QUALIFYING REPORT: The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix

• Colton Herta kicked off the weekend at The Thermal Club with fourth and seventh-place finishes in the first two practice sessions.
• Herta pushed through the opening two qualifying rounds finishing second and sixth respectively, securing a spot for the Gainbridge Honda in the Firestone Fast Six.
• Making his 18th Firestone Fast Six appearance on a road circuit, Herta ultimately took the checkered in fourth just five-tenths off the pole-winning lap time.
• Tomorrow’s second-row starting position for Herta marks the 16th time the California native has started in the top four on a road course.

“I’m really happy with today’s result. The Gainbridge Honda was very fast and the balance was nice. 
It’s a spot where we can race from and we really want to get poles. However, when you can’t do it, you really just want to try to make it into the Fast Six and that’s what we did today. We have a long race tomorrow of tire saving and trying to see what we can do, but I’m confident.”

• Making his 21st road course start this weekend, Kyle Kirkwood was the first Andretti INDYCAR  driver to tackle the season’s opening road course qualifying session in Round 1’s first group.
• After advancing through the first round of qualifying in sixth, Kirkwood was determined to make his first Firestone Fast Six appearance of the season. Unfortunately, the No. 27 Chili’s Honda missed out on advancing into the Firestone Fast Six by just over one-tenth of a second, securing an eighth-place starting position for tomorrow’s race.
• Tomorrow’s race will mark the sixth time in his career that Kirkwood will start in the top eight on a road circuit.

“We definitely had more in the car, so a little bit disappointed with today’s result. But you can’t be too upset with an eighth-place starting position in this depth of a field, especially based on how we were here last year. I’m happy with the improvements that we’ve had all weekend and the performance we got out of today.”

• Following two strong practice sessions in the California desert, Marcus Ericsson brought that same pace into this afternoon’s session after advancing through the first two qualifying rounds from sixth and fourth.
• Making his fifth Firestone Fast Six appearance on a road course alongside teammate Herta, the Swede spent the majority of the final session in the middle of the pack before ultimately taking the checkered in fifth.
• Starting directly behind Herta tomorrow, Ericsson will chase his first road course victory when he takes on The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix tomorrow.

“I think we’ve had a really strong weekend. We were third in both practice sessions and the Bryant Honda has been really good. Qualifying was tricky in the heat, and it’s really hard to be right in that window. We thought we were really strong in Session 2, but Session 1 wasn’t great. However, we can definitely fight for the win from P5. Thank you to the whole No. 28 Bryant crew for all of the work.”

“Qualifying at Thermal is done. It’s disappointing not to have a car on the front row in some ways, but in reality, with all three cars in the top eight, you have to be happy with that. When you look at where we were at Thermal last year, today definitely shows how the team tackled the problems and has addressed it to move forward. The race tomorrow is going to be super challenging. It’s going to have a lot to do with time management and finding a pace that works while looking after the tires and the equipment.”