Marcus Ericsson Grabs First IndyCar Pole After Stunning Lap In Arlington Qualifying
The Swede had not qualified on pole in any series since 2013
Andretti Global's Marcus Ericsson has raced in Formula 1, won the Indianapolis 500, and won four NTT IndyCar Series races in his career.
That's why it's pretty shocking that, going into the Grand Prix of Arlington race weekend, he had never qualified on pole.
However, that changed in Arlington during a unique qualifying session that saw the Fast Six format switched up a little bit. Instead of the usual session where drivers take multiple flying laps, the top six hit the track one at a time for a single-lap qualifying session.
Learn More About The Ultimate College Hoops Experience
Of course, we had to get down to six first, and there were some early surprises. Team Penske's Josef Newgarden found a wall in practice on Saturday morning, and his teammate Scott McLaughlin found the same wall in qualifying.
That brought out a red flag, which means McLaughlin's time was deleted, and he'll start from the back of the field.
The top six from each of the first round groups moved on to the second round (as per usual), and this is where we got another shocker.
The top two in the championship standings coming into the race — Newgarden in P1 and Andretti's Kyle Kirkwood in P2 — both missed out on making it into the Firestone Fast Six.
In the final round, the drivers ran in reverse order of their times from the previous round. This meant that Ericsson, who was the last driver into the Fast Six, led off.
And he laid down a big lap.
Of course, that had to stand through five more drivers' runs, including the reigning champ, Alex Palou.
However, in the end, that first run from Ericsson was big enough to earn him his first start from pole in his IndyCar career by a round and a half a second.
That was Ericsson's first pole since 2013 when he was racing in GP2 (now known as Formula 2).
That's huge for Ericsson, and big for Andretti, who have looked solid in Arlington. While Kirkwood barely missed out on the Fast Six, Will Power got his No. 26 Honda in and will start from P4.