IndyCar: Herta Takes the Pole for the Detroit Grand Prix

Andretti Global Honda driver Colton Herta will start on the pole for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix tomorrow on the streets of downtown Detroit, Michigan.  His fast lap was 1m00.4779s.  The American beat his previous pole time to retain the quickest pole speed record.  This is America’s first NTT P1 award of 2025, the 15th of his career, back-to-back on the streets of Detroit.America’s

” I am happy with the pole and the record.  Friday was pretty bad from us as far as what we’re used to on street courses, just the feel of the race car. So it kind of — Friday night to go over everything and turn everything around. The engineering group did a great job with that, and we saw this morning’s session felt a lot more comfortable and felt a lot more comfortable on the alternates or soft greens.”

“Ultimately we have been really strong on Saturdays and we have not on Sundays. I
think that’s the goal of this team. We need to put together tomorrow.”

“I think it’s been frustrating for everybody just to have so much pace and have no results. I think our best finish is a fourth, which I think we should have the ability to have some wins this year. We have a good chance right now.”

David Malukas will start second on the grid with a lap 1m00.6492s, 0.1713s behind Herta.    The American is the fastest Chevrolet engine among the four drivers in the Fast 6 and David’s third front row start of his career, the last one coming at Milwaukee, that was race 1 last year for AJ Foyt Enterprises.

“I mean, everything just clicked today. Like I said after practice, we were very comfortable with the car, very happy, and yeah, it’s kind of chaos with the practice sessions figuring out who’s fast, who isn’t, where we are, because you’re getting one lap after every 20, 30 minutes of a clean lap, so it’s all kind of just a guessing game.”

“We kept our heads down and just committed. I thought we had a good car, and clearly it went out and showed that.”

Herta’s Andretti Global teammate Kyle Kirkwood, the winner on the streets of Long Beach, will start in third spot after setting a fast lap of 1m00.7312s, 0.25s behind Herta.

Arrow McLaren Chevy driver Christian Lundgaard scored the fourth spot with a fast lap of 1m00.8938s.

Graham Rahal put his No. 15 JJ Curran Crane Company for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda in the fifth position with a time of 1m01.0651, 0.58s behind Herta.  Rahal will start eleventh because of his engine grid penalty.

Alex Palou, the series points leader, will start the 100-lap race from the sixth position,  1m01.4680s.

Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon set the tenth fastest for the grid but also will be moved back six grid positions for the same engine penalty as Rahal.

Dennis Hauger wins Indy NXT Pole

Dennis Hauger claimed his third pole of the Indy NXT season in downtown Detroit, topping his qualifying group by almost a second. With Herta on pole for the IndyCar race, Andretti Global has made a clean sweep of qualifying here in Detroit.

The championship leader was in the second group on track, and beat the 1m05.0516s benchmark set by Andretti Global team-mate Lochie Hughes in the first group by just 0.062s.

2025 Chevrolet Detroit GP Qualifying Results

Indy NXT Qualifying Results

Lucille Dust reporting live from Detroit