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| Romain Grosjean pounced on pole position for third IndyCar start |
Romain Grosjean picked up his first career IndyCar pole position in his third IndyCar appearance as Grosjean topped the Fast Six session for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis with a time of 69.4396 seconds. It is Dale Coyne Racing's first pole position since Sébastien Bourdais at Phoenix in 2018. Grosjean has not won a race since he won an Andros Trophy ice race from pole position at Alpe d'Huez on December 17, 2016. His last victory in a single-seater on July 30, 2011 at the Hungaroring in GP2. The last driver to pick up a first career victory in a third career start was Colton Herta at Austin in 2019. Grosjean was tenth and 13th in his first two races this season. Coincidentally, Grosjean replaces Pietro Fittipaldi, who drove at Texas and Fittipaldi was the driver who replaced Grosjean for the final two races of the 2020 Formula One season after Grosjean suffered his injuries in the Bahrain Grand Prix. Fittipaldi remains a Haas reserve driver. Grosjean announced he will get a ceremonial test with Mercedes at Circuit Paul Ricard next month.
Josef Newgarden ended up second on the grid, 0.1269 seconds off Grosjean. Newgarden won the first Harvest Grand Prix last October from second on the grid. That victory made Newgarden the eighth driver to win on both the oval and road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He also became the first American to win an IndyCar race on the IMS road course with that victory and the first driver to win an Indy Lights race and an IndyCar race at the Speedway, though his Indy Lights victory was the Freedom 100. He never got to run the road course in the developmental series.
Jack Harvey qualified third. Harvey's first, and so far only, podium finish was third in the 2018 Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He started third in that race three years ago. Harvey has started no worse than seventh in his first four IMS road course starts and he has three top ten finishes in four starts. Harvey is one of four drivers in this race who could become the first to win an Indy Lights race and an IndyCar race on the IMS road course.
Álex Palou was the top Ganassi driver, ending up fourth on the grid. Palou has led a lap in each of the first four races this season. He is the only driver to have led in every race this season. The last driver to open a season with four consecutive races led was Sébastien Bourdais in 2018, who opened the season with six consecutive races with at least one lap led. Bourdais led 108 laps over the first six races and then didn't lead again over the rest of the season.
Scott McLaughlin's first trip to the Indianapolis road course sees him fifth on the grid. McLaughlin will become the second most experienced New Zealander in IndyCar history this weekend as he will make his sixth IndyCar start. He will trail Scott Dixon by 334 starts. The last driver to score a first career victory in a sixth career start was Alexander Rossi in the 100th Indianapolis 500.
For the first time in his IndyCar career, Conor Daly made the Fast Six and he will start sixth. This will be Daly's 11th top ten start in 69 races. Daly was sixth in his first start on the IMS road course in 2016 and he led 14 laps after going off sequence. In his five IMS road course starts since his average finish is 15.25 and he has not led a lap. He has finished a lap down in two of those four starts. Only one driver has scored a first career victory in his 69th start. That was Scott Pruett at Michigan in 1995. Pruett won that race in the #20 Patrick Racing Lola-Ford.
Rinus VeeKay missed out on the Fast Six by 0.0348 seconds and the Dutchman will start seventh. VeeKay scored his first career pole position and his first career podium finish with a third-place result in the first Harvest Grand Prix race last October. He also won an Indy Lights race at the track in 2019 and VeeKay is one of four drivers in this race who could become the first to win an Indy Lights race and an IndyCar race on the IMS road course.
Colton Herta was only 0.0037 seconds behind VeeKay, 0.0385 seconds off making the Fast Six and Herta will start eighth. Herta was in the top five of all three IMS road course races last year and he led 29 laps in the first Harvest Grand Prix race. Herta is one of four drivers in this race who could become the first to win an Indy Lights race and an IndyCar race on the IMS road course.
Ed Jones ended up ninth on the grid and it is his first top ten start in his last seven starts. Jones was sixth in his last Grand Prix of Indianapolis start in 2019. That is also his most recent top ten finish. Jones is one of four drivers in this race who could become the first to win an Indy Lights race and an IndyCar race on the IMS road course.
Simon Pagenaud snapped a bad trend with his tenth-place qualifying effort. After starting no worse than eighth in his first six IMS road course starts, Pagenaud started 20th, 22nd and 19th in the three races held at the track last year. He has only one top five start on a road/street course since the start of the 2020 season and that was fourth at St. Petersburg in April.
Graham Rahal will start 11th. Rahal has eight consecutive top ten finishes in IMS road course races and five of those have come when he has started outside the top ten. He has led in six of the last eight IMS road courses races but in five of those races he has led a single-digit number of laps. He led his first 13 laps of the season in the most recent race in Texas.
Will Power had a spin off course bring out a red flag early in the second round of qualifying and this relegated Power to 12th on the grid. He had started in the top ten of every IMS road course race and he had seven top five starts in those nine races. Power has won twice from outside the top ten in his IndyCar career. He won from 12th at Long Beach in 2012 and from 16th in the first Belle Isle race in 2016. Power picked up his fifth victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with his Harvest Grand Prix triumph in October. Power could become the sixth driver with six victories at Indianapolis. He would tie Louis Chevrolet, Eddie Hearne and Joe Dawson for third all-time.
Felix Rosenqvist was 0.0182 seconds off advancing from group one in round one and the Swede will start 13th. Rosenqvist had qualified in the top ten of all four of his IMS road course starts. It is one of three places Rosenqvist has made multiple starts at where he averages a top ten finish. The others are Belle Isle and Mid-Ohio. This is his sixth consecutive race starting outside the top ten.
Alexander Rossi missed out on advancing from group two by 0.0049 seconds. Rossi was on the podium in both Harvest Grand Prix races last October. It is one of nine tracks Rossi has multiple podium finishes at and the only track he has three podium finishes is Mid-Ohio. Rossi is one of five drivers in this race who could become the ninth driver to win on the oval and road course at IMS.
Marcus Ericsson leads an all-Ganassi row eight. Ericsson's starting position had gotten worse in each of his first four IMS road course appearances. He qualified ninth in 2019 before starting 14th, 15th and 16th respectively in the three races last year. He did finish better than his starting position in all three IMS road course races last season.
Scott Dixon missed out on group two by 0.0549 seconds off and Dixon will start 16th. He started outside the top ten in the two Harvest Grand Prix races in October. Dixon has eight consecutive top ten finishes on the IMS road course. He looks to become the second driver to win consecutive Grand Prix of Indianapolis, joining Will Power who did it in 2017 and 2018. Dixon has not won consecutive races at a track since he swept the Toronto doubleheader in 2013. The last time he won consecutive races at a track in successive years was at Mid-Ohio in 2011 and 2012. Dixon has finished runner-up in the fifth race of the season in the last four seasons. Three of those have been the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and last year was at Iowa.
Takuma Sato has never started in the top ten on the IMS road course and he continues that trend with a 17th starting position for this year's race. Sato has not had a top five finish in his last ten starts. He has not had a top five finish on a road/street course since he was third in the second Belle Isle race in 2019 and his last top five finish on a natural-terrain road course was his victory at Portland in 2018. Sato is one of five drivers in this race who could become the ninth driver to win on the oval and road course at IMS.
Patricio O'Ward ended up on the outside of row nine. O'Ward looks to become the first driver to score his first two victories in consecutive starts since A.J. Allmendinger won at Portland, Cleveland and Toronto in 2006. Allmendinger started on the front row of all three of those races while O'Ward won from fourth in Texas. O'Ward became the fifth Mexican driver to win an IndyCar race. Adrian Fernández is the all-time Mexican leader with 11 victories. Michel Jourdain, Jr. and Mario Domínguez each won twice. Héctor Rebaque was the first Mexican to win an IndyCar race. Rebaque won his final IndyCar start at Road America in 1982.
Ryan Hunter-Reay will start 19th, his third consecutive start outside the top fifteen this season. Hunter-Reay's best starting position in 2021 is 13th. He led 18 laps in the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis in 2014 and he has not led at the track since. He has only started in the top ten in three IMS road course races and his third place starting position in 2014 remains his only top five start at the track. Hunter-Reay is one of five drivers in this race who could become the ninth driver to win on the oval and road course at IMS.
Sébastien Bourdais rounds out the top twenty. After starting no worse than eighth in his first five IMS road course starts, Bourdais' best starting position in his last four outings is tenth. He has finished fourth on the IMS road course three times in his IndyCar career. He did win the inaugural Grand-Am Brickyard Grand Prix in 2012 sharing the #2 Starworks Riley-Ford with Alex Popow.
Charlie Kimball returns to IndyCar competition, and he will be 21st. Kimball has three top five finishes on the IMS road course and he is one of nine drivers with at least three top five finishes at this circuit. The only other track where Kimball has at least three top five finishes is Toronto, the location of his most recent top five result in 2018.
James Hinchcliffe was the worst Andretti Autosport qualifier in 22nd. Hinchcliffe is one of eight drivers entered in this race who has started all nine IMS road course races before it. Of those eight drivers, Hinchcliffe has the fewest top ten finishes with only two. He was third in 2016 and seventh in 2018. He has completed every lap in the last eight IMS road course races after he was forced to retire from the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis after a piece of debris struck his helmet, leaving him with a concussion.
Jimmie Johnson makes his Grand Prix of Indianapolis debut from 23rd on the grid. Johnson made 18 Brickyard 400 starts, which he won four times. Johnson also made one International Race of Champions start at Indianapolis and he won that race in 2003, the final IROC race on the 2.5-mile oval. He is one of three competitors with at least five victories at Indianapolis and he is only of five drivers in this field who could become the ninth driver to win on both the oval and the road course.
Dalton Kellett is on the outside of row 12. Kellett started on row 13 in all three IMS road course races last season. He also finished off the lead lap in all three of those races. Kellett did pick up his first career lead lap finish and matched his career best finish in the first Texas race. He followed it by not completing a lap in the second Texas race, after he was caught in the accident coming to the green flag.
Juan Pablo Montoya had his fastest two laps deleted for impeding another driver in qualifying, knocking Montoya down to 25th for his IndyCar return. This will be the worst starting position of his IndyCar career and only the third time he has started outside the top twenty. Montoya could join Mario Andretti as the only IndyCar drivers to win a race in four different decades. This is possible despite 2021 being only the seventh IndyCar season Montoya has competed in. Montoya has 15 IndyCar victories, but he has only won at one permanent road course in his career. That was Mid-Ohio in 1999, his fifth career victory. Montoya is one of five drivers in this race who could become the ninth driver to win on the oval and road course at IMS.
NBC's coverage of the Grand Prix of Indianapolis begins at 2:00 p.m. ET with the green flag scheduled for 2:45 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 85 laps.
