ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – For the first time since 1961, there is an eighth different pole winner in the first eight rounds to start an IndyCar season.
On Saturday, it was much-maligned Andretti Autosport driver Alexander Rossi’s turn. The driver who has not won a pole since Detroit in 2019 or a race since Road America in 2019, returned to the scene of his last triumph to continue a sudden streak of success.
Rossi used Firestone “Blacks” to claim his first pole in three years with a fast time of 1:44.8659 around the 4.0114-mile, 14-turn Road America course in the No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda.
That allowed Rossi to finally put the NTT P1 Award sticker on his rear wing for Sunday’s Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America NTT IndyCar Series race.
“I think we saw with Josef Newgarden last year that he was able to get Colton Herta on the blacks and most of our competition was on the primaries as well,” Rossi said after climbing out of his care on pit lane. “It’s been a long time since we’ve been in this position. It’s amazing. It’s cool, but we have a job to finish on Sunday.
“I think we are really strong on the primary tires. The balance is not there on the reds. It’s a good boost for everyone and we will enjoy going into Sunday.”
Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden was second at 1:44.9371 in the No. 2 Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet.
“So, Rossi was on blacks?” Newgarden asked Team Chevy’s Ray Gosselin. “Well, now I feel stupid. I’m so stupid. I thought he was on used reds with everyone else. They seemed significantly better. That’s pretty stout. That’s an impressive pole. I thought I did a good lap. It wasn’t perfect. I would have handled it differently.
“Just wish we had the pole.”
Defending Road America race winner Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing was third in the No. 10 American Legion Honda at 1:45.3822.
“It’s better than last year,” Palou said. “It’s good. We were close. We were on the right strategy. The car is good, and we kept on improving along with everybody else. It is an amazing starting position.
“They were on blacks, and I was a bit surprised the pole car was on blacks.”
Marcus Ericsson, who won the 106th Indianapolis 500 on May 29, was fourth at 1:45.4240 in the No. 8 Huski Chocolate Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing followed by Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta, who turned a lap at 1:45.5388 in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda.
Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren SP rounded out the Fast Six at 1:45.6826 in the No. 5 Chevrolet.
In group one of segment one, Romain Grosjean was the fastest followed by Rossi, Herta, Scott Dixon, Simon Pagenaud, and Callum Ilott.
One of the drivers that didn’t advance when he was eighth fastest in that group was Team Penske’s Will Power.
“I had a lot of wheel spin out of turn 12,” Power explained. “I should have done better than that. Should have been better even on blacks. Surprising. We were faster than that.
“We have to try something. Good news is when you qualify badly, you have extra reds. That should come into play. I have to get ahold of this qualifying thing. I should have been more on top of it. It’s tough groups the last two rounds, but that’s no excuse. We should be up there.”
Newgarden, O’Ward, Palou, Felix Rosenqvist, Ericsson, and Scott McLaughlin were able to advance out of group 2.
Colton Herta was the fastest driver in segment two followed by Newgarden, Ericsson, Palou, O’Ward and Rossi.
Those drivers battled it out in the Fast Six with Rossi continuing his sudden streak of success that began with a fifth-place finish in the May 29 Indianapolis 500.
“I don’t know that it was Indy,” Rossi said. “We were good in a lot of places. We were good at the GP. I don’t know. We’re not having weird things happen at the moment. So, knock on wood.
“I don’t think there’s any revelation. We’re not doing anything different. It’s just things are — mistakes are minimized, chaotic events, minus a clutch blowing up this morning, have been relatively under control, so…
“We haven’t changed anything. I think the beginning of the year, each race we kind of had a different crew over the wall to try and figure out the best solution from that standpoint.
“We arrived on that solution at the Indy GP. That has carried forward through now and the rest of the season. So that was trying and challenge in the beginning of the year to sort that out. We had some issues there.
“We had some mechanical things happen. I mean, we’re not that many races into the season ultimately, so that’s the moral of the story. I think the car speed has been fine since really the past year or so. We just haven’t really been able to get results, so it’s nice to reward the team for the effort.”
Although drivers have won at Road America from different starting positions, it seems that starting up from has historically been an advantage because those drivers are able to determine the nature and dynamic of the race.
“I think it’s helpful here for sure,” Newgarden said. “You want to be up front. Ideally, it’s a long track, it’s a lot of ground to make up. You get pretty spread out. When you start at the back, it puts you on even more of a back foot here versus a smaller track.
“Hopefully it’s good. The race is very different than qualifying. We’ll have to see how that works out. Tires, in my opinion, are quite different this year. So, it will be interesting to see some guys that didn’t transfer, like a Will Power, for instance, it will be interesting to see how they utilize their reds and things like that.
“There are no gimmes this day. I thought Detroit was going to be pretty straightforward last weekend and it was anything but that. Don’t hold your breath.”
In addition to getting a sticker and a trophy, the strategy of starting on the pole is important to Rossi.
“These days it’s very hard to just drive through people, especially here,” Rossi said. “You’re not going to see different strategies in terms of pit stops, right? It’s very difficult. Everyone is at a level, we always talk about it, you’re not going to start ninth and carve your way through unless something weird happens.
“It’s a benefit, but there’s 50 laps of work out there. We got to go out and do it.”