Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta dominated qualifying for the inaugural Big Machine Music City Grand Prix by taking pole position by almost six-tenths of a second.
Herta’s pace had been unmatched throughout the practice sessions and it continued into qualifying to claim his sixth career pole position with a stunning lap of 1:13.683, averaging 102.601 MPH.
The bid for pole became all the easier after the 20-year-old set a stunning lap in Q1 on the Primary Firestone tyres, which saved him a set of the softer Alternate tyres for the Fast Six.
The pole position trophy was named after former IndyCar driver after Bryan Clauson who passed away in 2016.
Reigning series champion Scott Dixon recovered from his mistakes in the second practice session to put himself alongside Herta on the front row with a lap time four-tenths faster than those behind him.
Championship leader Alex Palou set a time good enough for third on the grid narrowly beating Alexander Rossi by 0.033s, but will start from ninth-place after taking a grid penalty for an unauthorised engine change.
Rossi would end the session in fourth as he looks to kickstart his 2021 campaign and ended the final session ahead of Arrow McLaren SP’s Felix Rosenqvist and Romain Grosjean.
Meyer Shank Racing’s outgoing Jack Harvey qualified ahead of highest placed Team Penske car of Simon Pagenaud in eighth with Pato O’Ward and James Hinchcliffe rounding out the top 10.
There was drama in the Firestone Fast 12 as championship contender and hometown hero Josef Newgarden crashed his No.2 Penske-Chevrolet heavily into the Turn 11 wall.
Despite the hefty contact with the concrete barrier, he proceeded toward Turn 1 with a broken car, spewing parts all over the track. Consequently, he lost his two best laps from the session which allowed Grosjean into the Fast Six, the two-time champion in start from 12th.
The tight nature of the Nashville street circuit has caught out several drivers, but just minutes into the first session Seven-time NASCAR Jimmie Johnson’s difficult season continued as he brought out the red flag after crashing into the Turn 10 tyre barrier.
Sunday’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix is set to get underway at 17:30 EDT.
| # | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colton Herta | 01:13.6835 | – |
| 2 | Scott Dixon | 01:14.2327 | 0.5492 |
| 3 | Alexander Rossi | 01:14.6646 | 0.9811 |
| 4 | Felix Rosenqvist | 01:15.0045 | 1.321 |
| 5 | Romain Grosjean | 01:15.3980 | 1.7145 |
| 6 | Jack Harvey | 01:15.1309 | – |
| 7 | Simon Pagenaud | 01:15.1354 | – |
| 8 | Pato O’Ward | 01:15.1914 | – |
| 9 | Alex Palou | 01:14.6316 | – |
| 10 | James Hinchcliffe | 01:15.3255 | – |
| 11 | Will Power | 01:15.5016 | – |
| 12 | Josef Newgarden | 01:15.5062 | – |
| 13 | Graham Rahal | 01:16.1097 | – |
| 14 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 01:15.4984 | – |
| 15 | Helio Castroneves | 01:16.3479 | – |
| 16 | Sebstien Bourdais | 01:15.6055 | – |
| 17 | Santino Ferrucci | 01:16.4647 | – |
| 18 | Marcus Ericsson | 01:15.6379 | – |
| 19 | Dalton Kellett | 01:17.1516 | – |
| 20 | Conor Daly | 01:15.6685 | – |
| 21 | Max Chilton | 01:17.5553 | – |
| 22 | Rinus VeeKay | 01:15.7029 | – |
| 23 | Scott McLaughlin | 01:18.1899 | – |
| 24 | Takuma Sato | 01:15.8503 | – |
| 25 | Jimmie Johnson | No Time | – |
| 26 | Ed Jones | 01:15.8770 | – |
| 27 | Cody Ware | 01:18.0928 | – |
