IndyCar: Herta takes 3rd pole at Laguna Seca

Colton Herta takes pole

Rookie sensation Colton Herta showed why Andretti Autosport was so keen to sign him for 2020 by taking his 3rd pole position for the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey. His time in Q3 of 1m10.142s beat Scott Dixon's Ganassi Honda by 0.043s and Alexander Rossi's Andretti Honda by just 0.070s to give Honda a 1-2-3 sweep of the starting positions.

Herta (No. 88 Capstone Turbine Honda) captured the NTT P1 Award with a lap of 114.867 miles per hour (1 minute, 10.1405 seconds) during Firestone Fast Six qualifying on the 11-turn, 2.258-mile permanent road course. Herta – whose previous poles came at Road America and most recently at Portland – moved into a tie with the Team Penske duo of Simon Pagenaud (No. 22 DXC Technology Chevrolet) and Will Power (No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet) for the series lead in pole positions.

It capped off a great day for Herta, who just prior to qualifying was named by Andretti Autosport to drive a fifth car for the organization under the Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport banner beginning in 2020.

Herta played the role of spoiler among the championship contenders, all of whom were looking to gain that valuable bonus point for winning the pole. All four contenders had the opportunity as the group advanced to the Firestone Fast Six, but none could upstage the 19-year-old rookie.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]“This team has been great all weekend, and the car is phenomenal," said Herta.

"We’ve had such good pace. It seems like we’ve made some real gains in recent weeks, both on the team side and my side. At the start of the year, I was hoping to be in this position by the end of the season – fighting for top six starting positions. Once you know you can do it [qualify on the pole] it kind of relieves a lot of the stress. You know you can make the fast six [final qualifying] and will be really disappointed if you don’t. I’m really looking forward to the start of the race tomorrow from the best seat in the house!"

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon (No. 9 PNC Bank Honda), fourth in the championship and 85 points back of leader Josef Newgarden (No. 2 Hitachi Chevrolet), joined Herta on the front row with a lap of 114.797 mph (1:10:1831).

Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi (No. 27 NAPA AUTO PARTS Honda), second in the title race at 41 points back, qualified third with a lap of 114.752 mph (1:10.2105) and starts alongside Team Penske’s Newgarden, who was fourth at 114.003 mph (1:10.6719).

“We’ve had a pretty challenging two and a half days for the 27 NAPA Andretti Honda group – really the Andretti Autosport group as a whole," Said Rossi.

"We had peaks and valleys, but it came good this afternoon for the most part. It’s tough when you miss out by seven-hundredths. You can find a lot of places in a lap where you give that up. We just have to keep working at it and come up with a good race car strategy for tomorrow."

Rossi needed that extra point for pole but came up just 0.07s short

Pagenaud, third in the title race and 42 back, qualified sixth at 113.698 mph (1:10:8616). Joining him on the third row is Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports driver James Hinchcliffe (No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda), who qualified fifth at 113.796 mph (1:10:8003).

Dale Coyne Racing rookie Santino Ferrucci made it to the Fast 12 on Saturday during qualifying for the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey and will be starting the final round of the NTT IndyCar Series in 12th.

After placing sixth on the combined practice report, Ferrucci was hopeful heading into qualifying at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. The 21-year-old driver went out in Group 2 of qualifying and jumped up to fifth on his final lap of the 10-minute session with a lap time of 1:10.72, which allowed him to move on to Round 2 of qualifying for the third time this season.

In Round 2, the rookie wasn’t as unfortunate. While he had the speed to move on to the Firestone Fast 6, Ferrucci went off track in Turn 6 and had to settle with a 12th place on the starting grid with a lap time of 1:12.4137.

“I’m disappointed with our qualifying effort today," expressed Ferrucci. “The #19 Cly-Del Manufacturing car has been good all weekend and while it was nice to make it into the Fast 12, we had a car capable of moving on to the Firestone Fast 6. Everything was going well, and we were working on a good lap, but I went off track in Turn 6 and that cost us our chance to advance. We’ll have some work to do tomorrow to move up, but we’ll do our best to end the season with a strong result."

Colton Herta

Following his father's footsteps at this track clearly was meaningful to Herta, who lives with his family in Valencia, Calif.

"Yeah, it obviously means a lot with the family history," he said. "Fifty percent of (my father's) Indy car wins came here. It means a lot to kind of keep on the family tradition."

Herta showed pole-level speed throughout the weekend, yet he wasn't convinced he would capture the NTT P1 Award as practice transitioned into qualifying Saturday.

"Honestly, going into (morning practice) I thought maybe we lacked a little bit, and we didn't have quite as big of a gap (to others)," he said. "We were (seventh) and we needed to find a little bit of time, so I was going to be happy to make it into the Fast Six. That would be an improvement, but we got there and we led every (qualifying) group we were in."

Herta's pole-winning lap in the Firestone Fast Six qualifying was 1 minute, 10.1405 seconds/114.867 miles per hour, scoring him a bonus point that could be important in deciding a pair of season winners. Herta might need it to win the rookie award, a championship contender might wish he had it to claim the Astor Challenge Cup.

Newgarden is in the driver's seat for the championship as he holds a 41-point lead over Rossi and a 42-point advantage on Pagenaud. Dixon is 85 points in arrears. Newgarden secures the title by finishing fourth or better, regardless of what the other three drivers do, in the season-closing race that awards double finishing position points.

"We're all there, we're all there ready to go," Newgarden said of the starting grid. "It's funny how that works out. They all made it (to the Firestone Fast Six), right? That's what we're supposed to do. Yeah, it'll make it interesting."

Simon Pagenaud

Rossi said having Newgarden close to him at the start "is not good for me, but, yeah, I guess it's good for the show. It's what probably should happen."

On the eve of the championship race, Pagenaud said everyone must "rise above."

"At the end of the day, a championship is on the line," he said.

Pagenaud and Newgarden will be shooting for their second series titles. Rossi aims for his first.

Heading into tomorrow’s season finale, Honda holds a 34-point advantage over Chevrolet in the battle for the 2019 Manufacturers’ Championship (1351-1317). In the Drivers’ Championship fight, Rossi trails Newgarden by 41 points (593-552). Pagenaud lies third with 551 points, while Dixon rounds out the title hopefuls with 508 points. This weekend’s season-finale race is a “double-points" event, with 100 points awarded for a race win rather than the usual 50.

Television coverage of the final round of the 2019 season begins at 2:30 p.m. EDT Sunday on NBC.

Quotes

Top-10 Qualifiers

1st – COLTON HERTA (No. 88 Capstone Turbine Honda): "I'm doing something right, the team is doing something right. We obviously had a great car this whole weekend, and after leading coming just straight off the truck and leading, being P2 in the morning and Thursday, leading the day Thursday and leading practice 1, being there in practice 2 and 3 and obviously getting the pole, it just shows the charisma of the team and everything we're doing has been in the right directions. Obviously it feels great, now it's two poles in two weekends."

Scott Dixon

2nd – SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda): "It was definitely a good recovery for us. We'd been struggling a little bit all weekend. I'd just been struggling to get the time out of the new tires. Felix has been doing a fantastic job. I don't know the total scenario there, but I think he would have fought hard and had a really good shot at getting the pole. He's been quick all weekend. But that's the way it rolls. I think we did a good job. I know our second run pace on used tires had been really good all weekend, it was just I hadn't been able to get the speed out of the new ones. It was a nice surprise, and you know, in a good position. We'll just have to see how it rolls tomorrow."

3rd – ALEXANDER ROSSI (No. 27 NAPA AUTO PARTS Honda): "We've had a pretty challenging two-and-a-half days for the (No.) 27 NAPA Andretti Honda group – really the Andretti Autosport group as a whole. We had peaks and valleys, but it came good this afternoon for the most part. It's tough when you miss out by seven-hundredths. You can find a lot of places in a lap where you give that up. We just have to keep working at it and come up with a good race car strategy for tomorrow."

4th – JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet): "Yeah, I mean, in our situation it's a good thing to be close to the competition, specifically the ones in the championship. Yeah, we've got to have a good clean run tomorrow. You'd like to win every race and maybe we've got a race-winning car tomorrow. It certainly feels like we have the capability of it. But we need to have a good clean day, try and not get caught up in anything, and just run our race like we normally would. I think that's what we'll try and focus on."

5th – JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda): "Obviously I think everyone on the Arrow car is thrilled to be on the Firestone Fast 6 this weekend, it's been a tough log up to this last point. The test day wasn't super productive for us and unfortunately then, over Friday and this morning, we were thrown all sorts of set up changes at the car. I've been having to learn how to drive a different car every session. We never gave up and huge credit to the engineers, and everybody, for keeping their heads down and coming up with the setup at the end of Practice 3 this morning, which was something we could work with and got two of our cars out of Round 1 of Qualifying, then to get into the Firestone Fast 6. I think if you would have told us that before this day started, we wouldn't believe you. Proud of the Arrow guys, I want to try to end this season on a high note. We've had a rough run of luck the last few weeks and it would be nice to go into the off season with a strong result."

6th – SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 22 DXC Technology Team Penske Chevrolet): "Yeah, it was definitely an intense qualifying. We pushed as hard as we could to try to be ahead. Very exciting. I mean, a little too exciting for my taste, especially Q1 (first qualifying session). The problem is we were back there on pit lane, and it's very difficult to get your tires up to temperature when everybody is trying to get themselves up front. So it's an accordion effect, and Q1 was complicated. Our first lap was going to be my fastest and I caught Sebastien. To make sure I was going to get a good lap I had to abort to get a second. It was a very stressful situation, but overall I wanted to be on the pole. I think we all wanted to be on the pole. But it was very tight. It was very important to at least transfer to the Fast Six, and I think we tried everything we could. I was attacking everywhere, maybe a little too much at times, but that was the time to go. Absolutely no regrets, and we did the best we could."

7th – WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): "We were on a good lap and I just made a mistake. I just seriously made a mistake. The second lap obviously was not good enough. It was about three hundredths off. It's just frustrating man – frustrating man. We just weren't good enough to make the Fast Six today. We've not been the quickest of the weekend, but we've kind of been in that area of where we qualified. We will go into tomorrow and try and help the team get a championship and try and win the race in the process."

8th – GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 15 United Rentals Honda): "I thought it was a good run. We were lucky to squeak through in the first round after Felix's issue but were able to make the most of it. We refined the car a little bit and missed advancing to the Fast Six by two-hundredths of a second – and two-hundredths of a second around here is nothing. We should have advanced, but I made a mistake. I was on a really good lap, I was on a four (1:10.4 lap time) which would have comfortably advanced us but I just screwed up going into the corkscrew, tried to roll too much speed, got too much understeer and ruined the lap. But at the end of the day, we're right here at the sharp end of the grid with the good guys and I think we found some good stuff that will get us excited for next year."

Ryan Hunter-Reay

9th – RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 DHL Honda): "It was a missed opportunity, really. We went first in the first group there and I think with some of the Porsche rubber down, the car was really loose. We decided to go a bit more conservative for the second group and it didn't pay off. The track rubbered up with the Firestone Indy car rubber and it really gripped the rear up – I was struggling with understeer. I had to get out of it in a couple of corners to keep it on the racetrack. We missed the cut off by nine-hundredths of a second. It's that close and it was a really messy lap. To miss the cutoff by that much is unfortunate. We just missed the target there but hopefully tomorrow we get this (No.) 28 DHL Honda up front and fighting for the win. And hopefully, Andretti Autosport leaves with a championship as well."

10th – MAX CHILTON (No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet): "It was a great day all around for us and the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet. We were leading FP3 (Practice 3) for quite a while and ended the session in sixth this morning, so then you've got the pressure to do it again in qualifying. We finished the first round 10th, which I was happy with and I knew I could do a better lap. We had a slightly different strategy for the second round of qualifying and we were the first car to go out on reds, which was good because I had clean track. We did a really good banker lap, which I knew probably wouldn't be enough to get me through, so I just went all out. I was up a tenth until turn four, but on the exit I just lost the car. I think we had a car quick enough to make it into the Firestone Fast Six if I could've gotten it all together, but it's just so close out there so it's really just about getting everything right on the same lap."

Remainder of Drivers (alphabetical – with qualifying position):

MARCO ANDRETTI (Qualified 22nd – No. 98 U.S. Concrete / Curb Honda): "We left yesterday a little happier with the car. The car in qualifying today felt nothing like what we had yesterday. We were super loose on (Firestone) Reds and just couldn't get the times in we needed. It'll be a long day and we'll have to get creative, but we'll be ready for a fight."

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS (Qualified 19th – No. 18 SealMaster Honda): "It's been a difficult 24 hours with everything that has gone on. In qualifying, I didn't put the lap together. It's on me. I didn't start early enough and made a mistake on the first timed lap on the reds (Firestone alternate tire). Then on the second try I came short by about three tenths. Starting where we are is not physically ideal for me right now, but the No. 18 SealMaster Honda is better than where we qualified so we'll just have to see what we can do tomorrow."

Conor Daly

CONOR DALY (Qualified 13th – No. 25 U.S. Air Force Honda): "We just missed it by a little bit. We've really, really struggled with this car all weekend long, sadly. But the team has been working with me really well and I appreciate the opportunity. This is one of the most important weekends of my life, so it's unfortunate that we missed it by a little bit. All I get to do is just live my life one session at a time so it's really hard to do that – it's a shame. The race is a totally different animal, the tires are wearing a lot here so it will be interesting. We'll be starting in the middle of the field, so just hope that everyone will be smart. Hopefully we can find a little bit of luck and maybe make something out of it."

MARCUS ERICSSON (Qualified 11th – No. 7 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda): "I think it was a pretty good session. I think the first round went really well and we advanced to the second round, which was really good. On the blacks, we were P2, we were looking really good to go into the Firestone Fast Six as well, but then unfortunately on the red during the end of Qualifying 2, I put a wheel off and didn't get a clean lap. It's disappointing because I think we could have been in the Fast Six today, but in 11th we can still race from there. I think these last couple of days we have improved the car constantly every session and I think we have a really good race car for tomorrow. A bit disappointing with the end result of qualifying, but I think we have a good chance tomorrow."

SANTINO FERRUCCI (Qualified 12th – No. 19 Cly-Del Manufacturing Honda): "I'm disappointed with our qualifying effort today. The No. 19 Cly-Del Manufacturing car has been good all weekend and while it was nice to make it into the Fast 12, we had a car capable of moving on to the Firestone Fast 6. Everything was going well and we were working a good lap, but I drove off track in Turn 6 and that cost us our chance to advance. We'll have some work to do tomorrow to move up, but we'll do our best to end the season with a strong result."

JACK HARVEY (Qualified 24th – No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda): "It's been a tough weekend for us. We've lacked pace no matter what the conditions were. Hopefully tomorrow our strategy can move us up and if there are any yellows, hopefully they will play in our favor."

ED JONES (Qualified 18th – No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Scuderia Corsa Chevrolet): "It's been a tough weekend so far, but I think we made some progress in each of the sessions. Eighteenth on the grid is certainly not where we want to be, but race strategies are going to be quite different. Hopefully we can make something happen and end the season on a high."

TONY KANAAN (Qualified 21st – No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet): "We've been fighting a lack of grip all weekend and we haven't been able to find it, so it's obviously a bit frustrating, but we've got to keep working on it. The car is just not working around the track, so hopefully we'll improve for tomorrow."

CHARLIE KIMBALL (Qualified 20th – No. 23 Tresiba Carlin Chevrolet): "I'm really disappointed with qualifying honestly. I think we showed much better pace all weekend and Max proved that the Carlin cars could get it done, so I'm just a little confused with where the lap time was or wasn't in this case. All it took was a couple of tenths and we would've transferred. It just shows how competitive the series is around here at Laguna Seca and really overall. I know we've got a good race car in the No. 23 Tresiba Carlin Chevrolet and we've got plenty of good strategy to dial up for tomorrow's race."

MATHEUS LEIST (Qualified 23rd – No. 4 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet): "It looked like it was going to be our best qualifying of the year today. We had a pretty good car – we did the right preparation. On my fastest lap on the red tires, we had an issue on the last corner. We lost a second so that was the end of our day. That one second would have easily put us in the top 12. It's a shame because it is the last qualifying of the year and the team wanted to be there, we had to be there. We'll just focus on tomorrow and hope to have a good race."

SPENCER PIGOT (Qualified 15th – No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet): "Overall, it was certainly not the qualifying we wanted. It's going to be a tough race. We'll see what we can do with strategy and try to pass some cars on the start. We definitely need to make some improvements for tomorrow and hopefully move forward."

FELIX ROSENQVIST (Qualified 14th – No. 10 NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing Honda): "(Reacting to his fastest two laps being disallowed and not being able to advance to the next round due to a rules violation) We were working for three days for this moment and we had the fastest time on track and the guys have just been doing an incredible job."

TAKUMA SATO (Qualified 16th – No. 30 ABeam Honda): "It was a tough session. It's a tight field and not really what we expected out of qualifying. We made good progress through all of the practice sessions. Our performance was moving up all the time, but unfortunately the car felt a little disconnected in qualifying. It was tough. In the end we lost advancing to the next segment by three-hundredths (of a second), so it's a pity. Everyone is in the same situation, it was the hottest day and challenging. Unfortunately we couldn't make it to the next round, but I believe we have a strong car."

ZACH VEACH (Qualified 17th – No. 26 Gainbridge Honda): "It's a little frustrating. We had something that was really good, but it kept visiting us at the wrong times. Any session that didn't matter, we had a really good car and just tried to make it a little bit better. We just went past the tipping point for qualifying. This is kind of the way our season has been going but we're trying our hardest to turn things around. We'll get there!"

Lineup

Pos	Car	Driver Name	Engine	Time	Speed	Session
1	88	Herta, Colton (R)	Honda	01:10.1405	114.867	Round 3/Firestone Fast Six
2	9	Dixon, Scott	Honda	01:10.1831	114.797	Round 3/Firestone Fast Six
3	27	Rossi, Alexander	Honda	01:10.2105	114.752	Round 3/Firestone Fast Six
4	2	Newgarden, Josef	Chevy	01:10.6719	114.003	Round 3/Firestone Fast Six
5	5	Hinchcliffe, James	Honda	01:10.8003	113.796	Round 3/Firestone Fast Six
6	22	Pagenaud, Simon	Chevy	01:10.8616	113.698	Round 3/Firestone Fast Six
7	12	Power, Will	Chevy	01:10.6086	114.105	Elimination Round 2/Top 12
8	15	Rahal, Graham	Honda	01:10.6296	114.071	Elimination Round 2/Top 12
9	28	Hunter-Reay, Ryan	Honda	01:10.6919	113.971	Elimination Round 2/Top 12
10	59	Chilton, Max	Chevy	01:10.7257	113.916	Elimination Round 2/Top 12
11	7	Ericsson, Marcus (R)	Honda	01:11.1666	113.210	Elimination Round 2/Top 12
12	19	Ferrucci, Santino (R)	Honda	01:12.4137	111.261	Elimination Round 2/Top 12
13	25	Daly, Conor	Honda	01:10.7787	113.831	Elimination Round 1/Group 1
14	10	Rosenqvist, Felix (R)	Honda	01:10.5649	114.176	Elimination Round 1/Group 2
15	21	Pigot, Spencer	Chevy	01:10.8275	113.752	Elimination Round 1/Group 1
16	30	Sato, Takuma	Honda	01:10.8393	113.733	Elimination Round 1/Group 2
17	26	Veach, Zach	Honda	01:10.8407	113.731	Elimination Round 1/Group 1
18	20	Jones, Ed	Chevy	01:10.9806	113.507	Elimination Round 1/Group 2
19	18	Bourdais, Sebastien	Honda	01:11.0095	113.461	Elimination Round 1/Group 1
20	23	Kimball, Charlie	Chevy	01:10.9865	113.498	Elimination Round 1/Group 2
21	14	Kanaan, Tony	Chevy	01:11.2454	113.085	Elimination Round 1/Group 1
22	98	Andretti, Marco	Honda	01:11.0527	113.392	Elimination Round 1/Group 2
23	4	Leist, Matheus	Chevy	01:11.5180	112.654	Elimination Round 1/Group 1
24	60	Harvey, Jack	Honda	01:11.2710	113.045	Elimination Round 1/Group 2

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