Romain Grosjean scored the pole for Sunday’s NTT IndyCar Series race at Barber Motorsports Park. It marks Grosjean’s second pole of the season. Photo: Penske Entertainment: James Black
Romain Grosjean earned his second NTT P1 Award of the season and the third of his NTT IndyCar Series career Saturday, taking the top starting spot for Sunday’s race at Barber Motorsports Park.
Grosjean, from France, turned the quickest lap of 1 minute, 5.8396 seconds during the Firestone Fast Six in the No. 28 Honda fielded by Andretti Autosport. Alex Palou will share the front row with Grosjean after a best lap of 1:05.9130.
“I’ve got a hell of a team,” Grosjean said. “We’re doing such a great job this year. The car is awesome, and I have three teammates I can rely on. I went with the setup, the baseline we have, and from the moment we started quali, I knew we had it. I just didn’t want to mess it on the last lap.”
Grosjean will aim for his first career series victory in the 90-lap race Sunday. But it won’t be easy, especially since Palou has the 2021 Barber victory and a runner-up finish to Pato O’Ward last year in two career starts on the 17-turn, 2.3-mile roller coaster of a road course.
“We’re starting in the best position, but now we’ve got 90 laps to lead,” said Grosjean. “We’ll see tomorrow, but I’m really proud of my guys and really happy with what we’re doing. I was very stressed that session – I don’t know why. I’m too old for this, but I guess I’m not. So, it’s all good.”
Defending race winner Pato O’Ward will start third after his best qualifying lap of 1:05.9382. Scott McLaughlin will join O’Ward on the second row after a top lap of 1:05.9515.
Scott Dixon will aim for his first Barber victory from the fifth spot on the grid after his time of 1:06.0723. Christian Lundgaard rounded out the Firestone Fast Six with a lap of 1:06.1601. It was Lundgaard’s best qualifying performance in four races this season for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, as his previous best start was 11th in the season opener last month at St. Petersburg.
Two-time series champion and three-time Barber winner Josef Newgarden was eliminated in the second round of qualifying and will start seventh. He missed a spot in the Firestone Fast Six by .0617 of a second.
“I’m frustrated and annoyed, mostly at myself,” Newgarden said. “The car was really phenomenal – there was nothing wrong with our PPG car. It’s disappointing to not transfer. I tried something different on my warmup and it probably wasn’t advised, and now looking back on it, I would do it differently, in hindsight. We’ve got a fast car.”
Newgarden’s teammate and two-time series champion Will Power and this year’s Long Beach race winner, Kyle Kirkwood, also were ousted in the second round. Power will start 11th after going off track while pushing late in the session. Kirkwood will start 12th.
Championship leader Marcus Ericsson was eliminated in the first round of qualifying, falling .1399 of a second short of advancing to the second round. He will start 13th.
NTT IndyCar Series
Barber Motorsports Park – Birmingham, AL
Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix – April 29, 2023
Saturday’s Qualifying Results
1. (28) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 01:05.8396 (125.760)
2. (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 01:05.9130 (125.620)
3. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 01:05.9382 (125.572)
4. (3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 01:05.9515 (125.547)
5. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 01:06.0723 (125.317)
6. (45) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 01:06.1601 (125.151)
7. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 01:05.9603 (125.530)
8. (6) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 01:06.0930 (125.278)
9. (21) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 01:06.1222 (125.223)
10. (7) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 01:06.2091 (125.058)
11. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 01:06.3790 (124.738)
12. (27) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 01:06.3963 (124.706)
13. (8) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 01:05.9207 (125.605)
14. (26) Colton Herta, Honda, 01:06.1850 (125.104)
15. (77) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 01:06.0642 (125.333)
16. (60) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 01:06.2433 (124.994)
17. (18) David Malukas, Honda, 01:06.1851 (125.104)
18. (29) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 01:06.4415 (124.621)
19. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 01:06.2504 (124.980)
20. (20) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 01:06.4810 (124.547)
21. (06) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 01:06.2715 (124.941)
22. (78) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 01:06.5158 (124.482)
23. (51) Sting Ray Robb, Honda, 01:06.5925 (124.338)
24. (30) Jack Harvey, Honda, 01:06.7181 (124.104)
25. (55) Benjamin Pedersen, Chevrolet, 01:06.9327 (123.706)
26. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 01:07.2378 (123.145)
27. (14) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 03:49.1462 (36.134)
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