Oilpressure

The composition of the Firestone Fast Six proves just how competitive the NTT IndyCar Series truly is. Five of the six cars were from different teams. Only pole-sitter Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden of Team Penske came from the same team.

Altogether Team Penske (McLaughlin/Newgarden) Chip Ganassi Racing (Alex Palou), Arrow McLaren SP (Pato O’Ward), Andretti Autosport (Romain Grosjean) and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Christian Lundgaard) all placed cars in the Firestone Fast Six.

Romain Grosjean will start on the front row, alongside pole-sitter McLaughlin. Rookie Christian Lundgaard continues his sudden surge and will start third, with Alex Palou starting fourth. Pato O’Ward and Josef Newgarden fill out Row Three.

Lundgaard’s teammates, Graham Rahal and Jack Harvey both improved their performance from Friday’s practice and qualified ninth and eleventh respectively. But Lundgaard is suddenly setting the standard for that team.

One person that I imagine is not happy is Nashville native Josef Newgarden. yes, he made it to the Fast Six, but his time in that final round was actually only the eighth fastest of qualifying.

Kyle Kirkwood actually posted a good time in the first round (1:15.4832), but due to the fact that he was in Group One – he starts sixteenth, behind Felix Rosenqvist who posted a time of 1:21.1784. That’s one of the quirky things of IndyCar Qualifying.

No weekend coverage would ever be complete with a gratuitous photo of the lovely Emma Dixon. Here she was during qualifying, gracing the streets of Nashville.

Her husband qualified only in the fourteenth position, but that’s because I picked him to win the race.

During the post-qualifying press-conference, the question was thrown out to the young drivers in attendance, if the Nashville vibe made them want to get out and take advantage of the Nashville nightlife. Lundgaard said he didn’t like going out. McLaughlin said his wife would be having a better time than anyone in the room. Pato O’Ward (not pictured) said that Nashville is “just plain dope”. Grosjean took offense at not being included as a young guy.

That will do it for me today. Mrs. Oilpressure seems to be feeling much better, and I think she is writing a short post from her hospital bed. If she does, I will post it here sometime before the race. The morning warm-up is at 9:15 am CDT. I’m not sure I will make that, but I may be here before it is over. Thanks for following along today, and please check back here Sunday morning for Race Day.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on August 6, 2022 at 7:09 pm and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.