IndyCar Long Beach starting lineup: Colton Herta captures pole as Andretti thrives

LONG BEACH, California — Backing up his first win at his hometown IndyCar race last September, Colton Herta earned his first pole position at the track Saturday to lead the starting lineup for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Herta, a Southern California native who grew up in Valencia, set a track record with a 1-minute, 5.3095-second lap that shattered the previous mark of 1:06.2254 set by Helio Castroneves five years ago.

“As a young kid, I always dreamed of being an IndyCar driver, and that’s because of this race,” Herta, 22, told NBC Sports’ Marty Snider of the eighth pole position of his NTT IndyCar Series career. “To get the win last year was amazing, and we checked another box off today with the pole. It feels incredible.”

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Herta won from 14th last year, leading the final 22 laps.

His No. 26 Dallara-Honda was the fastest of three Andretti Autosport cars that made the final round of qualifying.

The team was headed for a front-row sweep until Romain Grosjean had his lap time erased by a crash with 2 seconds remaining in the session, putting him sixth behind teammate Alexander Rossi.

NEW TRACK RECORD!

RETWEET to congratulate @ColtonHerta on winning the P1 Award. He'll lead the field to green Sunday at 3P ET on @NBC and @peacockTV. #INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/BHgacgJnSf

— IndyCar on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) April 9, 2022

“We tried very hard, Colton was super fast today,” Grosjean told NBC Sports’ Kevin Lee. “The last lap I just tried real hard, and it didn’t work. The good thing is we’re sixth on the grid. The rule is hard that you lose your lap time because I should be second on the grid, but I also like