Photo: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Rinus VeeKay took his second Indy Lights pole position for the opening race at Road America, beating Andretti Autosport’s trio of drivers.
The Juncos Racing driver set a 1m54.0541s lap, putting him a quarter of a second clear of Andretti’s Ryan Norman, who will be making his IndyCar test debut with the team at Mid-Ohio in the week after the Road America round.
Norman’s team-mates Oliver Askew and Robert Megennis were closely matched in third and fourth, with 0.0129s between the pair. They were both over six tenths off the pace.
The point for pole given to VeeKay means Askew’s championship lead has been cut to 10 points.
In fifth place was VeeKay’s team-mate Dalton Kellett, who put in his best non-oval qualifying performance since the opening Toronto race in 2017, 30 races ago.
Belardi Auto Racing pair Aaron Telitz and Lucas Kohl were sixth and seventh, with Telitz making his second appearance of the season after his surprise championship return at the Freedom 100.
The two BN Racing cars of Indy Lights rookies Toby Sowery and David Malukas propped up the nine-car grid.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Name | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rinus VeeKay | Juncos Racing | 1m54.0541s |
| 2 | Ryan Norman | Andretti Autosport | +0.2553s |
| 3 | Oliver Askew | Andretti Autosport | +0.6444s |
| 4 | Robert Megennis | Andretti Autosport | +0.6573s |
| 5 | Dalton Kellett | Juncos Racing | +0.8193s |
| 6 | Aaron Telitz | Belardi Auto Racing | +1.0163s |
| 7 | Lucas Kohl | Belardi Auto Racing | +1.7451s |
| 8 | Toby Sowery | BN Racing/Team Pelfrey | +1.7939s |
| 9 | David Malukas | BN Racing | +1.8043s |