Herta Rebounds for 1st Pole of the Season in Detroit

Colton Herta pacing second practice on the streets of Detroit in preparation for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear. (Photo: Christopher Vargas | The Podium Finish)

DETROIT – After a disappointing qualifying effort in Indianapolis, Andretti Global looked to capitalize on their strong street course package in their rival manufacturer’s backyard at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear.

Despite Kyle Kirkwood being the strongest of the three Andretti drivers in the first of two preceding practice sessions, it was Colton Herta who earned his first NTT P1 Award of the season and 15^th of his NTT IndyCar Series career with a lap of 1:00.4779 in the No. 26 Gainbridge Andretti Global Honda.

“It was such an unknown, and we were not really strong, to be completely honest, yesterday with the softer tires,” Herta said. “The guys did a great job overnight. The Gainbridge Honda was super-fast today.”

“Happy to start P1 tomorrow – the best seat in the house. Now we just need a nice, easy race – no yellows, go back to how it was before Indy – and make it easy on us.”

David Malukas navigating the streets of Detroit in practice for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)

After a strong runner-up finish in last week’s 109^th running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, young Chicago-native David Malukas backed up that performance with a second-place qualifying effort with a lap of 1:00.6492 in the No. 4 Clarience Technologies A.J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet. This is Malukas’s career best starting position on a non-oval track.

“Yeah, I mean, everything just clicked,” Malukas said. “Like I said after practice, we were very comfortable with the car, very happy, and yeah, it’s kind of chaos with the practice sessions figuring out who’s fast, who isn’t, where we are, because you’re getting one lap after every 20, 30 minutes of a clean lap, so it’s all kind of just a guessing game.”

Kirkwood capitalized on his strong showing in the opening practice session on Friday with a third-place qualifying effort with a lap of 1:00.7312 in the No. 27 Siemens AWS Andretti Global Honda.

Christian Lundgaard continued his strong season qualifying alongside Kirkwood in the fourth position with a lap of 1:00.8938 in the No. 7 Velo Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.

Certainly, the most impressive performance thus far this weekend was the fifth-place qualifying effort from Graham Rahal in the No. 15 JJ Curran Crane Company Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda. Rahal has shown progressive speed on the road & street courses of late, with his second consecutive top five qualifying effort.

Rounding out the Firestone Fast Six was series points leader and the newly crowned Indianapolis 500 winner Alex Palou, with a lap of 1:01.4680 in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. After two unorthodox practice sessions for Palou, he made a decent rebound in qualifying for his second-worst qualifying effort this season.

Next up for the NTT IndyCar Series is the Sunday morning warm-up session at 9:30 a.m. ET on FS1, followed by the 100-lap Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear at 12:30 p.m. ET on FOX, IndyCar Radio Network and IndyCar Nation SiriusXM channel 218.

Starting Field: