Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Newgarden takes pole for IndyCar Gateway, title rival Rossi 11th

Josef Newgarden took his eighth career pole for the IndyCar round at Gateway, while title rival Alexander Rossi will start the race from 11th on the grid

Newgarden, who was champion for Team Penske-Chevrolet in 2017 - winning that season's Gateway round - set a two-lap average of 186.508mph to beat the provisional pole time set by Sebastien Bourdais of Dale Coyne Racingby just under 0.6mph.

Several drivers had been annoyed by the speed-dry cement which had been thrown down in Turns 1 and 2 to soak up oil from the vintage Indycars that had been lapping in a demonstration in the previous hour, but both Bourdais and his teammate Santino Ferrucci appeared largely untroubled.

Will Power, defending Gateway winner, and Simon Pagenaud will start the race from third and fourth respectively, while Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda's Takuma Sato clocked fifth fastest.

Ferrucci supplemented Bourdais' performance with sixth on the grid.

Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports' James Hinchcliffe bounced back from a poor practice session, admitting he used rookie teammate Marcus Ericsson's setup to land a strong P7.

Scott Dixon felt his Chip Ganassi Racing setup took too long to work his tires up to temperature and was disappointed with eighth, two spots ahead of rookie teammate Felix Rosenqvist.

The pair were separated by the fastest of the Andretti Autosport-Honda drivers, Ryan Hunter-Reay, but Rossi, now 36 points behind Newgarden after the Pocono shunt last week, will start only 11th, alongside semi-teammate Colton Herta.

Graham Rahal had a wild moment on the cement dust and had to back off, which explains why he is down in 16th while Marco Andretti had an even worse moment, forcing him to back off the throttle to keep his car off the Turn 2 wall, and so will have to start at the back.

Qualifying result

Pos Driver Team Car Speed
1 Josef Newgarden Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 186.508
2 Sebastien Bourdais Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 185.927
3 Will Power Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 185.896
4 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 185.143
5 Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Dallara/Honda 185.050
6 Santino Ferrucci Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 184.830
7 James Hinchcliffe Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 184.452
8 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 184.293
9 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 184.206
10 Felix Rosenqvist Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 184.130
11 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 184.070
12 Colton Herta Harding Racing Dallara/Honda 183.399
13 Spencer Pigot Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 183.211
14 Marcus Ericsson Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 183.180
15 Zach Veach Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 182.547
16 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Dallara/Honda 182.065
17 Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 181.334
18 Conor Daly Carlin Dallara/Chevrolet 179.399
19 Charlie Kimball Carlin Dallara/Chevrolet 178.982
20 Tony Kanaan AJ Foyt Enterprises Dallara/Chevrolet 178.974
21 Matheus Leist AJ Foyt Enterprises Dallara/Chevrolet 178.290
22 Marco Andretti Andretti Herta Dallara/Honda 175.192

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article The young stars opening doors in IndyCar
Next article Gateway IndyCar: Sato responds to Pocono crash criticism with win

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe