Newgarden soars to Road America pole

Josef Newgarden has taken his second consecutive IndyCar Series pole position as he strives to give Team Penske a breakthrough victory this weekend at Road America.

The powerhouse squad failed to take a single win during the first half of the 16-race 2021 schedule, but are well placed for tomorrow morning’s race (AEST).

Newgarden, who was run down late by Pato O’Ward in the second leg of the recent Dual in Detroit, starred in the Fast Six to secure pole.

His biggest threats came in the form of Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta and Jack Harvey of Meyer Shank Racing, but Newgarden’s 1:46.0186s was ultimately unrivalled.

Australia’s Will Power qualified fourth, with Simon Pagenaud making it three Penske cars in the top six.

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Their team-mate Scott McLaughlin had a tougher run and will start 17th on the grid, four places behind fellow New Zealander Scott Dixon.

Romain Grosjean, who set the pace in practice on the opening day of the event, qualified seventh while his ex-Haas Formula 1 team-mate Kevin Magnussen will start from 21st on the 25-car grid.

Magnussen is filling in for injured McLaren SP driver Felix Rosenqvist.

Series leader O’Ward will start 10th. The race will start at 02:00 AEST tomorrow.

Grid for IndyCar Series race, Round 9 at Road America

Position	Car #	Driver	Team
1	2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske
2	26	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport
3	60	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing
4	12	Will Power	Team Penske
5	10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing
6	22	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske
7	51	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing w/ Rick Ware Racing
8	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport
9	27	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport
10	5	Pato O’Ward	McLaren SP
11	14	Sebastien Bourdais	A. J. Foyt Enterprises
12	18	Ed Jones	Dale Coyne Racing w/ Vasser-Sullivan
13	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing
14	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
15	20	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing
16	21	Oliver Askew	Ed Carpenter Racing
17	3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske
18	8	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing
19	29	James Hinchliffe	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
20	30	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
21	7	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren SP
22	59	Max Chilton	Carlin
23	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing
24	4	Dalton Kellett	A. J. Foyt Enterprises
25	52	Cody Ware	Dale Coyne Racing w/ Rick Ware Racing