate, Helio Castroneves, was fourth at 1:15.4538.
Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren SP was fifth at 1:16.3301. David Malukas was sixth in a Dale Coyne Racing Honda at 1:16.6104.
That gave team owner Dale Coyne two drivers in the Firestone Fast Six.
“It was not easy,” Newgarden said. “This championship is incredible. These guys are on it this weekend, as you can see. They were very difficult to beat. I thought both of them did a great job, especially David there in the early parts of qualifying. It was very impressive.
“I didn’t think we were going to have enough, to be honest. It’s taking us a little too long to build temperature, so I really needed two laps. We went for a one-to-one strategy.
“On the second set of tires, I was actually up in 1-2 by a tenth. I thought ‘I’m going to go as hard as possible, I’m either wrecking or I’m putting it on pole.’
“Fortunately, the car was very, very good. It was a little too loose. A couple corners I thought I was actually going to hit the fence. We hung on. Now we get to work toward tomorrow and hopefully have a clean day with Team Chevy and Hitachi.”
A key to the Fast Six group of racers occurred in the second segment with the bottom six drivers all on laps projected to be faster than the fastest six at that time. But when Roman Grosjean slammed his No. 28 Andretti Autosport Honda into the turn 11 wall in the final minute of the second segment, the red flag came out and the session was over.
“It was a decent hit, but we sucked,” Grosjean said.
Because the session ended with less than a minute to full completion, the drivers that didn’t have a chance to complete their laps included Colton Herta, Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson, Scott Dixon, Scott McLaughlin, Alexander Rossi, and Romain Grosjean.
“Today was a real fight,” Newgarden said. “We really had to work. We almost got knocked out of the Fast Six. In actuality we probably got saved in Q2. I think Dixon probably would have bumped us out if that red didn’t come into play. We just snuck into the Fast Six, then had to really work to get the pole today. I was very, very proud of that.
“What that means for tomorrow, I don’t know yet. I think we’ve got a fast car, quick enough to win. It’s just a matter of getting the strategy right, not having any missteps. This field, it’s too difficult to keep everybody behind you nowadays even when you have a fast car. You just can’t make any mistakes. I feel confident we can do the job.
“But feeling confident is not enough these days. You got to really go and really make it happen.”