- Colton Herta and Alex Palou run third and fourth in NTT INDYCAR SERIES qualifying for Sunday's Big Machine Music City Grand Prix
- David Malukas, Romain Grojean also advance to Fast Six final qualifying
- Linus Lindqvist impresses in INDYCAR debut, qualifies 11th
Andretti Autosport's Colton Herta and Alex Palou for Chip Ganassi Racing led the way for Honda in qualifying action today in Nashville, qualifying third and fourth, respectively, for Sunday's Big Machine Music City Grand Prix.
David Malukas, driving for Dale Coyne Racing with HMD, and Andretti's Romain Grosjean completed the "Firestone Fast Six", as Honda drivers made up four of the six to advance through all three rounds of NTT INDYCAR SERIES knockout qualifying today on the downtown Nashville temporary street circuit.
Making his INDYCAR SERIES debut for Meyer Shank Racing after claiming the IndyNXT championship in 2022, Linus Lundqvist impressed by advancing to the second qualifying round, and will start tomorrow's 80 lap race from 11th.
Big Machine Music City Grand Prix Honda Qualifying Results
- 3rd Colton Herta Andretti Autosport Honda
- 4th Alex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
- 5th David Malukas Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Honda
- 6th Romain Grosjean Andretti Autosport Honda
- 8th Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport Honda
- 11th Linus Lundqvist-R Meyer Shank Racing Honda
- 12th Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
- 13th Christian Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
- 15th Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
- 16th Marcus Armstrong-R Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
- 17th Helio Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing Honda
- 20th Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
- 22nd Jack Harvey Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
- 24th Sting Ray Robb-R Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda
- 26th Devlin DeFrancesco Andretti Autosport Honda
R – Rookie
Quotes
Alex Palou (#10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) qualified fourth: "We tried running on the primary tires [in third-round qualifying], like we did at Road America, but it didn't work. Someday it will! I made a small mistake on my second lap as well. But we have a good car, a fast car, and we're happy to be up at the front and starting P4. It's going to be an entertaining race for sure tomorrow."
David Malukas (#18 Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Honda) qualified fifth: "Today was a long day [due to rain delays], but we ended up fifth after an incredible job by the team. Everyone worked really hard, and we were able to get a great result. I've been feeling all season like our car works really well when the grip conditions are low, and that's what we had today. Let's see how the race goes tomorrow, hopefully we'll have good race pace there as well."
Linus Lundqvist (#60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda) qualified 11th in INDYCAR debut: "Qualifying in INDYCAR is intense, but I love it. This was exactly what we hoped for and could have asked for. I knew it was going to be extremely tough to transfer out of the first group, but we made a smart choice to go with two sets of alternate tires, knowing that it was going to be a struggle here to make the Fast 12. Just reaching this point was really good. It's a great day for us and massive thank you to the team. The AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda was awesome today, massive thank you to everyone and we'll chip away at it tomorrow."
Fast Facts
- Honda drivers and teams have won both previous editions of the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix, as Marcus Ericsson recovered from an opening lap contact and brief "flight" to head a Honda sweep of the first seven finishing positions in the inaugural 2021 event.
- Following Ericsson to the checkers, Scott Dixon made it a Honda and Chip Ganassi Racing 1-2 result, with James Hinchcliffe running third to complete the podium sweep for the manufacturer. Honda drivers Ryan Hunter-Reay, Graham Rahal, Ed Jones, and eventual series champion Alex Palou completed the top seven for Honda.
- In 2022, Dixon emerged victorious on the streets of Nashville, with Palou finishing third for Honda; with Andretti Autosport's Alexander Rossi and Colton Herta fourth and fifth, respectively.
Where to Watch
Television coverage of Sunday's Big Machine Music City Grand Prix starts at 12 p.m. EDT on NBC. Complete, flag-to-flag race coverage also will be available on NBC Peacock, the INDYCAR Radio Network, and SiriusXM INDYCAR Nation (Channel 160).
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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