Rasmussen tops disrupted Indy Nxt qualifying session at Mid-Ohio

Photo: Penske Entertainment / Travis Hinkle

Christian Rasmussen took pole position in a disrupted Indy Nxt qualifying session at Mid-Ohio.

Rasmussen, who comes into the weekend second in the championship standings, jumped to the top of the times with his final lap of qualifying, beating Louis Foster by 0.0107 seconds.

But it was also Rasmussen who was top of the order when red flags were brought out midway through the eight-minute session. Moments after Rasmussen jumped to the top of the times, Danial Frost came to a stop on track and was unable to get started again. 

The laptimes at this point were still considerably off the expected pace, with Rasmussen’s quickest lap a 1m13.4784s. 

The new qualifying format this season guarantees drivers eight minutes of green flag action, so the session resumed with just under four minutes still on the clock. 

Laptimes quickly tumbled, with Hunter McElrea, Reece Gold, and Louis Foster all briefly on provisional pole position. 

McElrea was the first driver to lap sub-1m12s, but he would soon be joined by six others breaking that benchmark. 

Rasmussen demoted McElrea to second with his final lap, setting a 1m11.4998s. Foster and Kyffin Simpson then came through to knock McElrea down to fourth. Gold qualified fifth ahead, of championship leader Nolan Siegel and Jacob Abel. 

Rasmus Lindh, Jagger Jones and Christian Bogle complete the top 10 on the grid for tomorrow’s race.

Qualifying results