Newgarden conquered the first position in the standings with an impressive final lap. Photo: Kevin Dejewski
The NTT IndyCar Series arrived at the streets of St. Petersburg on Saturday afternoon and, in an exciting qualifying session, Josef Newgarden narrowly secured the coveted pole position.
The final order was determined in the closing moments, as Newgarden’s lap time was just 0.006 seconds faster than the previous time of Felix Rosenqvist.
As the current champion of the Indianapolis 500, Newgarden clocked 59.571 seconds, securing the pole position for the first race of 2024, a feat he failed to achieve in the previous season.
Rosenqvist’s performance was exceptional, coming very close to giving his new team, Meyer Shank Racing, their first pole position in several seasons.
Furthermore, Rosenqvist now holds the track record in St. Pete, with his lap time of 59.2706 seconds in the second qualifying round being the fastest any driver has ever achieved on this seaside circuit.
Surprisingly, Juncos Hollinger Racing joined MSR in the Firestone Fast Six, securing their positions at the front of the grid.
In his first race with the team, Romain Grosjean impressed by putting his JHR Chevy among the top six, starting the race from fifth position.
Among these unexpected top qualifiers were two consistently strong drivers. Pato O’Ward and Colton Herta will occupy the second row, starting in third and fourth place, respectively.
Rounding out the top six is Marcus Ericsson, who, like Grosjean, is also with a new team and contributed to both Andretti Global cars reaching the final round.
Just two hundredths of a second away from advancing to the Fast Six, Rinus VeeKay will still be pleased with his seventh place starting position.
Starting in eighth and ninth positions will be Team Penske teammates Will Power and Scott McLaughlin. Marcus Armstrong completes the top ten in his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
Scott Dixon and Christian Lundgaard will share the sixth row when the race begins on Sunday afternoon.
Unfortunately, Alex Palou came very close to advancing to the second round and his new DHL livery will start from the 13th position.
Tom Blomqvist held the top spot on the charts with just a few minutes remaining in the opening session. However, he dropped in the order as other drivers set better times and also received a penalty. Consequently, he will start from the 17th position.
Aside from Blomqvist, none of the other four race rookies were able to advance to the second round, highlighting the difficulty of the St. Pete street circuit.
Drivers and teams will gather and prepare for the Sunday race, where they will face the additional challenge of winds that change almost 180 degrees, further intensifying the already demanding circuit.
