IndyCar: Rossi beats Newgarden to win pole at Road America

Alexander Rossi became the 8th different pole sitter of the 2022 NTT IndyCar season and his first in three years, with a time of 1m44.8656s on hard Firestone tires.

Andretti Honda driver Rossi beat Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden by just 0.07s but Newgarden was on the softer, stickier Firestone tires.  What time would Rossi have put up on the soft tires?

Alex Palou was 3rd for Ganassi Racing ahead of his teammate Marcus Ericsson.

Rossi’s teammate Colton Herta rounded out the top-5 in his Andretti Honda.

Four of the drivers in the Firestone Fast Six qualifying session decided to use the Firestone primary “black” tires, which are more durable but have less grip than the alternate “red” tires. Josef Newgarden used the same strategy last year to win the pole on this 14-turn, 4.048-mile circuit.

Rossi commented on winning the pole on the black primary tires.  “I was obviously happy with my car yesterday. I think fortunately qualifying,  the primary tire was the preferred tire because I think our balance is a bit better on that tire.”

“So we were trying to bring it a little bit more into the window on the alternates. I don’t think we quite got there so we definitely have some work to do from that standpoint to make sure we still have pace in the race tomorrow on the alternate.”

” I just think for me, our balance on the primary tires is just a lot better than on the alternates, which ultimately is why we’re able to kind of do that.  It was faster than my best lap that I did on the red tire. There’s a little bit of that that’s going on. We certainly need to focus on that in this warmup to try to figure out. You got to be good on both tires obviously. ”

Josef Newgarden commented regarding his qualifying effort.   “It was unbelievable. I didn’t even realize Rossi was on blacks. I looked like an idiot talking to Greg from Team Chevy. I was like, Clearly, clearly it was better to go use reds, we knew that. He didn’t say anything to me (smiling).”

“Kevin Lee from NBC  told me when he interviewed me. Greg , (from Team Chevy) was like, I didn’t want to correct you.  Wow, I feel, like, stupid.”

“We were just a little short. I think Rossi’s lap is definitely an outlier. Must have been a mega lap. It looks like it. Kudos to those guys.”

“I was pretty happy with my lap. It wasn’t like it was a bad lap. It just wasn’t enough. Wish we were one spot better, but we all day to work on that now with PPG and Team Chevy.”

“The race is very different than qualifying. We’ll have to see how that works out. Tires, in
my opinion, are quite different this year. So it will be interesting to see some guys that didn’t transfer, like a Will Power, for instance, it will be interesting to see how they
utilize their reds in the race.”

Colton Herta, driver of the no 26 Gainbridge Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian, talked about his qualifying effort.

Fast Six Results

Full Qualifying Results

Pursuant to Rule 8.3.5.1, Car 77 has had their 2 fastest laps invalidated and cannot advance.

Lucille Dust reporting live from Road America