Photo: Joe Skibinski
Louis Foster went fastest at the chequered flag to take pole position for the Indy Nxt race at Portland.
The Andretti Autosport driver improved on his final lap of qualifying to knock team-mate Hunter McElrea off the top spot.
His 1m02.6302s effort was not as quick as he had achieved in the second practice session earlier in the day, but was 0.1622 seconds quicker than anybody else could manage in qualifying.
McElrea crossed the line after Foster but couldn’t improve on his previous best time and had to settle for second place. He had led the way through most of the session. After a flurry of changes at the top of the order early on in qualifying, McElrea set the pace ahead of HMD Motorsports’ points leader Christian Rasmussen and Foster.
Rasmussen qualified third, 0.2813s off pole, with team-mates Kyffin Simpson, Reece Gold and Nolan Siegel in fourth, fifth and sixth. Siegel improved on his final lap to jump up the order and take sixth, although live timing continued to show him in seventh place.
Victor Franzoni was in the top seven for Juncos Hollinger Racing on his series return, with Danial Frost (HMD), Jacob Abel (Abel Motorsports) and Yuven Sundaramoorthy completing the top 10.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Louis Foster | Andretti Autosport | 1m02.6302s | 6 | |
| 2 | Hunter McElrea | Andretti Autosport | 1m02.7924s | +0.1622s | 8 |
| 3 | Christian Rasmussen | HMD Motorsports | 1m02.9115s | +0.2813s | 8 |
| 4 | Kyffin Simpson | HMD Motorsports | 1m03.0048s | +0.3746s | 7 |
| 5 | Reece Gold | HMD Motorsports | 1m03.0057s | +0.3755s | 7 |
| 6 | Victor Franzoni | Juncos Racing | 1m03.2201s | +0.5899s | 7 |
| 7 | Nolan Siegel | HMD Motorsports | + | 8 | |
| 8 | Danial Frost | HMD Motorsports | 1m03.3212s | +0.6910s | 8 |
| 9 | Jacob Abel | Abel Motorsports | 1m03.4000s | +0.7698s | 7 |
| 10 | Yuven Sundaramoorthy | Abel Motorports | 1m03.4406s | +0.8104s | 7 |
| 11 | Christian Bogle | HMD Motorsports | 1m03.5525s | +0.9223s | 7 |
| 12 | James Roe Jr | Andretti Autosport | 1m03.5550s | +0.9248s | 8 |
| 13 | Jagger Jones | Cape Motorsports | 1m03.5682s | +0.9380s | 8 |
| 14 | Ernie Francis Jr | HMD Motorsports | 1m03.6423s | +1.0121s | 7 |
| 15 | Josh Pierson | HMD Motorsports | 1m03.6590s | +1.0288s | 7 |
| 16 | Jamie Chadwick | Andretti Autosport | 1m03.7235s | +1.0933s | 7 |
| 17 | Matthew Brabham | Juncos Racing | 1m03.9299s | +1.2997s | 8 |