- Colton Herta takes his Andretti Autosport Honda to the top in qualifying for Sunday's Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio
- Honda drivers sweep Firestone Fast Six final qualifying round
- Eighth NTT INDYCAR SERIES pole of 2023 for Honda in nine events
Andretti Autosport's Colton Herta will start from the pole in tomorrow's Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio - Presented by the Accord Hybrid, as Honda drivers and teams swept the top six qualifying positions today at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
It was the second consecutive pole of 2023 for Herta, as the Andretti Autosport driver also was fastest qualifier two weeks ago at Road America; and the eighth pole for Honda in nine events this season.
Graham Rahal will start his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda on the outside of the front row, second, in his career-best qualifying result at Mid-Ohio. Kyle Kirkwood will start on the inside of the second row, third, in his Andretti Autosport Honda; while championship points leader Alex Palou starts fourth for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Christian Lundgaard (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda) and Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) completed the top-six sweep for the manufacturer.
Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Honda Qualifying Results
- 1st Colton Herta Andretti Autosport Honda
- 2nd Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
- 3rd Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport Honda
- 4th Alex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
- 5th Christian Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
- 6th Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
- 9th Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
- 11th Jack Harvey Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
- 12th David Malukas Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Honda
- 14th Romain Grosjean Andretti Autosport Honda
- 18th Marcus Armstrong-R Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
- 19th Helio Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing Honda
- 22nd Sting Ray Robb-R Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda
- 24th Devlin DeFrancesco Andretti Autosport Honda
- NR Simon Pagenaud Meyer Shank Racing Honda [Did not run – crash in practice]
R – Rookie
Colton Herta (#26 Andretti Autosport Honda) pole qualifier, second consecutive pole of 2023 season: "It was a great day here at Mid-Ohio. Honda 1-6 and we were fortunate enough to be the first of those Hondas. The Gainbridge car was super-fast and has been fast all weekend. Luckily, we were in the right place at the right time to put the lap down and get the pole. I'm looking forward to the Honda Indy 200 and hopefully we can wrap up the race tomorrow and go away with the win."
Graham Rahal (#15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda) qualified second, career-best qualifying at Mid-Ohio: "P2 at home is amazing. Honda sweeps the fast six for the Honda Indy 200, that doesn't get any better. And for Fifth/Third bank, an Ohio based company in Cincinnati, it's definitely great to be up front. It gives us a good shot tomorrow. Hopefully mother nature is a little bit nicer. It's going to be—you can see the sweat on me now and it's only qualifying—it's going to be a toasty day. But, I am really excited to be this far forward. We felt good all weekend. This morning the car felt good, yesterday we were 20th on the sheets but it was not indicative at all of our pace. I'm really happy and hopefully we can keep the #15 car up there."
David Salters (President and Technical Director, Honda Performance Development) on qualifying today at Mid-Ohio: "Stunning job today by the marvelous people at HPD. Honda 1-6! I can't even remember the last time we did that. It's pretty impressive. Well done to our teams—we had three different Honda-powered teams represented in the top six in qualifying. Just a rather fine day at the office for the great team at HPD and great to put on a good show in front of so many other Honda employees watching around the track today."
Fast Facts
- Tomorrow's Honda Indy 200 will be the 251st INDYCAR start with Honda power for Graham Rahal, tying him with Tony Kanaan for the most Honda-powered starts in INDYCAR racing. Rahal made his first start as a Honda driver and won at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in April, 2008.
- American Honda has a long history of involvement in central Ohio and at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Honda was the first Japanese company to establish auto manufacturing operations in the United States, opening Honda of America Manufacturing in Marysville, Ohio, in 1982. The company has had an Official Vehicle relationship with Mid-Ohio since 1994, and nearly 10,000 associates and their family members are expected to attend the Mid-Ohio race weekend.
- Today, Honda operates multiple manufacturing facilities and a major Research & Development center in Ohio. Combined, they employ more than 13,000 associates and have the capacity to produce more than 650,000 vehicles and 1.18 million engines annually.
- This weekend's Honda Indy 200, presented by the Accord Hybrid, will include an appearance by Honda's unique CR-V Hybrid Racer. Conceived and designed by the engineers at Honda Performance Development (HPD) in California and designers from the North America Auto Design Division (NAAD) of American Honda; then built at Honda Automotive Development Center (ADC) in Ohio by the Honda of America Racing Team (HART); the CR-V Hybrid Racer utilizes a 2.2-liter twin-turbocharged, electrified Honda V6 INDYCAR power unit and transmission under 2023 Honda CR-V Hybrid bodywork to create the "rolling laboratory" for the continued development of electrified technology by Honda and HPD. The vehicle will make demonstration laps on Friday and Saturday; and will lead the NTT INDYCAR SERIES field prior to the start of Sunday's feature event.
Where to Watch
Live USA Network race coverage of the race from Mid-Ohio begin at 1:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 2; with live streaming on NBC Peacock. Additional coverage can be found on the INDYCAR Radio Network and on Sirius/XM satellite radio.
Honda Racing social media content and video links can be found on:
Instagram (www.instagram.com/hondaracing_hpd)
TikTok (www.tiktok.com/hondaracing_hpd)
Twitter (www.twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD)
YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV)
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