In the final qualifying session around Detroit’s Belle Isle circuit, Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden became the seventh different polesitter in seven NTT INDYCAR Series races this season.
Newgarden played spoiler in a Firestone Fast 6 dominated by the two-car teams of Dale Coyne Racing and Meyer Shank Racing, laying down a lap time of 1:15.2153 to beat Takuma Sato by just over a tenth of a second.
Meyer Shank Racing teammates Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves will share the second row, with Pato O’Ward taking the green flag in fifth. David Malukas, the top-finishing rookie in last week’s Indy 500, backed up his impressive turn of pace at the Brickyard by making the Firestone Fast 6 for the first time on the way to his best career IndyCar start of sixth.
Firestone Fast 6 Results:
- Josef Newgarden
- Takuma Sato
- Simon Pagenaud
- Helio Castroneves
- Pato O’Ward
- David Malukas
A hard crash for Romain Grosjean brought out an early end to the Firestone Fast 12. The Andretti Autosport driver bounced the left-rear of his No. 28 off the wall on corner exit and crashed hard into bare concrete in the next turn.
A hard hit for @RGrosjean.
Round 2 of qualifying came to an end after this incident.
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— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) June 4, 2022
Round 1 Group 1 saw a thrilling fight on the bubble, as Conor Daly and rookie Kyle Kirkwood tried to bump Grosjean out of the Firestone Fast 12. Ultimately neither American was successful, and Andretti Autosport’s Swiss Frenchman moved on by just eight hundredths of a second.
A fast Felix Rosenqvist in Group 2 had his best two times deleted for infringing Jimmie Johnson’s progress, knocking the Arrow-McLaren driver out of round two.
Full Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Starting Grid
- Josef Newgarden
- Takuma Sato
- Simon Pagenaud
- Helio Castroneves
- Pato O’Ward
- David Malukas
- Colton Herta
- Marcus Ericsson
- Scott Dixon
- Scott McLaughlin
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