IndyCar Barber: VeeKay powers to second career pole

VeeKay lapped the 2.366-mile Barber Motorsports Park track in 1m06.2507s to beat last year’s Barber polesitter Pato O’Ward by 0.15s and land his first pole since the opening race of the Indianapolis Grand Prix double-header in October 2020.

Arrow McLaren SP’s O’Ward reported he had to gather up a major slide as he tried to build momentum for his final run, so ended up quite content with his first front row of the season. He will start just ahead of Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing, who won the 2021 Barber race and is defending IndyCar champion.

Scott McLaughlin, who has been Team Penske pacesetter throughout the weekend, was fourth fastest in another impressive showing by the Kiwi driver.

The sole Andretti Autosport representative in the Fast Six shootout was Alexander Rossi in fifth, a remarkable comeback from his heavy shunt in second practice, while Felix Rosenqvist ensured two Arrow McLaren SP will start from the first three rows.

VeeKay didn’t fully dominate qualifying after he had to serve a drivethrough penalty before his final flying lap in Q2 for breaking the pitlane speed limit, but that didn’t prevent him producing a 1m06.2732s lap that was enough to get him into the top five, especially when two Andretti Autosport drivers, Romain Grosjean and Colton Herta, failed to graduate into the pole session.

Colton Herta, Andretti Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian Honda

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

Marcus Ericsson threw his car off the track at Turn 7 in the final two minutes of Q2, to bring out the red flag, and he subsequently lost his best laps.

That incident meant Herta wasn’t able to complete his final flyer, having left pitlane late, so he will line up 10th, behind team-mate Grosjean in eighth who