By Austin Lawton, Staff Writer
Colton Herta continues to be the king of the Detroit streets after winning pole for Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.
Herta broke the track record that he set last year as a 1:00.4779 was good enough for the 15th pole of his career. The No.26 Gainbridge Honda for Andretti Global was strong on Saturday as he was fastest in morning practice on Saturday.
“Friday was pretty bad from us as far as what we’re used to on street courses, just the feel of the race car,” Herta said. “It took Friday night to go over everything and turn everything around. The engineering group did a great job with that, and we saw this morning’s session felt a lot more comfortable and felt a lot more comfortable on the reds, also, or soft greens. Happy with how it went.”
Following Herta, was David Malukas (1:00.6492) in the No.4 Clarience Chevrolet for A.J. Foyt Racing in second. Herta’s teammate, Kyle Kirkwood (1:00.7312) in the No.27 Siemens/AWS Honda starts third. Following Kirkwood was Christian Lundgaard (1:00.8938) driving the No.7 Velo Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren. In fifth was Graham Rahal (1:01.0651) in the No.15 JJ Curran Crane Company for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
Rahal moved to 11th on the grid at the start of Sunday’s race due to a six-race grid penalty as a result of changing his engine after Carb Day practice for the Indianapolis 500.
Surprises litter the rest of the grid as the likes of Josef Newgarden (1:02.2055) and Pato O’Ward (1:01.6819)will start deep in the field, while Rinus Veekay (1:00.7208) and Christian Rasmussen (1:01.5312) surprised with positive starting positions in 7th and 12th respectively.
Newgarden starts Sunday’s race in 24th after breaking the toe link on the Team Penske No.2 Astemo Chevrolet during a flying lap in order to advance to the Fast 12 session. O’Ward will start 18th as he will navigate traffic in order to get a good result.
The positives continued for Veekay and the No.18 AskROI Honda for Dale Coyne Racing as the team shook up its engineering staff, bringing in Michael Cannon. Cannon has been employed by virtually every team in the paddock, and can always get the best out of his setups. Cannon will be on the stand for Veekay’s car and the change is helping as the Dutchman will start in the top 10 for the fourth time this season.
Veekay’s teammate, Jacob Abel will start 20th on Sunday, a season best.
Sunday’s 100 lap contest on the Detroit streets will start at 12:30 p.m. on FOX.