IndyCar: Herta Grabs the Pole for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach

Andretti Autosport driver Colton Herta grabbed the pole for the Acura GP of Long Beach in his #26 Gainbridge Honda.

Herta set a new GP of Long Beach track record with a time of 1:05.3095 to grab the NTT P1 Award, the 8th of his career

He’ll lead the field to green tomorrow for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

“As a young kid, I always trained to be an #INDYCAR driver and that’s because of this race.”@coltonherta, the hometown kid, secures his first pole position at @gplongbeach.#INDYCAR // #AGPLB // @FollowAndretti pic.twitter.com/8ff25I6jYA

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) April 9, 2022

Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden (winner in Texas) and Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou will start 2nd and 3rd.

Newgarden commented his thoughts on securing second place on the grid tomorrow.  ““We will work hard in the race, but Herta is going to be tough. Not only him, but Rossi and Grojean. You are seeing that with their entire team. We will put our best foot forward. I always have faith in Team Chevy and Team Penske that we can do the job. We will do our best to run strong against these guys tomorrow.”

Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist, the Texas polesitter, will start 4th.

Rosenqvist added his thoughts on securing his fourth place start tomorrow.

“This was another good qualifying for the No. 7 Vuse Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet team. I ended up fourth and I’m pretty happy with that. We got three shots in the Firestone Fast Six and it didn’t seem to be able to go much quicker than what we got. We were there all of qualifying, but then in the Fast Six we couldn’t really follow the leaders but we will take fourth.”

Andretti Autosport driver Alexander Rossi will start 5th next to his teammate, Romain Grosjean.  The Frenchman had a faster time but hit the tire barrier in turn 5 in the last minute of qualifying, lost his lap time, and will start 6th.

Jimmie Johnson did go out to qualify his car in the first session.  During the session, race control issued car 48  a penalty for Qualifying Interference and Johnson was not able to advance.

When the California native exited his car, he basically said that he was concerned that the broken hand could hamper his racing in the Indy 500.  He thought about sitting this race out if it means he is healed and ready for his first time running the important points  race.

More information to follow……

Lucille Dust reporting live from Long Beach

Qualifying Results

R = Rookie