Photo: Karl Zemlin
Christian Rasmussen claimed pole position in a quick-fire eight-minute Indy Nxt qualifying session at Barber Motorsports Park for the second race of the 2023 season.
The HMD Motorsports driver jumped to the top of the times with his final lap of the session, setting a new official track record in the process.
Rasmussen’s 1m10.7371s kept him in first place as the rest of the field completed their final laps.
Series returnee Toby Sowery topped the classification early on for HMD, but nobody remained in position for long in the short session. As laptimes tumbled, Hunter McElrea, Rasmussen, Kyffin Simpson and Nolan Siegel all took turns on provisional pole.
Siegel was the first to lap sub-1m11s late on, setting a 1m10.9856s. He sat at the top when the chequered flag fell and was knocked back to second by Rasmussen. Siegel improved on his final lap following that, but not enough to better Rasmussen’s time as he was 0.1311 seconds slower than the pole-sitter.
Andretti Autosport’s Louis Foster also improved on his final lap, jumping up to third, ahead of team-mate McElrea and Sowrey.
Points leader Danial Frost could only manage to go eighth fastest. He spent most of qualifying in the bottom half of the timing screens, only to jump up to eighth as he took the chequered flag. He starts behind Simpson and Reece Gold.
Enaam Ahmed and James Roe Jr complete the top 10 on the grid for tomorrow’s race.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Christian Rasmussen | HMD Motorsports | 1m10.7371s | 6 | |
| 2 | Nolan Siegel | HMD Motorsports | 1m10.8682s | +0.1311s | 6 |
| 3 | Louis Foster | Andretti Autosport | 1m10.9247s | +0.1876s | 7 |
| 4 | Hunter McElrea | Andretti Autosport | 1m11.0690s | +0.3319s | 7 |
| 5 | Toby Sowery | HMD Motorsports | 1m11.0736s | +0.3465s | 6 |
| 6 | Kyffin Simpson | HMD Motorsports | 1m11.1578s | +0.4207s | 6 |
| 7 | Reece Gold | Juncos Racing | 1m11.2148s | +0.4777s | 7 |
| 8 | Danial Frost | HMD Motorsports | 1m11.2155s | +0.4784s | 6 |
| 9 | Enaam Ahmed | Cape Motorsports | 1m11.2944s | +0.5573s | 7 |
| 10 | James Roe Jr | Andretti Autosport | 1m11.3740s | +0.6369s | 7 |
| 11 | Josh Green | HMD Motorsports | 1m11.4137s | +0.6766s | 6 |
| 12 | Matteo Nannini | Juncos Racing | 1m11.4623s | +0.7252s | 6 |
| 13 | Jagger Jones | Cape Motorsports | 1m11.5003s | +0.7632s | 7 |
| 14 | Colin Kaminsky | Abel Motorsports | 1m11.5430s | +0.8059s | 7 |
| 15 | Jacob Abel | Abel Motorsports | 1m11.5850s | +0.8479s | 7 |
| 16 | Christian Bogle | HMD Motorsports | 1m11.8030s | +1.0659s | 6 |
| 17 | Jamie Chadwick | Andretti Autosport | 1m11.9208s | +1.1837s | 7 |
| 18 | Ernie Francis Jr | HMD Motorsports | 1m12.0393s | +1.3022s | 6 |