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Scott McLaughlin claimed pole position for the second year in a row on the streets of Nashville for Sunday’s Music City Grand Prix.
The #3 Team Penske Chevrolet set a fastest lap of 1:14.6099s to average 101.327mph (163.086km/h) around the 11-turn, 2.1-mile (3.37km) street circuit. Nashville is McLaughlin’s first pole of the 2023 IndyCar season after starting second in the previous three races.
“We did a big lap in Q1 that really set us up, so this Printer Wagon, mate every time we’re in this Printer Wagon, this DEX Imaging Chevy, she’s a ripper, so really proud of that one,” McLaughlin said.
“But we set it up in Q1, we had a really good run, saved one lap and you’ve got to do the big laps when you need to do them and I did them twice in that session that I’m really proud of.
“It’s basically the same car we had last year, and to put it on pole two years in a row is unreal.”
This is McLaughlin’s fourth IndyCar Series pole position and Team Penske’s first road or street course pole in 2023.
Pato O’Ward will start second, setting a best lap 0.3296s slower than McLaughlin. Colton Herta will start third ahead of Alex Palou with David Malukas and Romain Grosjean rounding out the top six.
Group one in round one got started slightly late after some additional track preparation work was needed following the Trans Am race. Just over a minute after the group started, Benjamin Pedersen brought out a red flag after going off in the Turn 11 runoff and stalling the #55 A. J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet.
The IndyCar safety team restarted Pedersen’s car and the rookie returned to pit road. He was not allowed to continue in the session per IndyCar’s rule about causing red flags in qualifying.
There were no other incidents in group one as McLaughlin, Scott Dixon, Malukas, Alexander Rossi, Josef Newgarden and Linus Lundqvist advanced to the second round.
In group two there were a few more runoff ventures but no red flags in the 10-minute session. Jack Harvey did draw the ire of race control with a runoff excursion causing a yellow flag that affected another competitor, causing the British racer to lose his fastest lap from the early part of the session.
The session ended without another incident as Herta, Kyle Kirkwood, Palou, O’Ward, Grosjean and Will Power advanced into the second round of qualifying.
The second round was nearly over when Dixon hit the wall exiting Turn 11. The defending Nashville winner lost his two best laps in the second round of qualifying and was not permitted to advance to the Firestone Fast Six.
“Feel bad for obviously the crew there, clipping the inside wall there and it just kind of put us straight into the outside [wall],” Dixon said. “Feel bad for the other drivers too that were on a lap but it is what it is, it’s a tough circuit and yeah, the front just turned a lot better than I thought it was going to and unfortunately clipped that inside wall.”
Dixon will start 12th in Sunday’s 80-lap race.
After the IndyCar safety team cleared away Dixon’s car, race control allowed competitors to set one more timed lap after resuming the session, but no drivers outside the top six advanced into the Firestone Fast Six in that time.
The six-minute Firestone Fast Six continued without incident.
Because of the weather delaying earlier on-track sessions, IndyCar canceled Saturday afternoon’s final warmup session.
The 2023 Music City Grand Prix starts at 12:00 local time Sunday August 6/03:00 AEST Monday August 7.
