Music City Grand Prix: Scott McLaughlin grabs Nashville pole, other drivers furious with ill-timed reds
NASHVILLE – Sitting 79 points back from his points-leading Team Penske teammate Will Power, most have crossed Scott McLaughlin out of the 2022 IndyCar championship picture with four races left.
The second-year driver, who recorded his second career pole Saturday evening and who has two wins already this year, may have one last Hail Mary up his sleeve. The second-year Australian driver threw down the fastest lap of the session in his final go during the Fast Six to edge Andretti Autosport’s Romain Grosjean (1:14.5555 vs. 1:14.6975) for pole in Sunday’s second edition of the Music City Grand Prix.
A year ago, the New Zealander started 23rd and finished 22nd, 13 laps down after taking part in multiple cautions.
“Really excited for tomorrow. Obviously, it’s gonna be a really blockbuster, crazy race, but I’m just so happy to be starting up front,” McLaughlin said. “I feel like we’re a little bit of an underdog (in the title race), but there’s no reason we can’t go on a run now at these four tracks I really enjoy.
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“Anything can happen in IndyCar. We could have a few solid weeks, focus on ourselves, and who knows what’ll happen.”
Christian Lundgaard, who landed the first podium of his IndyCar career and who paced Friday afternoon’s practice, will start 3rd Sunday, with the title contending trio of Alex Palou (4th), Pato O’Ward (5th) and Josef Newgarden (6th) all eyeing a win – or at minimum a podium – to make up significant ground on Power’s lead.
For a brief moment, it looked as if the points leader would move onto the Fast 6 and have a shot at tying Mario Andretti’s record 67 career IndyCar poles before Power ran long in Turn 4 during the Fast 12. Though he kept the car moving, turned it around and rolled back on course, at least one car passed through the area where a local yellow had been called. Because of the yellow, race control docked Power his fastest lap of the session, dropping him from 6th at the checkered flag down to 8th, allowing O’Ward to skirt by into the Fast Six.
As Power said after he stepped out of his car, he felt he’d gotten too close to Rinus VeeKay, the car ahead, and briefly got distracted, briefly locked the wheels and knew he couldn’t make the 90-degree turn coming off the bridge. Still, 8th is a far cry from dropping down to 16th in the opening laps a week ago on the IMS road course and taking 3rd, or his fall into last-place on the opening lap at Mid-Ohio, only to finish 3rd.
Further back, Marcus Ericcson, who held the points lead for several races until Saturday, when Power snatched it away at IMS, will start 18th – ironically the same starting spot from a year ago here on the streets of Nashville when the Swedish driver ramped over the back of A.J. Foyt Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais on an early restart. The front end of Ericsson’s No. 8 Honda went several feet in the air and slammed back down to the ground. He was forced to take a stop-and-go penalty for avoidable contact – and also restarted in the back for his team working on the car in a closed pitlane – yet managed to take advantage of how the yellows fell and wound up grabbing his second win of the year.
On the other end of that, Bourdais – who vacated the No. 14 Chevy car Kyle Kirkwood is now manning – started 16th a year ago, just one row in front of Ericsson at the start. Kirkwood will also start 16th Sunday. But following a race that saw nine caution periods a year ago, Ericsson knows he can’t guarantee he’ll be on the proper end of any fluky contact that may happen in the back tomorrow as he tries to make up his nine-point gap to Power.
“We need to come up with a good strategy and then just play the race how it comes,” Ericsson said. “But if anyone on this pitlane can fight up form the back to the front, I think we’re always strong doing that. We have to be smart tomorrow and pick our fights, find the strategy and be fast when we need to. I’m sure we’ll come up with something clever, and hopefully it plays out in the race.”
Even Saturday’s hour of qualifying saw numerous yellow flags, red flags and generally nervous moments for several cars across the paddock. Among those who managed to skirt through, Lundgaard locked up his tires heading into Turn 4 during the Fast 12, flat-spotted them and had to run halfway around the track with worrisome tire wear, dip into the pits and hope he could build up enough temperature to turn a lap that would reflect the strong pace he’s shown all weekend.
Amid the nerves, he remained unfazed. “My engineer actually told me I broke later on the next lap (in Turn 4),” Lundgaard said with a laugh. “So, just really good execution.”
Others were not so lucky. Devlin DeFrancesco stalled his car in Turn 4 three minutes into Round 1 for Group 1, losing the other dozen drivers three minutes of valuable running with the red flag that flew to allow the AMR Safety Team to clear him from the track. When the course went green again with four minutes remaining, only five of the drivers had turned a lap.
And with 1 minute to go, DeFrancesco’s Andretti teammate Colton Herta made an unforced error that recalled the potentially race-losing blunder he committed here a year ago. In 2021, Herta was hunting down Ericsson in the closing laps from 2nd-place and broke too late coming off the bridge into Turn 9 and slammed into the concrete. Saturday, it was late braking into Turn 4 and only relatively light contact with the tire barrier there, but it brought out a red flag all the same.
He’ll start 23rd.
“Just a little too ambitious for what the conditions were,” Herta admitted. “After it rained, we lost a lot of that grip, and I was just trying to find the right braking point, and I just over-did it. It’s hard when you put on these alternate tires, and you only have one or two laps. You really have to get after it.”
The pain of his mistake, though, was felt across his group with numerous drivers in the middle of laps that were tracking toward elevating them into the top-6 that would move onto the Fast 12 – including his Andretti teammate Alexander Rossi, who hopped out of his car quickly and could be seen storming through the paddock, helmet-on, avoiding any potential TV interview. He’ll start 17th.
“Man, I’m so frustrated. That’s just not the sport, man,” said Simon Pagenaud, who was the last man out in Group 1 and will start 13th. “Toronto was the same thing. We wait for the storm to pass, but they don’t give us enough time to get our lap down. I got just one lap on the (alternates). I’m speechless.”
“(With these rules), we don’t get to perform to our level, and we’re going to start again where we don’t belong. A lot of guys don’t belong (ahead of us), so it’s frustrating to see these rules not change all these years after we’ve been telling (IndyCar race control) they should.”
Pagenaud’s ire, as well as that of multiple other drivers, stems from the idea that yellow and red flags during IndyCar qualifying don’t stop the rolling 10-minute clock in the first two rounds. Drivers are also not guaranteed any minimum amount of time in those sessions either, setting up the possibility of some of the randomness we’ve often seen – particularly on street courses – of late.
Juncos Hollinger Racing rookie Callum Ilott, who was tracking toward a lap that would’ve allowed him to potentially advance and will now start 19th, offered up this simple remark on Twitter after he got out of the car: “What a joke @IndyCar.”
Added Felix Rosenqvist, who started on pole a week ago and starts Sunday 15th: “It’s annoying that we didn’t even get a lap in. That just seems weird, but I guess maybe we should’ve just gone straight out of the pits and tried to do a lap, but it’s annoying when it always goes red. You just can’t get the session going.”
On the other end of the spectrum, A.J. Foyt Racing’s Dalton Kellett advanced from Group 1 and will start 12th Sunday – his best IndyCar ever coming into his 38th race. His previous best start of 14th came in the season-opener this year on the streets of St. Pete. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, after struggling often during qualifying throughout their first season running three cars full-time, also all three made the Fast 12 – the only team outside Team Penske with more than one car to advance out of the first round.
And it’s that level of randomness – or at least surprise – title chasers like O’Ward are expecting again on Sunday, as the Mexican driver said he needs not so much a win but merely survive to hold onto his somewhat narrow title hopes sitting 5th with a 46-point gap to shed.
“Last year, the guy that had the worst crash that season who could still continue on won the race,” O’Ward said. “It doesn’t really matter where you start.
“I just don’t think we’ll go full-green with how hot it’s getting inside the car. People are going to get tired, touch the wall here and there, and I think there’s going to be mishaps for sure.
“And if yellows fall and they’re not in your favor, you’re going straight to the back. I think tomorrow will be all about strategy and having some lady luck.”
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyCar: Scott McLaughlin grabs Nashville pole ahead of chaotic race
