Chip Ganassi Racing junior Kyffin Simpson gets his first Indy Nxt pole

Kyffin Simpson took his first Indy Nxt pole at Road America after a late incident for Matteo Nannini led to a one-lap shootout. 

Simpson topped the order early on in the 20-minute session (with a duration actually set by a limit of 10 minutes of green flag running) and was gradually chipping away at his fastest laptime. He had managed to set a 1m49.1028s – beating the pre-2023 track record held by Colton Herta – before red flags were brought out with 30 seconds left on the clock. 

Nannini had just improved his pace to go second fastest, 0.3679 seconds off Simpson, when he spun at turn one and put his Juncos Hollinger Racing-run car in the gravel. 

Qualifying had to be stopped for his car to be retrieved, which meant Nannini’s fastest lap was deleted and relegating him to starting Sunday’s race from the back of the field.

His team-mate Rasmus Lindh will actually start from last though, as problems kept him in the pits for the duration of the session. 

Qualifying was extended after the stoppage to allow for one more flying lap to be set by each driver. 

Colin Kaminsky was the biggest improver, jumping from 10th to second with a laptime 0.3123s off Simpson’s benchmark. Reece Gold qualified third after he failed to improve, with Nolan Siegel joining him on the second row of the grid. 

Louis Foster and Jacob Abel both improved to go fifth and sixth respectively, ahead of Christian Rasmussen and Danial Frost. 

Jamie Chadwick jumped up to ninth while James Roe Jr completed the top 10. 

Qualifying results