QUALIFYING REPORT: Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio

No. 26 McGinley Clinic /

USF Championship Dallara

• Hughes led the way in yesterday’s opening practice, but with cooler track conditions in this morning’s session, the Aussie finished sixth ahead of Qualifying.
• Competing in Group 1 of Qualifying, Hughes showed strong pace early on, battling with his teammate for a spot in the top two. As the session wrapped up, he held onto second, securing a solid third-place starting position for tomorrow’s race.

“A decent qualifying where we were right up there with Dennis. I think when I did my lap, I didn’t quite have the peak of the tire.
I found some improvement later on, but the tire wasn’t feeling quite as good. Starting third tomorrow, so we have a decent spot. We’ll see what we can do from there.”

Salvador de Alba

No. 27 Grupo Indi Dallara

• Wrapping up this morning’s practice in fifth, de Alba joined the other three Andretti INDY NXT drivers in Group 1 of Qualifying.
• The Mexican driver showed strong pace throughout the session, consistently running in the top three before ultimately finishing third in the session.
• As a result, de Alba secured his best starting position at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, lining up fifth on the grid tomorrow – a significant improvement from last year’s 13th place start.

“A decent qualifying run for the No. 27 Grupo Indi Andretti Dallara, starting tomorrow in fifth place. I think we’re definitely in with the chance of a podium tomorrow, so that’s pretty good. We’ve had a consistent car so far, but obviously the [tire] degradation will be hard during the race, so we’ve worked on that and we’re in a good spot.”

No. 28 Nammo Dallara

• Taking second place in both of the weekend’s practice sessions prior to this afternoon’s Qualifying, Hauger looked confident to continue his dominance as the rookie took part in Group 1.
• The Norwegian stayed at the top of the timesheets for most of the session, improving his pace as track conditions improved. With an INDY NXT track record-breaking lap of 01:09.7431, Hauger secured his sixth pole of the season and maintained his perfect streak of front-row starts in every race this year.

“I’m super happy about the pole position, particularly having taken part in Group 1 because of the track evolution. I really didn’t expect it. I managed to put a good lap together, and the team did an amazing job getting the car in a good place for qualifying. Time to get ready for tomorrow and see what we can do.”

No. 29 Topcon Dallara

• Finishing in the top eight in Practice 2, Roe headed into Qualifying aiming to continue his pace in Group 1.
• Unfortunately, Roe faced challenges with pace and was unable to break into the top half of the timesheets, finishing the session eighth in his group. As a result, the No. 29 Topcon Dallara will take the start tomorrow from 15th on the grid, two places better than his qualifying result last year at Mid-Ohio.

“A tricky qualifying session for us today. We need to look at the data and see where the time is, because it felt like a good lap, but it’s just so tight. I think another two-tenths would have been good enough to be up the other end of the grid. We’ll keep working on it, and we know we have a good race car for tomorrow, so we’ll see what happens.”

No. 2 Dream Racing Dubai Dallara

• After finishing 11th in both of the weekend’s practice sessions, Murray looked to extract more pace in his first-ever qualifying session at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
• Taking part in Group 2 alongside teammate Escotto, the Scottish driver appeared to struggle early on. However, as the session progressed, Murray improved his pace and climbed to sixth in the group, earning a 12th-place starting position for tomorrow’s race.

“Qualifying done here in Mid-Ohio, and I think it went well. The team gave me a really good car, so a big thanks to them. I think the pace is there,
I just need to put the lap together. If I put everything together, we’d be much further up. We’ll have a look at the data and see what we can do before the race.”

No. 3 Frank’s RedHot Dallara

• After finishing fifth in this morning’s Practice 2, Escotto came into Group 1 of Qualifying confident that the No. 3 could put down a good lap.
• The Mexican driver showed early pace, putting the No. 3 Frank’s RedHot Dallara into second before the halfway point of the session. However, as track conditions improved and lap times across the field began to fall, Escotto slipped down the order, ultimately taking the checkered in eighth.
• Escotto will start tomorrow’s race from 16th on the grid, just one position behind Roe.

“A disappointing Qualifying after what was a promising practice session this morning. We’ll have to analyze the data to see what went wrong and come back stronger tomorrow.”

“Another fantastic job by Dennis today, he keeps amazing us with his lap times! It’s been a good day for the whole group, Lochie and Salvador were right up there too and showed some great pace. The team has been working hard so it’s great to see that effort paying off. Hopefully, we can carry this momentum into tomorrow and have some good cars in the fight for strong results.”