Nashville streets set for Indy race
NASHVILLE — Colton Herta zipped around 11 turns, over a bridge and through the parking lot of an NFL stadium. Afteward, he had one small piece of feedback before Nashville’s city streets host an IndyCar race for the first time.
“I’m still not really sure on how easy it’s going to be to pass,” he said.
That’s OK. Herta has been quite comfortable as the dominant car out front.
The Andretti Autosport driver made the biggest splash of race weekend when he hit a top lap of 1 minute, 13.6835 seconds and won the pole for the inaugural IndyCar Music City Grand Prix — after he was also fastest in both practice sessions.
“The car is really stable and something I can really take into the race and be happy with,” he said.
No kidding. The 21-year-old was more than a half-second faster than six-time series champion Scott Dixon in second. Herta, who has one win this season, won the sixth pole of his IndyCar career
“We’re really in a league of our own,” Herta said. “This is huge for me.”
Herta was fastest in Friday’s first session and posted the top lap again Saturday, hours before qualifying. He’ll make his fourth straight front-row start.
“I think this is going to be the craziest start of the year,” he said.
The two Honda drivers on the front row will lead the field to green Sunday afternoon in one of the more anticipated races outside the Indianapolis 500 in years for IndyCar. The 2.17-mile, 11-turn track includes a 3,500-foot straightway that spans over the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge.
“It’s wild, but I really enjoy it,” said third-place starter Alexander Rossi.
IndyCar points leader Alex Palou actually qualified third but was forced to start ninth after he was hit this past week with a six-position starting grid penalty for an unapproved engine change after a team test at Portland International Raceway.
Jimmie Johnson will start 25th after he damaged his car when he hit the wall moments into the first round of qualifying. Josef Newgarden, the Tennessee native who has served as the unofficial race host, lost his chance at a fourth straight pole when his front right wing smashed into the wall and sent debris onto the track.
“This is the city where IndyCar needs to be,” Newgarden said. “This is crazy cool. I’m pretty pumped for tomorrow. I just wish we were higher up.”
The field boasts 27 entries, IndyCar’s largest field outside the Indy 500 since the 2013 race on the streets of Long Beach, California.
Chris Parker, president of the Music City GP, said this past week at the Country Music Hall of Fame that IndyCar was prepared for any potential setbacks for the race, which is set for 80 laps.
“We feel good about everything,” he said. “There are going to be so many things that we thought would be amazing, and maybe they will, but there are going to be things that ultimately we missed, and we go, ‘That’s something we have to improve.’”
NASCAR is back
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — A three-peat at Watkins Glen? Not on Chase Elliott’s radar.
OK, maybe a little bit. “I’m just excited to be going back. I’m looking forward to the challenge,” Elliott, the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion, said this past week on a Zoom call. “Every time you go to the track, look, it’s always going to be tough. As I’ve said many times before, past success doesn’t equal future success, and I don’t think that’s any different this weekend.
“I anticipate everybody else will be better than they were last time we were up there. And we just try to make sure we match it ourselves to have another shot.”
Cup competition resumes at Watkins Glen International on Sunday after a two-weekend break for the Tokyo Olympics, and Elliott will be chasing a little history.
He has won the past two races at the natural terrain road course in the Finger Lakes region of New York — last year’s race was moved to the road course at Daytona International Speedway because of the coronavirus pandemic and Elliott won that one, too — and another victory would put him in select company. Only Mark Martin (1993-95) and Jeff Gordon (1997-99) have won three in a row at the Glen since NASCAR began racing there annually in 1986.
Brad Keselowski will start in pole position alongside Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney is third, giving Team Penske the top three spots. Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson starts fourth, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick is fifth, points leader Denny Hamlin of JGR is sixth. There was no practice or qualifying.
Elliott is 11th in the lineup and will be making his 17th Cup Series road course start for Hendrick. What he, crew chief Alan Gustafson and the rest of the team have accomplished with the No. 9 Chevrolet on the circuitous layouts is remarkable: seven wins across five tracks, nine top-five finishes and 326 laps led. He’s one victory shy of tying Tony Stewart for second all time in road course wins and two behind Gordon.
And it all began at Watkins Glen in 2018, when he started third and led the final 33 laps to score his first Cup Series career victory after finishing second eight times.
Rookie is a winner
Ty Gibbs is only 18 but drives like a seasoned veteran, and it doesn’t get much better than this.
Beaten by road race ace AJ Allmendinger on a restart with four laps to go, Gibbs regrouped and passed him back to win Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen.
It was the third win in 10 Xfinity races this season for the grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs, and he prevailed over the top two drivers in the standings.
“It builds a fire in me and burns week after week when I don’t win,” Gibbs said. “But that’s what keeps me working hard during the week. Trying to compose yourself in front of the whole world at 17, 18, it’s hard for other kids my age to do it, Hopefully, I’m an example and a role model to kids that are younger than me that are coming up through the ranks and learn from me.”
Points leader Austin Cindric was third, pole-sitter Justin Allgaier finished fourth and Harrison Burton was fifth.
Gibbs is a part-time rookie driver in the series this season, concentrating on the ARCA Series, which he leads by two points over Corey Heim. It seems like just a matter of time before he makes a big jump, though.
“My guys worked so hard,” Gibbs said. “I’m just at a loss for words. I just feel like being in these situations helps you. Those guys (Allmendinger and Cindric) look so relaxed in those situations. Kind of just learning from them. This is just wonderful. I can’t believe it. It’s just a dream come true.”