By Roy J. Akers- www.skyviewsports.net
Starting Grid – Herta Keeps Andretti Rolling with Motor City Pole
| DETROIT (Saturday, May 31, 2025) – While it appeared since the first practice Andretti Global was a favorite for the pole position for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear, Colton Herta ended the suspense about which one of the team’s drivers would end up on top.Herta repeated as the NTT P1 Award winner for this race on the streets of downtown Detroit, earning his first pole of the season and 15th of his NTT INDYCAR SERIES career with a best lap of 1 minute, .4779 of a second in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda during the Firestone Fast Six. SEE: Qualifying Results The pole came after a bit of a gamble in the final qualifying segment, as Herta was the only driver to start the session on used primary Firestone Firehawk tires before switching to a new set of the softer but grippier alternate tires early in the session. The other five drivers ran the entire Firestone Fast Six session on a combination of new and used Firestone Firehawk alternates.“It was such an unknown, and we were not really strong, to be completely honest, yesterday with the softer tires,” Herta said. “The guys did a great job overnight. The Gainbridge Honda was super fast today.“Happy to start P1 tomorrow – the best seat in the house. Now we just need a nice, easy race – no yellows, go back to how it was before Indy – and make it easy on us.”Up next is the warm-up session at 9:30 a.m. ET Sunday (FS1, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network), followed by the 100-lap race at 12:30 p.m. ET (FOX, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network).David Malukas continued his recent hot streak for A.J. Foyt Enterprises, following his runner-up finish in the 109th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge last Sunday with a career best-tying second qualifying spot at 1:00.6492 in the No. 4 Clarience Technologies Chevrolet. That was Malukas’ best career qualifying performance on a road or street circuit, as his two previous second-place starts came on ovals. |
They Said It…
Herta Said it after winning the pole : Obviously this is a pretty technical, tight, bumpy
track. Can you talk a bit about the challenge of it and also how it compares to the other street courses, as well?
COLTON HERTA: It’s just very different. As far as the 90-degree corners, they are proper, proper 90-degree corners, whereas you look at a place like Long Beach, and even the 90-degree corners aren’t exactly 90 degrees and the exits and everything are shaped a little bit different. This is definitely like a very true downtown street circuit, and the bumps, it’s very similar to where we were at in the past at Belle Isle. It definitely gives it character. I think without the bumps, this place wouldn’t be as much
fun, and it wouldn’t be as much of a challenge, so we kind of need those Detroit streets.“
David Malukas after qualifying – Q. They went back to the original tire rules. There was that change for Indy Grand Prix. Does it matter to you?
DAVID MALUKAS: I think it’s just I prefer the way it is now because I feel like in Indy GP they were kind of cutting us a little bit from options when it comes to race strategy, forcing those rules. But I think here having the option to choose what we want for the race is preferable.
Q. In recent years, this track has been known to create some mayhem. Do you see more or less happening this Sunday? DAVID MALUKAS: Well, with this season, it seems like everything has been a lot less when it comes to yellows. But I’ll be surprised if there’s not going to be a yellow for this race. It’s very — with the way it’s set up, Turn 1, it’s very wide on entry and it looks inviting and then all of a
sudden it gets very, very tight on the exit, and it happens a lot around this track.”
Favorites and Sleepers
Favorites
Scott McLaughlin (No. 3 TireRack.com Team Penske Chevrolet)
McLaughlin finished seventh in 2023 and 20th last year in Detroit but placed fourth in St. Petersburg on March 2 and sixth on April 13 at Long Beach this season. He has three top-six finishes in the last four races on the season, too.
Scott Dixon (No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda)
Over Dixon’s last 16 street course starts, the Chip Ganassi Racing driver has four wins and nine top-six results, including a victory here last year and runner-up in this year’s St. Petersburg season opener and eighth in Long Beach. He also finished fourth at Detroit in 2023.
Alex Palou (No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda)
Palou has one finish worse than eighth in his last 17 street course starts. He has nine podium finishes and 14 top-six results on these tracks during that span, including a victory March 2 in St. Petersburg and runner-up April 13 at Long Beach. Palou won at Detroit in 2023 but placed 16th last year. On the season, Palou has five wins and a runner-up finish in six starts.
Will Power (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet)
Power finished fifth in Long Beach, runner-up and sixth, respectively, at Detroit, and produced seven top-seven finishes in his last 11 street course starts. He has four top-six finishes in the last five races.
Kyle Kirkwood (No. 27 Siemens AWS Honda)
All three of Kirkwood’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES victories came on street courses for Andretti Global. He led 53 of 85 laps in his Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach triumph in 2023 and 46 of 90 in April, both from the pole. Kirkwood also earned his second career victory in August 2023 on the streets of Nashville. He finished fifth in St. Petersburg this season and sixth and fourth, respectively, in his last two Detroit starts.
Sleepers
Christian Lundgaard (No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet)
Lundgaard finished eighth and third, respectively, on street courses races this season. His only NTT P1 Award and victory occurred in July 2023 on the streets of Toronto. This car has placed fifth in the last two Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix races. Lundgaard was 11th for Arrow McLaren last season.
Alexander Rossi (No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet)
Rossi finished fifth at Detroit the last two years driving for Arrow McLaren and was 10th in the season opener at St. Petersburg.
Marcus Ericsson (No. 28 Siemens Honda)
Three of Ericsson’s four career NTT INDYCAR SERIES victories have come on street circuits. All three came at different venues, St. Petersburg, Nashville and Belle Isle. While he hasn’t won on this Detroit circuit, finishing ninth in June 2023 for Chip Ganassi Racing and runner-up last year for Andretti Global, watch out. At the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding, Ericsson finished sixth. Ericsson has qualified seventh and fifth in the pair of street races this season, too.
Felix Rosenqvist (No. 60 SiriusXM Honda)
Rosenqvist came from ninth in the 2023 Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear to finish third and was eighth last June. This season, Rosenqvist finished seventh at St. Petersburg and fourth in Long Beach. He has five top-10 finishes in six races this season.
Marcus Armstrong (No. 66 SiriusXM/Root Insurance Honda)
Armstrong had four top-11 finishes in five street-course starts in 2023. Last season, he finished 12th in Long Beach, third in Detroit and fifth at Toronto. This year, he moved to Meyer Shank Racing and qualified fourth in St. Petersburg and seventh at Long Beach. If he can stay out of trouble, Armstrong could surprise everyone this weekend.
NXT Indy Car: Hauger Edges Andretti Global Teammate
Hughes for Detroit Pole
| DETROIT (Saturday, May 31, 2025) – The INDY NXT by Firestone duel between Andretti Global teammates Dennis Hauger and Lochie Hughes continued to heat up Saturday as Hauger edged fellow series rookie Hughes for the pole at the Detroit Grand Prix.Hauger earned his third pole in five races this season – Hughes grabbed the other two – with a series-record lap of 1 minute, 4.9896 seconds in the No. 28 Rental Group car. That broke the series track record of 1:05.1079 set last June by eventual series champion Louis Foster, also of Andretti Global.SEE: Qualifying Results“It was so messy, but I pushed to the limit and got the pole,” Hauger said. “That was intense.”Hughes was second at 1:05.0516 in the No. 26 McGinley Clinic/USF Pro Championship machine, also under Foster’s track record.There was a gap of nearly one second to third on the starting grid for the 45-lap race Sunday (10:30 a.m. ET, FS1, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network), as 17-year-old rookie Max Taylor qualified third at 1:05.9554 in the No. 18 HMD Motorsports car in just his second start in the INDYCAR development series. |
