Marcus Ericsson earns first career NTT INDYCAR Series pole at Arlington

Arlington, TEXAS — For the very first time in his NTT IDYCAR Series career Marcus Ericsson wins the inaugural Java House Grand Prix of Arlington pole.

His half-second gap to second secured Ericsson’s first pole since his GP2, now Formula 2, days in 2013.

INDYCAR set a slight qualifying format change this inaugural weekend. The Firestone Fast Six was a single-car runs with one timed lap instead of a group setting.

Alex Palou (1:34.818) starts his 101st INDYCAR race weekend on the right note to line up alongside Ericsson in second.

He narrowly beat out Pato O’Ward’s time of 1:34.845 as O’Ward lead the Chevrolet camp in third.

Will Power will start fourth (1:35.085) which served as a much needed Firestone Fast Six appearance to try and turn the tides of his early season.

Both Meyer Shank Racing drivers delivered top six performances. Felix Rosenqvist (1:35.160) will line up fifth alongside teammate Marcus Armstrong (1:35.601) in the third row.

Before the session, some big names had trouble in the second practice session the led up to qualifying.

Josef Newgarden had one of the strangest crashes he’s ever had in the series during the session. He slowly hit the wall but caused enough damage to replace the tub.

Despite the damage, the team made repairs and the adjustments strong enough for Newgarden to slot himself in 11th.

Another practice incident involved Scott Dixon and Will Power. The two collided together but caused minimal damage for the two.

Like a running-gag so far this season, Dixon commented on the contact. “We’re (Power) like Burt and Ernie, we keep finding each other… at least he didn’t flip me off this time”

Qualifying Round 2

Marcus Ericsson knocked off his teammate Kyle Kirkwood by four-hundredths of a second to advance to the final session. Kirkwood ran fastest in the morning practice session, but will start seventh in the race.

Both Ed Carpenter Racing cars made the second round of qualifying but bounced out in the round. Christian Rasmussen will start eighth with Alexander Rossi in tenth after their strong runs.

No Team Penske cars made it into the top six. David Malukas joined Josef Newgarden out in the round but will lead the trio in ninth.

After coming out of nowhere to advance to the second round, Santino Ferrucci failed to advance further and starts 12th.

Qualifying Round 1

Various tire strategies emerged in the first round. Some crews opted for a double stint on red’s while some teams swapped for fresh red’s after a single stint.

Regardless of strategy, the street course aces of Alex Palou and Kyle Kirkwood showed out to go atop of the board in their groups.

Dale Coyne Racing could not mimic the qualifying effort from St. Pete as both cars went out in the round. Romain Grosjean edged out his teammate to start 15th as Dennis Hauger will start 18th.

Dixon locked his tires into turn ten on his first run but failed to put together the time to advance. He will start 20th.

Scott McLaughlin sat second in the session with enough time for one final flying lap when it all went wrong in turn eight.

He clipped the inside wall on the corner and crashed out of qualifying in a similar way his teammate Newgarden crashed in practice earlier in the day. His crew will make repairs as McLaughlin starts 25th and last.

Christian Lundgaard will have to battle through the field from 18th. He joined teammate Nolan Siegel as the two Arrow McLaren’s failed to advance in front of their boss Zak Brown.

Starting Lineup