By David Morgan, Associate Editor
NEWTON, Iowa – Fast in Corn Country.
In the first oval race of the hybrid era in the NTT IndyCar Series at Iowa Speedway, Colton Herta and Scott McLaughlin cemented themselves as the fastest drivers in qualifying on Saturday, banking the pole for the Hy-Vee Homefront 250 later this evening and Sunday’s Hy-Vee One Step 250.
Herta’s lap of 17.1506 seconds (187.655 mph) was enough to secure him the top spot for Saturday night, his second pole of the season, as well as his first ever on an oval.
Though he came away with the top spot, Herta still had some issues to deal with during the run as his hybrid system did not function properly during his original run, leading his team to push his car back to the grid for him to run again. However, that effort was called off and his original time stood.
“It’s awesome. Kind of get the monkey off the back,” Herta said. “First pole on an oval. Yeah, car seemed good in all conditions yesterday in practice. Should have a fast race car for tonight and tomorrow afternoon.
“Yeah, a little bit of a bizarre one. We got it there at the end…. I’ve been close. I’ve started off pole maybe two or three times on ovals in the past. But just have never had that last little bit.
“It’s cool to finally get it.”
Herta noted that the unavailability of the hybrid during his run hurt him the most on his second lap when he didn’t have the extra horsepower available with the system.
“It never worked, so it never deployed, never regen’d. As far as I understand it, it wasn’t a mechanical thing,” he explained.
“I think the idea of going back out was it’s going to be free lap time to go back out there and run again in similar conditions that we just did.
“Obviously it’s 60 extra horsepower for whatever, four or five seconds, it’s big around this place, especially with a field so tight.”
Meanwhile, for Race No. 2, McLaughlin went out and one-upped his young competitor, blasting around the 0.894-mile oval in a track record 17.0966 seconds (188.248 mph), keeping up the steam he has had all weekend after posting the fastest time in practice on Friday.
He will also line up alongside Herta on the front row for Saturday night’s race.
“Solid start. Can’t be unhappy with two front rows,” McLaughlin said.
“I think the car has been really strong since we started testing here. Even on the other compound. Doing the lap…
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