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| Josef Newgarden starts Independence Day on pole position at Mid-Ohio |
Josef Newgarden won his third consecutive pole position as the Newgarden took the top spot with a lap of 66.6739 seconds around Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, only 0.0031 seconds faster than Colton Herta in the final round of qualifying. This is the third consecutive race Newgarden and Herta have shared the front row. This is the sixth time Newgarden has been the top Penske starter this season. Newgarden has finished on the podium in the tenth race of the season the last six years. He has won the tenth race of the season three times. The tenth race is also the latest Newgarden has picked up his first victory of the season, having done it in 2016 at Iowa. He has three career victories from pole position and those have come at Barber, Road America and Iowa. The pole-sitter has won four of the last six Mid-Ohio races and 15 of 37 races all-time. In the last two races, Newgarden has led 99 of 125 laps.
Colton Herta starts second for the third consecutive race and for the fourth time in the last five races. Herta has started in the top ten for 14 consecutive races. This streak started with his pole position for the second Mid-Ohio race last year. Herta could become the eighth driver to win consecutive Mid-Ohio races. The other seven drivers to do it are Bobby Rahal, Michael Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi, Al Unser, Jr., Alex Zanardi, Hélio Castroneves and Scott Dixon, who last did it in 2011-12. The second-place starter has won five times at Mid-Ohio, most recently Josef Newgarden in 2017.
Marcus Ericsson ended up third in qualifying, his career best starting position in IndyCar. This was only Ericsson's second appearance in the Firestone Fast Six and his only other top five start in IndyCar was fourth at Gateway last year. The Swede is looking for his second consecutive top five finish at Mid-Ohio. The only other track where he has multiple top five finishes is Belle Isle, a second in 2017 and a victory this year.
Despite a qualifying hiccup in round one, Will Power made it to the Firestone Fast Six and wound up fourth on the grid. Power won at Mid-Ohio last year when it was the tenth round to the season and Power was coming off a third-place result in the race before. Mid-Ohio is the tenth round of this season and Power is coming off a third-place finish at Road America.
Scott Dixon ended up fifth in qualifying. Dixon has not had a podium finish in his last six starts, his longest podium drought since 2016, when he went six races between podium finishes between Long Beach and Iowa. He has not gone seven races without a podium finish since 2014, when Dixon went 11 races without a trip to the rostrum. He ended that 11-race drought with a victory at Mid-Ohio.
Alexander Rossi was sixth in qualifying. Rossi went from sixth to third in the first Mid-Ohio race last year. Rossi has gone ten races without a top five finish, the longest drought of his IndyCar career. He has four consecutive top five finishes at Mid-Ohio, three of which were podium finishes.
Álex Palou missed out on the Firestone Fast Six by 0.0384 seconds and Palou will start seventh. He could become the 19th Chip Ganassi Racing driver to win three races in a season. Scott Dixon has won three races in a season the most times for Ganassi, having done it nine times. Alex Zanardi and Dario Franchitti each did it three times, Jimmy Vasser did it twice and Juan Pablo Montoya did it once.
Graham Rahal picked up his best starting position of the season in eighth. Rahal started eighth for the first Mid-Ohio race last year and he finished fourth. He has never won from eighth in his career with his best finish being second at Barber in 2015. Rahal could join his father as Independence Day winners in their home state of Ohio. Bobby Rahal won at Cleveland on July 4, 1982. It was Bobby Rahal's first IndyCar victory in his third career start.
James Hinchcliffe had his best qualifying effort of the season ending up ninth. Hinchcliffe's prior best starting spot was 12th at St. Petersburg. Hinchcliffe has finished outside the top ten in his last three Mid-Ohio starts after having four consecutive top ten finishes prior to this streak.
Ryan Hunter-Reay makes it an all-Andretti Autosport row five, and this is Hunter-Reay's 14 consecutive top ten start at Mid-Ohio. This was the first time this season all four Andretti Autosport cars made it out of the first round of qualifying.
Rinus VeeKay has eight pins in his shoulder, and he will start 11th in his first race back after breaking his collarbone in a cycling accident. At every track IndyCar has visited this season, VeeKay has set a personal best finish at the track. Barber and Belle Isle are the only new track so far, but VeeKay improved from 15th to ninth at St. Petersburg, 22nd to 20th to ninth at Texas, third to first on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and 20th to eighth in the Indianapolis 500. The Dutchman was eighth and 11th last year at Mid-Ohio.
Sébastien Bourdais rounds out row six. Bourdais has only one top ten finish in his last four Mid-Ohio starts. He was sixth in 2018 from 24th on the grid. Bourdais' last four Mid-Ohio starts stretch back to 2015, as he missed 2017 due to injury and he was not on the grid last year until the Harvest Grand Prix in October.
Felix Rosenqvist returns to the IndyCar grid and he slotted himself 13th on the grid, matching his best starting position of the season. Rosenqvist has an average finish of tenth in three Mid-Ohio starts. The only time he has been the top Arrow McLaren SP finisher this season was at St. Petersburg, when he was 12th and Patricio O'Ward was 19th.
Scott McLaughlin missed out on advancing from group two in round one by 0.0063 seconds. Fourteenth is McLaughlin's best starting position since starting fifth for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. The New Zealander is still looking for his first career laps led in IndyCar.
Simon Pagenaud had his final lap deleted in qualifying, as he had failed to slow for a local yellow, and instead of advancing to round two, Pagenaud will start 15th. He has finished on the lead lap in every one of his 11 Mid-Ohio starts with five top five finishes and nine top ten finishes. However, he has not led here since his 2016 victory, and he has not finished in the top five in any of his last four trips to Mid-Ohio.
For the first time this season, Ed Jones beat Romain Grosjean in qualifying, as Jones ended up 16th with Grosjean in 18th. Jones' best finish at Mid-Ohio was 13th in 2019 driving for Ed Carpenter Racing. His Mid-Ohio finish has improved in each start as Jones was 21st and 15th in his first two visits to the circuit.
Max Chilton enters Mid-Ohio fresh off of his first top ten finish since 2017 and he will start 17th in this race. Chilton has not had consecutive top ten finishes since he was eighth at Texas and ninth at Road America earlier in that 2017 season. Last year, Chilton picked up his best Mid-Ohio finish in 13th and his average finish at this circuit is 16.7.
Romain Grosjean matches his worst starting position of the season in 18th. Grosjean started 18th at St. Petersburg in April. Dale Coyne Racing's best Mid-Ohio finish is sixth, which has happened on three occasions. Tristan Vautier was the first to do it in 2015, Conor Daly matched it in 2016 and Sébastien Bourdais was sixth in 2018.
Takuma Sato qualified 19th for the third time this season. This is Sato's third consecutive race starting on row ten and his best starting position of the season is 15th. He has finished outside the top fifteen in his last four Mid-Ohio starts. Last year, Sato led 16 laps after going off sequence, his first laps led on the 2.25-mile road course.
Patricio O'Ward ended up 20th in qualifying, his worst starting position of the season. This is O'Ward's worst starting position since he started 21st for the second Mid-Ohio race last year. The good news is he went from 21st to ninth in that race. O'Ward was 11th in the first Mid-Ohio last year.
For the first time this season, Dalton Kellett will not start on row twelve for a road/street course race, as Kellett will line up 21st today. The Canadian was 22nd and 21st in the two Mid-Ohio races last year. Beside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval, Mid-Ohio is the only track where Kellett does not have a top twenty finish.
Santino Ferrucci is looking for his fourth consecutive top ten finish, which would be a personal best for him, and he will do it from 22nd on the grid. Ferrucci has the #45 RLLR Honda 22nd in the entrants' championship, which is the final Leader Circle spot for the 2022 season. The #45 RLLR Honda has 105 points, which is still two more than the #06 Meyer Shank Racing Honda, which won the Indianapolis 500. The #7 AMSP Chevrolet has 99 points, the #4 A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet has 86 points and the #59 Carlin Chevrolet is 26th on 80 points.
Jack Harvey heads into Meyer Shank Racing's home race in a slump, and qualifying was another slip in the wrong direction. Harvey was set to advance from group one in round one, but he spun coming to the checkered flag and parked it on the circuit, bringing out a local yellow flag. This caused Harvey to lose his fastest lap and dropped him to 23rd on the grid. Harvey has finished outside the top fifteen in six consecutive races. Harvey has finished tenth and seventh the last two years at Mid-Ohio.
Conor Daly will be 24th on the grid, Daly's worst starting position for a road/street course in his career. Daly has not had a top ten finish on a road/street course since he was tenth in the 2017 season finale at Sonoma. He did finish sixth at Mid-Ohio in 2016 from 22nd on the grid.
Jimmie Johnson ended up 25th in qualifying, even despite Jack Harvey losing his fastest lap due to causing a local yellow. Johnson has yet to start in the top twenty this season. Johnson most recently raced in the state of Ohio on June 6, 2012, when he competed in the exhibition dirt late model race, the Prelude to the Dream at Eldora Raceway. He was 11th in that race, which Kyle Busch won. Johnson was the 2010 Prelude to the Dream winner.
Ryan Norman will make his IndyCar debut from 26th on the grid. Norman has already won at Mid-Ohio this year as Norman won with co-driver Parker Chase in IMSA's Michelin Pilot Challenge TCR class. Norman will become at least the 83rd Ohioan to start an IndyCar race. Fourteen Ohioans have won in IndyCar.
NBC's coverage of the Honda Indy 200 begins at noon ET with green flag scheduled for 12:05 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 80 laps.
