Tag: Felix Rosenqvist

Rosenqvist happy with surge to second at Portland GP

On the eve of his much-predicted departure from Arrow McLaren, Felix Rosenqvist produced his best result from his three-year tenure with the team, after passing his teammates and splitting the dominant Chip Ganassi Racing Hondas at the checkered …

On the eve of his much-predicted departure from Arrow McLaren, Felix Rosenqvist produced his best result from his three-year tenure with the team, after passing his teammates and splitting the dominant Chip Ganassi Racing Hondas at the checkered flag.

After a mechanical failure in qualifying left him in a disappointing and unrepresentative 11th on the grid, behind teammates Pato O’Ward (sixth) and Alexander Rossi (ninth), Rosenqvist was on it from the word go. Making good use of his Firestone primaries in the opening stint to climb into the top 10 and remain in touch with those running the softer alternate-compound tires, he was there ready to surge forward as his rivals’ reds wilted.

“I was really bummed yesterday after qualifying. We had something break in the steering rack, and we had to pit before we could do our lap in Q2. There was definitely more in it than our starting position showed.

“What a race. That was really good fun. It kind of went our way as well. We kind of gambled on staying out on reds, but it worked out with the yellow in the end.”

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Rosenqvist ran primary tires in his first three stints, planning to make the red stint as short as possible. This plan almost came undone when a caution was called on lap 85 for Agustin Canapino spinning and stalling in a dangerous place. Race control left the pits open until Rosenqvist could pit, which vaulted him ahead of Scott Dixon, who he had been closely tailing before the Ganassi driver made his stop. However, the timing of this obvious opportunity to stop was less than ideal since it meant Rosenqvist would have to run 26 laps on reds.

He managed to pull away from Dixon after the restart — aided by two backmarkers between them — and then managed the gap. Needing to preserve the reds did mean, however, that trying to fight leader Alex Palou over the final stint would be overambitious.

“We had to obviously save the tires a bit,” said Rosenqvist, who was replaced by Palou at Ganassi at the end of 2020, “I think it wasn’t the winning strategy, but it was enough for a podium. Really happy with the comeback we did…

“It was a pretty straight shot in a final restart, and I was on the reds, [Palou] was on the blacks. Both fairly new tires. I thought I had a shot, but honestly the blacks were kind of as good as the reds in the restarts…at least from my point of view. I just couldn’t really attack him.

“Once I realized he was pulling away, I was like, ‘I probably have to save my tires now because otherwise I risk actually falling through the field in the last five laps.’ I was just kind of managing after a couple of laps, and I think I pretty much did the optimal stint time that I could with those tires.”

IndyCar silly season update: Tracking the twists and qvists

As RACER told you a few weeks ago, Linus Lundqvist was headed to Chip Ganassi Racing and that’s been confirmed in Thursday’s announcement of the Swede’s multi-year deal to backfill Marcus Ericsson’s seat. The Swede-for-Swede swap was made easier by …

As RACER told you a few weeks ago, Linus Lundqvist was headed to Chip Ganassi Racing and that’s been confirmed in Thursday’s announcement of the Swede’s multi-year deal to backfill Marcus Ericsson’s seat.

The Swede-for-Swede swap was made easier by the fact that Ganassi offered Ericsson a deal to stay and be paid for the first time in his career — which he rejected and chose to sign with Andretti Autosport. With funding in place for Ericsson to stay in the No. 8 Honda and the ability to sign Lundqvist at a rookie rate to the entry that was meant for the 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner, a perfect scenario presented itself to the team to sign the reigning Indy Lights champion and bring more young talent into the organization.

With Scott Dixon, 43, as the longstanding team leader, having Alex Palou (26), Lundqvist (24), and Marcus Armstrong (23) as its next lineup gives Ganassi a long runway with next-generation drivers and the best driver of his generation to mentor them while chasing more championships.

Meyer Shank Racing, which ran Lundqvist for the last three races, was keen to sign him after the August 12 Brickyard Grand Prix event where Lundqvist started and finished 12th. It’s believed MSR had an option on Lundqvist and wanted to hold onto him for 2024, but Ganassi entered the frame immediately after the race and is said to have made Lundqvist an offer that would have been hard for MSR to match. From there, Lundqvist cleared the right-to-match period and was brought into the title-leading team for 2024 and beyond.

On the MSR front, there’s an increasing belief it will have Felix Rosenqvist moving across from Arrow McLaren to lead the retooling team. Rosenqvist won’t be returning to his current team, which isn’t a shocking development, and he’s had half the grid express interest in hiring him, but I’m told by a growing segment of the paddock that MSR has won the Rosenqvist sweepstakes.

Will a Rosenqvist move open an Arrow McLaren option for Malukas? Josh Tons/Motorsport Images

Directly related to Rosenqvist’s Arrow McLaren departure, the same high volume of paddock intel says David Malukas will be driving the No. 6 Chevy when we return next year. Malukas and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Callum Ilott were said to be Arrow McLaren’s top picks for the seat, but with the rumored link coming between the teams to brand Ilott’s No. 77 Chevy as a satellite McLaren entry, the Zak Brown-led organization could end up with both drivers — one directly on the payroll and the other through business ties with JHR — in the family.

Take a moment to consider all of the places the silly season has taken us in recent weeks, and the latest developments are simply remarkable. Lundqvist, with two fastest laps and best finish of 12th to his name from his three MSR races, will show up to work as the newest employee at IndyCar’s best team of 2023 and have the best driver of the last three decades and the best driver of the current decade as his teachers.

And Malukas, with two podiums in two seasons for one of the series’ perennial underdogs, is awaiting confirmation at IndyCar’s richest team alongside an Indianapolis 500 winner in Alexander Rossi and one of the fiercest title challengers in the business in Pato O’Ward.

If I said at the beginning of the season that we’d have Lundqvist signed by Chip Ganassi and Malukas signed by Zak Brown, IndyCar would have yanked my hard card and sent me to the hospital for a full evaluation. And yet, here we are, with two amazing kids readying themselves for the biggest opportunities of their lives.

There’s more to share, but let’s savor what’s in motion with Lundqvist, Rosenqvist and Malukas, and reconvene next week ahead of the season finale in Monterey for some of the other developments that are taking place.

IndyCar silly season update, August 16: How Swede it is

Remember last week when I said the IndyCar silly season was moving faster than I could keep up with? I wasn’t kidding. Try this new one on for size: Chip Ganassi Racing will return next season with the same familiar international driver lineup that …

Remember last week when I said the IndyCar silly season was moving faster than I could keep up with? I wasn’t kidding.

Try this new one on for size: Chip Ganassi Racing will return next season with the same familiar international driver lineup that hails from New Zealand, Spain and Sweden, but the Swede is Linus Lundqvist, not Marcus Ericsson. Monday was spent handling a barrage of info, and all for the positive with the 2022 Indy Lights champ.

As if the silly season wasn’t already out of control, consider how it was a little more than two weeks ago where Lundqvist was unemployed and had yet to compete in an IndyCar race. Two weeks later, after a pair of impressive runs for Meyer Shank Racing that delivered the No. 60 Honda’s best result of the season — a 12th place — on Saturday, and Lundqvist is expected to be confirmed in the days ahead as the new kid on the block at CGR.

Details are sparse on how it all came together in such a short amount of time, but stay tuned on the 24-year-old’s future with the best team of 2023 and taking over for his countryman in the No. 8 Honda.

And what does that mean for Ericsson? We continue to wait for his confirmation at Andretti Autosport, which seems like a formality at this point. I’ve also heard Ganassi’s other Kiwi, Marcus Armstrong, is likely to retain his seat.

I know MSR was hoping to have Lundqvist as an option as it plots the next course for the No. 60 Honda, but I continue to hear there’s a strong preference to place a veteran alongside incoming rookie Tom Blomqvist. There’s the obvious hope that Simon Pagenaud will make a comeback and continue to lay claim to the No. 60 he drove for 1.5 seasons, but as I mentioned many months ago in a silly season update, MSR has some intriguing drivers to pursue.

Blomqvist’s equally fast IMSA GTP teammate Colin Braun would be an open-wheel rookie, but he has vast and varied experience and tons of oval knowledge from his time racing for Ford in NASCAR. As I see it, he’d be more of an in-betweener than a pure rookie. If anyone can step into an IndyCar for the first time and look like a seasoned veteran, it’s Braun.

And then there’s Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist, who is attracting plenty of interest throughout the paddock, and if he doesn’t end up staying at his current team or moving to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in the No. 30 Honda, he could be a perfect veteran match for MSR in an all-qvist lineup.

The decision to stand Jack Harvey down wasn’t totally unexpected, but the call to try out a couple of rookies at the last two road courses makes me think RLL isn’t ready to select next year’s driver for the No. 30. If that’s the case, and if Rosenqvist wants a fresh and drama-free start, leading MSR and mentoring Blomqvist makes a lot of sense.

David Malukas is known to be on the clock for announcing where he’ll be heading next season, and there are other fascinating developments in the works as a trio of teams are now talking about everything from joining forces to creating technical alliances.

And we still have a number of teams and drivers to cover in our next silly season installment. Buckle in.

‘I’ve never been more bummed about a fourth place’ – Rosenqvist

Felix Rosenqvist was the first driver home for Arrow McLaren on Sunday in Iowa, and while the Swede was disappointed to miss out on earning his second podium of the year, his 12-position gain to capture fourth after starting 16th provided a bright …

Felix Rosenqvist was the first driver home for Arrow McLaren on Sunday in Iowa, and while the Swede was disappointed to miss out on earning his second podium of the year, his 12-position gain to capture fourth after starting 16th provided a bright spot for his team after stablemates Pato O’Ward and Alexander Rossi had afternoons to forget.

“The car was really good,” Rosenqvist said. “It was a fun race; we were one lap behind at one point, and from there, we had two really good stints in the middle. The last set was initially really good and then struggled a little bit at the end.”

Restarting second behind race winner Josef Newgarden with just a few laps to go, a dive down the inside by Newgarden’s teammate Will Power, who went on to finish second, left the Swede in a somewhat sour mood.

“The last restart, I’ll have to look at it, but if I felt like Will pushed me up in the marbles; I was very lucky to finish the race, to be fair, waiting to see where I ended up. I’ve never been more bummed about a fourth place. But it was a good run. Hell of a day for us and glad we had some momentum going.”

Rosenqvist on the rise with new engineer and old buddy Lawrence

Felix Rosenqvist has been fortunate to work with some of the best race engineers in IndyCar. At Chip Ganassi Racing, he was paired with championship-winning technical director Julian Robertson, and after having four-time Champ Car champion Craig …

Felix Rosenqvist has been fortunate to work with some of the best race engineers in IndyCar. At Chip Ganassi Racing, he was paired with championship-winning technical director Julian Robertson, and after having four-time Champ Car champion Craig Hampson in charge of his Arrow McLaren entry last season, the Swede learned from yet another first-ballot hall-of-famer on the timing stand.

All of that changed for Rosenqvist in 2023 as his team expanded to three cars, welcomed Alexander Rossi to the program, and assigned Hampson as the Indy 500 winner’s race engineer. Left to start over, Rosenqvist wasn’t concerned as an old acquaintance, his simulation engineer Chris Lawrence, looked ready to step and take on the task of becoming a race engineer in charge of the new No. 6 Chevy effort.

Despite being new to the role, Lawrence has thrived, and together, the American and his driver — now in his fifth IndyCar season — have been among the most competitive and consistent pairings over the last five races. Barring Rosenqvist’s crash at the Indy 500, he and Lawrence have combined to place inside the top 10 at every race since Long Beach, including a season-best run to third at the most recent round in Detroit.

Sometimes it takes a while for new race engineers to figure out what their drivers need to succeed, but that isn’t the case with these two.

“Chris and I knew each other before I even joined the team,” Rosenqvist said. “When I was still at CGR, me and Chris you got to know each other through a mutual friend, and when I joined [Arrow McLaren], it seems like hey, we’re buddies and now we’re on the same car. So he would work in the simulator a lot with me, which is where we built our working side — we built our relationship and how we communicate and talk about the car and such.

“So when Craig was going to Rossi’s car, I was very keen on having Chris as my engineer, because we, at that time, didn’t know who that guy was going to be. But obviously, he felt like he was ready. I felt like all those multiple days we’ve had in the simulator talking about things, he had a way of understanding what I like and what I say about the car. I don’t think I’ve had anyone yet in my career like that, who could understand me at that level and put it into numbers in a nerdy engineer way.”

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Rosenqvist says the intense daily atmosphere at the Indianapolis 500 is what locked he and Lawrence into the groove they’re putting to good use. At present, they’re 10th in the championship and another couple of strong runs could easily propel the No. 6 Chevy entry to the top five.

“During the month of May, something really clicked between me him and also Nigel, my performance engineer, where it’s that level where we just look at each other and he’s like, ‘Ah, OK, he needs a different roll center,’” he added.

Rosenqvist feels that simpatico with your engineer is an underrated element of IndyCar success…and that it’s in place for him with Arrow McLaren. Gavin Baker/Motorsport Images

“It’s very rare that you have that, but I think if you look, for example, like [CGR’s] Marcus [Ericsson], his engineer, Brad [Goldberg], they clearly have a really good way of working with each other. And I have to say after seeing that with Marcus, I was like, ‘Dude, I need to find that.’ Because I think in IndyCar, it is so underrated how you could have the best team ever, you can have the best crew, best pit stops. But if you don’t have that almost ‘bromance’ with your engineer, it’s gonna be hard. Because some people have that, and when you get that, it’s unbeatable.”

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‘We race hard, but I think we also race fair’ – Rosenqvist on late race contact with Rossi

Felix Rosenqvist says he’ll talk to Arrow McLaren teammate Alexander Rossi about the late race battle at Detroit that led first to contact between between the pair, and then to contact between Rossi and the wall. But the Swede believes that those …

Felix Rosenqvist says he’ll talk to Arrow McLaren teammate Alexander Rossi about the late race battle at Detroit that led first to contact between between the pair, and then to contact between Rossi and the wall. But the Swede believes that those sorts of incidents come with the territory of having teammates with strong equipment fighting up front.

The pair were fighting over third in the closing laps with Rossi ahead when they hip-checked each other, and on the second-last lap, Rosenqvist made a move to the inside of Rossi at Turn 3 that sent the No. 7 Chevy bouncing off the outside wall. No harm done to either car outside of Rossi losing a place to Ganassi’s Scott Dixon, and Rosenqvist and Rossi finished third and fifth respectively.

“We race hard, but I think we also race fair,” said Rosenqvist. “Obviously we like each other. We don’t have any intentions to put each other in the wall.

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“But it was tight. I was completely alongside him into Turn 3. It gets tight, man. It’s so close. He squeezed me a little bit on entry; I squeezed him a little bit on exit.

“I pretty much didn’t have any more room on entry. I was just trying to not go into the wall on (the) apex. After that, I just tried to get out of the corner as quick as I can, give him the room he needed.

“I think it’s a good problem to have. The Arrow McLaren cars have been up there every race. You’re going to find yourself in a situation where you’re fighting teammates. It’s something we’ll discuss internally, (to see) if we can manage it differently. Obviously there were no team calls on this one, which is cool. They let us battle it out on the track.

“I didn’t think committing to the move was high-risk. I wouldn’t want to do it high-risk. With a teammate, you never want to.

“We’ll get through it. Alex is a good dude. As I say, we’ve been fighting each other before, and a lot this year. We’ve pretty much been around each other all season. We’re probably going to keep doing it.”

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So near, but so far for Arrow McLaren at Indy

“Last year, we were like $1 short, and this year, we had $1 in our pocket; we were cruising,” McLaren Racing boss Zak Brown told RACER after his four-car Indy 500 program flexed its muscles and led 76 of 200 laps before its leading contenders Pato …

“Last year, we were like $1 short, and this year, we had $1 in our pocket; we were cruising,” McLaren Racing boss Zak Brown told RACER after his four-car Indy 500 program flexed its muscles and led 76 of 200 laps before its leading contenders Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist crashed on their own.

Arrow McLaren’s top performer on the day was a visibly frustrated Alexander Rossi, who placed fifth, and behind him, in his Indy 500 farewell, Tony Kanaan had an average day, crossing the finish line in 15th. Minus Rosenqvist’s crash on lap 183 and O’Ward’s overambitious attempt to take the lead from Marcus Ericsson on lap 192, Brown and the Chevy-powered team might have had a say in who won the race.

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“We had a fuel issue on Pato’s car that ended up not becoming an issue at the end, but I think we had those two cars, and Rossi there or thereabouts, but we didn’t get it done,” Brown added. “But I think the upside is we had the cars to win. We were flying and they were having fun. It was like, ‘You lead for a few laps, then you lead for a few laps.’

“They were so hooked up. The results are disappointing, but other than that, what an awesome Indy 500. We were fast and had two cars that were on for the win, and Rossi was right there too.

Brown applauded his team for their year-to-year improvement, led by the engineering-first structure overseen by Gavin Ward.

“Couldn’t be happier,” he said. “We are a threat to win every weekend with multiple cars that are threatening for the championship. It wasn’t a good points day for us, but I couldn’t be happier. I think Gavin and the whole team have stepped up. There were definitely a better team than we were last year.”

IndyCar confirms no injuries from fence-clearing wheel at Indy

IndyCar has confirmed that there was no serious injuries caused by the loose wheel from Kyle Kirkwood’s car that cleared the Turn 2 fence during Sunday’s Indianapolis 500. Kirkwood’s No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda was hit by the crashing No. 6 …

IndyCar has confirmed that there was no serious injuries caused by the loose wheel from Kyle Kirkwood’s car that cleared the Turn 2 fence during Sunday’s Indianapolis 500.

Kirkwood’s No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda was hit by the crashing No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet of Felix Rosenqvist as it rebounded off the Turn 2 wall. The cars collided in a manner that severed the tether that is designed to keep wheels from becoming detached, and Kirkwood’s left rear broke free and flew over the high fence lining the wall.

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The wheel threaded between the two packed grandstands and came to rest on the hood of a car in the parking lot, and IndyCar Series representatives confirmed that there were no injuries caused by the wheel itself. Other debris from the accident did enter the grandstand, and one person was taken to the infield medical center for checks and was cleared.

While airborne wheels have become exceedingly rare since the tethers were introduced, IMS and IndyCar owner Roger Penske said the series will investigate the incident.

“I saw what had happened; saw it bounced on top of a building and went and hit a car over there, which obviously is very concerning,” Penske said.

“We have tethers on the wheels, and it was a rear wheel that came off, and I’m sure the guys at IndyCar will look at it, will determine what really happened. We haven’t seen a wheel come off in a long time. We have high fences here. But we were very fortunate we didn’t have a bad accident.”

Felix Rosenqvist’s flying tire smashed into a parked car after narrowly missing Indy 500 crowd

Thankfully, the tire only hit a parked car and no bystanders.

It’s a miracle no one was injured in this terrifying incident at the 2023 Indianapolis 500.

During the final 17 laps of Sunday’s race, Felix Rosenqvist spun out on the track after hitting the wall. Kyle Kirkwood’s car clipped Rosenqvist on the way by, causing the tire of the latter’s car to fly off out of the track in a scary moment.

MORE INDY 500: Kyle Kirkwood’s on-board camera captured a terrifying angle of his Indy 500 crash.

Thankfully, Rosenqvist’s tire cleared the fans in the stands nearby, as it had just enough height to miss the stands completely. Here’s how the crash unfolded, with the flying tire missing the stands.

So, where did the tire land? Not too far away after it hit a parked car sitting nearby!

It’s really incredible that no one was hit by the flying tire as it made its way out of the track. And thankfully, Rosenqvist and Kirkwood were both uninjured after their scary crash.

Here’s how racing fans reacted after Rosenqvist’s flying tire narrowly missed the Indy 500 crowd and smashed into a parked car.

Rosenqvist leads outstanding Indy 500 qualifying for Arrow McLaren

Felix Rosenqvist delivered a four-lap average of almost 234mph to eclipse teammate Alexander Rossi’s long-time benchmark and top Day 1 of qualifying for the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500. In fact, all four Arrow McLaren Chevrolet drivers …

Felix Rosenqvist delivered a four-lap average of almost 234mph to eclipse teammate Alexander Rossi’s long-time benchmark and top Day 1 of qualifying for the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500. In fact, all four Arrow McLaren Chevrolet drivers booked a spot in the Fast 12 session on Sunday, where they will face opposition from the Chip Ganassi Racing Honda quartet, the startlingly strong AJ Foyt Racing entries of Santino Ferrucci and rookie Benjamin Pedersen, and singleton entries from Team Penske and Ed Carpenter Racing.

After pulling out of the original qualifying line, Penske’s Scott McLaughlin was the first to hit the track from Lane 1 — the priority lane — and while his first lap was an impressive 233.515mph, there was 2.2mph loss over the course of the four laps, and he did well to deliver an average of 232.503mph, enough for 12th at the time.

Ryan Hunter-Reay’s Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevy made a second run and the 2014 Indy 500 champion improved to 17th, Colton Herta did not improve on his second attempt, and then Josef Newgarden’s first run was just enough to nudge McLaughlin out of the top 12.

Helio Castroneves’ second run was far more comfortable than his first, and he lifted himself way out of the danger zone of needing to squabble for the last row on Sunday, claiming 20th with a 231.954mph. Teammate Pagenaud had metronomic-like speed in his second run – three 231.9mphs and a 231.6mph – and came in 22nd.

Defending Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson lost only 1mph over his four laps and improved to 10th, but Graham Rahal’s struggles continued, faster only than Callum Ilott of Juncos Hollinger Racing. Another of the RLL cars, that of Christian Lundgaard, delivered the opposite kind of run to Rahal, the No. 45 Hy-Vee car looking comfortable if slow, and he moved into 29th.

Penske’s 2018 winner Will Power’s original run had dropped to 17th in the order by the time he hit the track again, but he smoothly moved into 11th with a 232.719mph average to bump teammate Newgarden out of the top 12 drivers who will get to run again on Sunday in the quest for pole position.

Ilott sprung from 34th to 27th on his second run, the JHR team having tuned the new chassis it had built up overnight, but another troubled RLL driver, Jack Harvey, saw his second qualifying attempt waved off by IndyCar as his first three laps were under 230mph, and David Malukas suffered the same fate for Dale Coyne Racing.

Tony Kanaan was 15th when he hit the track for a second time and he set the same time as Ed Carpenter’s original run to the ten-thousandth of a second, but because he set it later, he was classified 13th and therefore still not in the group to run again on Sunday.

Scott Dixon, five-time polesitter at Indy, went back out with 2h40m to go and ran three laps north of 233mph and a fourth of 232.6mph which resulted in an average of 233.375mph — enough to bounce him from the lower reaches of the top 10 into fourth place.

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Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta tried and failed to improve, teammate Kyle Kirkwood improved but remained outside the top dozen, and Romain Grosjean’s next attempt was waved off.

Ed Carpenter tried to improve but departed from Lane 2, so when his fourth lap dragged his average down, his original speed kept him in the top 12.

Juncos Hollinger sent rookie Agustin Canapino for a second run, but the always impressive touring car ace had a scary moment at Turn 1, smacking his right rear tire against the SAFER barrier just hard enough to damage his suspension, briefly inducing a scary wriggle from the No. 78 car, but he slowed it down and brought it to pit road.

With two hours to go, Takuma Sato, who lay eighth, emerged from Lane 2 and immediately laid down a 234.085mph on his opening lap. The fall-off was rapid and his fourth lap was down to 232.779mph, but he jumped to fifth, a tad behind Dixon, but ahead of Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren.

Marco Andretti made a run which he decided to abort after two laps, before Ericsson made a third run to try and get him more firmly into the top dozen. He did so, albeit marginally, improving from 10th to ninth, whereas Castroneves bailed just a couple of laps into this third run, and Newgarden’s first lap of his second run was 1mph shy of his first lap in his initial attempt, so team president Tim Cindric called him in.

Kirkwood went yet again, stuck at it for all four laps, and grabbed 12th, bouncing Carpenter out of the top dozen by 0.042mph.

Then it was time for Rahal to try again to get into the field — ideally the top 30, so he wouldn’t have to run the bump session on Sunday. The car looked stable, at least, but his first three laps were below 230mph and the run was waved off.

Malukas made a third attempt and clocked 30th-fastest time, bumping Lundgaard out, thus RLL pushed the Dane’s car to Lane 1 to pull its time and get it out on track. Once Coyne’s second driver, Sting Ray Robb, tried and failed to bump his way into the top 30, it was Lundgaard’s turn to go again. The Indy GP polesitter did just enough to land 30th-fastest speed, bumping out Malukas.

Kanaan hit the track with 75 minutes to go and he was sensational — the 2013 Indy winner ran a 234.057mph opener, followed by two 233.3mph and a 232.663mph to jump into fifth, to ensure all four Arrow McLarens were in the top 10, and Kirkwood was out. That left Power on the bubble in the Fast 12.

Whatever TK could do, Rosenqvist could do even better. He turned two laps above 234mph, his third lap 0.4mph above Rossi’s third and even his fourth lap was well inside 233mph, resulting in an average of 233.947mph. Finally, Rossi was displaced from top spot, albeit by another McLaren.

Carpenter tried in vain, despite a very brave-looking run, to get back into the top dozen, and if the Turn 4 SAFER barrier had an extra coat of paint, he’d have hit it. He remained 13th.

Herta made a fourth attempt to better his average but couldn’t get it done; Pagenaud remained 22nd. Grosjean also fell short of improvement.

McLaughlin then went again and did improve but only to 14th while Penske teammate Power marginally improved, too, but stayed 12th. Then it was time for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing’s pair to run again. Stefan Wilson’s final attempt kept him 24th after a strange speed loss on lap three, while Hunter-Reay started the run in 18th and remained there.

Rahal made yet another attempt to get himself in the field but IndyCar waved it off after two laps, proving RLL had not yet found the magic bullet for the No. 15 car, and Harvey’s next waved-off run in the No. 30 showed he was in a similarly dire situation.

Malukas, by contrast, found a late turn of speed to jump into 23rd with a 231.769mph average, and the Dale Coyne Racing with HMD car was very safely in the field.

Bravely, Penske pulled Newgarden’s standing time by pushing him into Lane 1, but his wonderfully consistent run was only good enough for 17th, losing him a place.

Next car out was the second Coyne machine, the RWR entry of Robb, but he couldn’t quite muster the speed to guarantee his spot in the field, and neither could Lundgaard in his last gasp.

Sunday’s four-way fight for the last three starting spots will involve three RLL drivers — Rahal, Harvey and Lundgaard — and the Coyne/RWR car of Robb.

RESULTS

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