Herta wins pole for Detroit Grand Prix, Palou is second
David Goricki
Detroit — Colton Herta earned the pole position for Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix, topping the 27-car field with a lap of 1:00.547 on the downtown 1.7-mile, 9-turn street course on Saturday.
Herta, 24, the son of Warren native Bryan Herta, won his 12th pole and first of the season in his No. 26 Gainbridge Honda for Andretti Global Racing. He will start on the front row, alongside defending race winner Alex Palou who was second fastest at 1:00.695 in his No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Honda.
Herta was looking for some redemption after having a tough Indianapolis 500 Sunday, crashing on lap 86 of 200 and finishing 23rd.
“Complete 180 and just super happy for the team,” Herta said Saturday afternoon after qualifying. “They worked their tails off during the month of May and it was disappointing to say the least, so to come back, come back for redemption, man it feels good.”
Herta was proud of his effort and should be after making the transition from running on the smooth 2.5-mile oval at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the bumpy, narrow, tight street course.
“This qualifying session is so difficult here at this track, obviously it’s hard to pass, but also it’s so hard to just get a clean lap with how bumps are in here,” Herta said. “It’s probably the most aggressive place that we go to as far as bumps and walls, so it feels good to get this one.”
Qualifying is long and stressful with multiple segments, including the first two split into groups with the top six in each moving on to the top 12, with that one narrowing to the Fast 6, where the pole is finally decided.
“You just take it corner by corner and you gain so much info by the time you get to the Fast 6 that it gets easier to produce a quick lap, but obviously finding that last little bit is difficult so like I said this is probably one of the more difficult places to qualify and when you hook up a lap that’s really good it feels really nice,” Herta said.
So, talk about that transition from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval to the streets of downtown Detroit.
“It’s so different and that’s the great thing about IndyCar, you never have a worse feeling in your life inside a race car than going from Indy to this place,” Herta said. “It’s just a handfull. You’re used to the smoothness and speed and then you get here and it’s a complete different racecourse.”
Palou is not only the defending race champion, but also the defending series champion. He is also the points leader (183), holding a 20-point gap over Team Penske driver Will Power who was eighth fastest (1:00.761).
“The car has been awesome since practice 1 yesterday and we were able to fight during all the segments and qualifying, so standing on the front row, looking forward to tomorrow,” Palou said. “It’s going to be a busy, busy race, but with a fast car it’s a little bit easier.”
Palou didn’t expect a lot of areas for passing come Sunday.
“It’s tough here, especially because it’s really tight, so I’d say the only passing point is early Turn 3, so having said that I got overtaken last year,” Palou said. “I would say tomorrow about trying not to follow the car in front. It’s so tight that you start following the car in front instead of just doing your own line, then you start going slower and slower. We will see what our race pace is tomorrow, but patience is key, especially with all the yellow flags and restarts we’re going to have.”
Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden, who won his second straight Indy 500 Sunday, was third-fastest (1:00.950) due to a late miscue by Herta’s teammate, Kyle Kirkwood.
Kirkwood was running third before failing to navigate a turn, going into the runoff and stalling his car, causing a red flag which also gave him a penalty, sending him to the sixth spot.
“Hats off to Andretti Global,” Kirkwood said. “They’ve given us some awesome machines this weekend. We’re rocketships and Colton just showed it. I knew it was going to be hard to beat Colton and that’s kind of where the mistake came from.
“Honestly when I was thinking about it, I should just take it easy, but you’re never thinking that when you’re in the Fast 6, you want to get that pole. I went for it. I locked up. It was the first time I locked the front tire all weekend on a push lap. Then, I tried to spin it around real quick to maybe not cause a yellow, but as I was doing that I stalled.”
Newgarden also had great news, signing a contract extension with Team Penske and sponsor Hitachi.
So, Herta and Palou will start the 100-lap race on the front row, followed by Newgarden and his Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin (1:01.304) on Row 2 and Scott Dixon of Ganassi Racing (1:01.390) and Kirkwood on Row 3.
Arrow McLaren, which includes drivers Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi, was shut out from the Fast 6, but if you are looking for a surprise in the field, it was 20-year-old rookie Theo Pourchaire.
Pourchaire had never been in an IndyCar before when Arrow McLaren management called for him to replace David Malukas, who had signed a contract with the team prior to the season, then suffered a broken wrist in a mountain biking accident.
Pourchaire, who was a test and reserve driver for a Formula 1 team last year, didn’t have a contract and has proven to be a fast learner in the IndyCar series.
Pourchaire started 22nd at Long Beach in April and finished 11th in his debut.
In Detroit, Pourchaire was 20th-fastest in the first practice Friday, then fifth-fastest in Saturday’s practice before crashing head on into the tire barrier near the end of the practice.
Pourchaire then topped the 13-car field in his qualifying season at 1:00.700 before moving on to where in the Fast 12 he looked to have done enough to move on to the Fast 6 when he was overtaken on the final lap by Dixon.
Pourchaire will start on Row 4 alongside Power.