Linus Lundqvist prevails in wet weather IndyCar qualifying, captures Road America pole
ELKHART LAKE, Wisc. – The massive crash the paddock knew was possible as IndyCar’s 27-car field charted through wet weather qualifying Saturday afternoon came in the closing seconds of the Fast Six and left a full-season rookie holding his first pole of his still young career.
In the midst of a rocky start to his rookie campaign with Chip Ganassi Racing — including four finishes outside the top-20 (and three in a row) through six races — Linus Lundqvist nabbed pole for Sunday’s 55-lapper at Road America in what he called perhaps one of the toughest and most chaotic qualifying sessions of his racing career.
“I just want to thank the team for sticking with me. It’s been a rough couple races, so to bounce back like this is really nice,” Lundqvist said after hopping out of his car. “There’s no better way of regaining confidence than your first-ever pole in IndyCar. It was tricky, very tricky out there.
“Man, I’m just super, super happy.”
As the only rookie in Saturday’s Fast Six field that included Josef Newgarden, Will Power, Kyle Kirkwood, Colton Herta and Lundqvist’s CGR teammate Marcus Armstrong, the young Swede was the only one of the six who began the final qualifying round on wet weather tires. As he described it, his No. 8 Honda team told him to run the slick Firestone alternates to begin the eight-minute session, and Lundqvist flatly told them ‘no’ — noting he simply didn’t have enough confidence in the amount he’d be sliding around.
Then, the rookie watched his five competitors handle them seemingly well on their out laps and realized he needed to shift gears — opting to pit without starting a flying lap to start.
“I started to realize there was a dry line coming in, and I just told the guys a little bit shamefully, ‘You were right, let me come in for the reds,'” Lundqvist said. “And after that, it was just about building the (tire) temperature, because we knew it was going to be maybe the last lap that was the fastest.
“So you’re just staying on-track until then, trying to build as much temperature as you can, and then hopefully it will be good enough. I was happy at first just to transfer into the Fast 12, and then the Fast Six. And then I told the guys, ‘Alright, let’s try to go for pole here. Let’s see what we’ve got.’ I’m so happy it worked out.”
At a time when just two drivers had even turned in a flying lap, Power ran off-track in Turn 12 and stalled, bringing out a red flag and leaving him set to start sixth Sunday. The session was restarted with just under six minutes to go, and with one minute left, Herta paced the five left running with all drivers still with at least one flying lap left. With the track continuing to dry after a morning and afternoon that featured hours of a steady downpour, drivers continued to carve off seconds at a time on their best laps.
First Kirkwood, then Armstrong and finally Lundqvist each jumped to the top spot in succession. Moments later, Newgarden dropped a left-side wheel onto the concrete off the racing line, sending him into a violent spin that ended when the right side of his No. 2 Chevy slammed into the SAFER barrier at The Kink (Turn 11).
Just before the red flag came out, Herta leapt up to second-best to grab a front-row starting spot, giving the Andretti Global driver five front-row starts at Road America in his seven appearances at the track.
Fitting for the chaotic afternoon, Herta was certain while being interviewed on Peacock his second-ranked lap had been disallowed by race control. Even after learning he’d start second instead of fourth, he felt he’d finished short of his potential after dominating the morning’s rain-drenched practice session and continuing to show pace as the rainy conditions moved through.
“Overall, that’s a good day when you make the Fast Six, but I’m disappointed,” he said. “I thought we had a lot of pace going into qualifying, and even then it wasn’t good enough for pole. But wherever we start, I’m just happy to make it into the Fast Six.
“That was very difficult, probably one of — if not the — most difficult qualifying session for me in IndyCar so far. Just a lot of unknowns. Unknowns with what to do with the tires, where to brake, what the line is, how many laps. So very difficult.”
Armstrong (third) and Kirkwood (fourth) will share the Row 2 for Sunday’s 3:35 p.m. EST scheduled green flag. Team Penske makes up the third row, with Power fifth and Newgarden sixth. According to NBC’s Kevin Lee, the latter was in good spirits after being seen and released from the IndyCar medical center following his crash and said he would be cleared to race on Sunday after his massive crash.
As focus now shifts to Sunday, Lundqvist seemed to be wrestling with mixed emotions of relief, excitement and a level of tense unease, knowing the potential he has for his second-career IndyCar podium Sunday, with just one finish better than 13th six races into his CGR career in 2024.
“Saturdays and qualifying have really been the focus for me. That’s where we’ve struggled, so it feels good to do this,” he said. “I know this wasn’t a very conventional qualifying session, but either way, I’m going to take it as a step forward. Hopefully we can just build on this confidence, but again, points are being handed out tomorrow. First, we’ve got to focus on that.”
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Top title contenders starting farther back
CGR landed all five of its cars in the Fast 12 Saturday, but the top-2 in the title battle, both two-time winners at Road America during their IndyCar careers, will have some work left to do Sunday. Scott Dixon, the current points leader with two wins so far in 2024, will start 10th, with Alex Palou starting seventh, 18 points back from his teammate.
Both sat inside the six primed to advance on from the Fast 12 with one minute remaining in the session, but as the track dried, they struggled to find any more speed in their rain tires the whole field was running, which were starting to deteriorate with the track too dry for wet tires and too wet to safely run dry ones.
Dixon, in particular, said he tried to get too aggressive as he prepared for his closing lap and spun in Turn 14, losing about 2.5 seconds in the process.
“I’m bummed man. The car was really good, but it was just my fault,” he said. “We still matched (his best lap of the session), but (a perfect lap) wouldn’t put us right around where the fastest time in the session was. The car was great, but the driver just didn’t get it done.”
Scott McLaughlin (eighth), Alexander Rossi (ninth), Pato O’Ward (11th) and Kyffin Simpson (12th) also didn’t advance from the Fast 12.
Among the other disappointments Saturday, Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist registered his second consecutive disappointing qualifying performance in as many weeks, set to start 22nd on back-to-back Sundays. Along with his first pole with his new team at Long Beach, the veteran driver had qualified second (St. Pete), fifth (Barber), 10th (IMS road course) and ninth (Indy 500) up until last weekend.
On his last-ditch effort to advance out of Round 1, Rosenqvist spun.
“We just had one shot, and we had to go for it, but it’s unfortunate that my costly mistake has us starting 22nd,” said Rosenqvist, who managed to finish eighth Sunday in Detroit after making up 14 spots. “We had the speed to be up there, but in these tricky conditions in practice, we couldn’t do much, so we had to do some practicing (to start in qualifying) and then give it a shot in the end.
“We’ve had some crazy and less-crazy races here. We want something like Detroit, where we can shuffle back up into the front. We’ll see. I think the car is fast, and there’s nothing lost yet, but we’ll have to see.”
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IndyCar starting order at Road America
Linus Lundqvist
Colton Herta
Marcus Armstrong
Kyle Kirkwood
Will Power
Josef Newgarden
Alex Palou
Scott McLaughlin
Alexander Rossi
Scott Dixon
Pato O'Ward
Kyffin Simpson
Christian Lundgaard
Romain Grosjean
Marcus Ericsson
Christian Rasmussen
Rinus VeeKay
Theo Pourchaire
Santino Ferrucci
Jack Harvey
Nolan Siegel
Felix Rosenqvist
Luca Ghiotto
Graham Rahal
Pietro Fittipalid
Sting Ray Robb
Helio Castroneves
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Linus Lundqvist masters wet conditions for Road America IndyCar pole
