IndyCar Road America starting lineup: Colton Herta wins first pole this year; O’Ward second

Colton Herta will lead an NTT IndyCar Series starting lineup to the green flag for the first time this year, qualifying on pole position for the Sonsio Grand Prix at Road America.

It’s the 10th career pole position for the Andretti Autosport driver, who most recently started first at Toronto last year.

After going off course twice during Saturday morning practice and avoiding any damage, Herta turned a lap of 1 minute, 40.1945 seconds in his No. 26-Dallara-Honda on the four 14-turn, 4.014-mile road course that was repaved during the offseason.

QUALIFYING RESULTS: Click here for Sonsio Grand Prix qualifying speeds | Round 1, Group 1 | Round 1, Group 2 | Round 2 l Round 3

INDYCAR AT ROAD AMERICA: How to watch, weekend schedule, entry lists

“Great car,” Herta told NBC Sports’ Dillon Welch. “We’ve been working at it the whole time. This place with the repave is not easy. So to have a car that was stable enough to really attack in the Fast Six (final round of qualifying) was really impressive.

“It’s been way too long this year for us to get a pole. It’s nice to finally get one.”

In becoming the sixth pole-sitter in eight races this year, Herta nipped Pato O’Ward (1:40.3643).

“Just missed pole by a tad,” O’Ward told NBC Sports’ Kevin Lee. “This is a very good starting position. Ready to flow with it tomorrow.”

Points leader Alex Palou rebounded from a crash Saturday morning to qualify third, ahead of Josef Newgarden and Alexander Rossi. Kyle Kikwood (sixth) made the final round of qualifying but was unable to turn a lap because of a mechanical problem.

“It hurts because we could have been fighting for pole more without that crash,” Palou said. “Good recovery making sure we had our car on track. We did a big rebuild, especially