Team Penske continues pole dominance in St. Pete
Scott McLaughlin continued Team Penske’s tradition of dominance at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg by winning his first career IndyCar Series pole Saturday.
“Pretty speechless,” McLaughlin said.
The 28-year-old New Zealand native won three championships in the Australian Supercars series but didn’t immediately click in IndyCar, in part due to qualifying hiccups. He never started higher than fifth before he navigated this 1.8-mile, 14turn street course in 59.4821 seconds Saturday.
McLaughlin finished 22nd in his series debut at the Grand Prix in 2020. His only podium finish was a second-place run at Texas last year. He’ll be joined in the front row for Sunday’s season opener by Penske teammate Will Power.
McLaughlin’s No. 3 Chevrolet topped a 26-car field that’s the fastest in the event’s 19-year history. Entering this weekend, Jordan King held the track record (1:00.0476) from a qualifying lap in 2018.
Fourteen drivers broke the one-minute mark Saturday. Power took the record when his No. 12 Chevrolet finished a lap in 59.3466 seconds during the second qualifying phase.
“It shows how far these cars and engines have come pretty fast,” Power said.
Team Penske has won the pole 11 times in the past 16 races here and is looking for its 11th Grand Prix victory.
Belleair’s Colton Herta, who won the Grand Prix from the pole last year, qualified third in his No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda.
Notable drivers who didn’t advance past the first round include threetime Grand Prix winner
Helio Castroneves (who will start 17th), Pato O’Ward (16th) and 2016 Indianapolis 500 champion Alexander Rossi (13th).
Jimmie Johnson, the seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, was slowest in the field. Johnson is in his second IndyCar season after running the road and street courses last year for Ganassi.
NASCAR CUP SERIES
Austin Cindric followed up his Daytona 500 victory by earning his first career pole in the NASCAR Cup series at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, during a tumultuous debut for the new practice and qualifying format at intermediate tracks.
Cindric posted the fastest average lap speed in his Team Penske Ford at 174.647 mph, holding off Erik Jones (174.157 mph) and capping an eventful morning for NASCAR’s first practice and qualifying session on a 2-mile oval with its Next Gen cars.
Several drivers spun and several others crashed while learning how to control the Next Gen car on new tires amid gusty winds.
“There’s so much learning going on, and obviously it’s all happening really fast,” said the 23year-old Cindric, who earned his first career Cup victory at Daytona. “As a driver, you can’t be distracted by the crashes, the mistakes. … I learned all I needed to do and had to go apply it, [but] there were a lot of guys that had some pretty rough days, and it puts a lot of teams in a tough spot on the West Coast swing.”
The Fontana track could be in for an entertaining race Sunday with this potent mix of new cars on old asphalt. The drivers are being forced to learn on the job, yet most praised the chaos as an entertaining challenge.
“I don’t think race cars should always be easy to drive,” Jones said.
Three-time race champion Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Daniel Hemric rounded out the top five.
Cindric came out on top after a cavalcade of mistakes and adjustments at Fontana.
Kevin Harvick spun into the wall in the opening moments of the series’ newly abbreviated practice sessions.
Ross Chastain piled into the wall with a heavy hit moments later, while
Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell spun as well.
Aric Almirola, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and William Byron all had problems during qualifying before Chase Elliott spun on his final attempt, clearing the way for Cindric’s first pole.