Scott McLaughlin and Will Power locked out the front-row for Team Penske-Chevrolet, McLaughlin’s pole lap being 0.2283sec quicker in the Firestone Fast Six shootout than the lead Honda time, from Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta. But those times are set on used Firestone red-sidewalled alternate-compound tires. On fresh ‘reds’ in Q2, nine-time St. Pete polesitter Power set a new track record of 59.3466sec around the 1.8-mile course, but was a mere 0.0585sec ahead of Herta.
Nevertheless, both McLaughlin and Power praised the improved driveability of the Chevrolet 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6 for 2022. Buckner told Motorsport.com this was not only a result of Chevrolet/Ilmor offering a greater range of engine maps, but also improvements in the hardware itself.
“Closing out last year, it was very apparent to us that Colton Herta was the class of the field in the street races,” said Buckner, “so we couldn’t come back this year with the same package and expect any…
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