QUALIFYING REPORT: Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

• Set to make his 100th INDYCAR start on the Streets of St. Petersburg tomorrow, Herta was the first of the Andretti INDYCAR lineup to take on today’s qualifying session.
• Despite brushing the wall during the first segment, the Gainbridge Honda sustained no damage, and Herta went on to post the second-fastest lap to advance to the second round.
• After easily advancing through the second round, Herta made his fifth consecutive Firestone Fast Six appearance on the Streets of St. Petersburg. The Gainbridge Honda finished the final qualifying session of the day just under two-tenths of a second off the pole-winning lap time.

“I’m super happy with how the Gainbridge Honda performed today in qualifying. We really turned it around after the last two days of practice. I just felt really comfortable with the car in qualifying, and we are in a great starting spot for tomorrow. It’s definitely a place where we can win from, and I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do for the first race of the season.”

• After clocking the fastest lap during yesterday’s Practice 1, Kirkwood went out in the first round’s second qualifying group where he would finish sixth and advance to the second round.
• Unfortunately, the No. 27 Chili’s Honda got caught in traffic during the second round making it impossible for Kirkwood to optimize his fast lap.
• Kirkwood’s ninth-place starting position for tomorrow’s race is his second-best qualifying effort on the Streets of St. Petersburg.

“The first qualifying session of the year was not exactly what we hoped for. I thought the No. 27 Chili’s Honda had more potential. We just got caught out on track positioning with other cars. It was a day where you only get one lap to get it done, and our one lap was hindered slightly. However, we’re still in the top nine and you can’t be too mad with that considering how deep this field is. We can definitely do something from there.”

• Ericsson came out of the gate strong this morning, claiming the top spot of the leaderboard in Practice 2.
• Joining his teammate Kirkwood in Group 2 of the opening round of qualifying, Ericsson also advanced to Round 2 with a fourth-place finish.
• Joining his Andretti INDYCAR teammates in Round 2, Ericsson was running consistently in the top three and was looking to be fast enough to make his first Firestone Fast Six appearance of the season. Unfortunately, Ericsson just narrowly missed out on advancing to the final round by less than one-thousandth of a second, finishing just behind the eventual polewinner in seventh.

“We’ve had a really strong weekend and the team has done a great job preparing the cars. Our team has been fast in every session. To be honest, it’s pretty disappointing to finish seventh because I think we were capable of doing more. It’s always frustrating to miss out on the Firestone Fast Six, however, I’m looking forward to the race. The No. 28 Bryant Honda can win from there. “

“We’re happy to have all three cars in the top 10 for the first qualifying session of the season. Obviously, we would have liked to have more than one in the Firestone Fast Six, but I think we can get good finishes tomorrow with the starting positions of all three cars. I think tire strategy is going to be a key to getting a good result tomorrow and it will be interesting to see if the field stays mixed up tomorrow.”