Photo: Penske Entertainment / James Black
Alessandro de Tullio picked up his first Indy Nxt pole, and AJ Foyt Racing’s first in over 22 years, on the streets of Arlington.
The field was split into two groups for qualifying, and de Tullio set his fastest lap as he took the chequered flag in group A. That set the benchmark at 1m38.884s, 0.345 seconds quicker than HMD Motorsports’ Tymek Kucharczyk.
In group B, the only driver to lap sub-1m40s was HMD’s Enzo Fittipaldi and on a grippier track he came 0.098s shy of de Tullio.
After putting their cars in the barriers during the second practice session, Bryce Aron (Chip Ganassi Racing) and Myles Rowe (Abel Motorsports with Force Indy) were back on track for qualifying in Fittipaldi’s group.
Andretti Global’s Seb Murray, second in practice, set the early pace in group A and top spot changed hands multiple times as track conditions evolved. Juan Manuel Correa (Cusick Morgan Motorsports), Jack Beeton (HMD) and Kucharczyk each took turns lowering the pace.
It was not until the last laps that de Tullio moved to the top, an outlier since everyone else in the group’s top eight failed to improve. Beeton was third, 0.4901s behind, Correa trailed by 0.581s in fourth and 0.0356s split Matteo Nannini (Cape Motorsports by Ed Carpenter Racing) and Murray in fifth and sixth. Due to each group being allocated a side of the grid, rather than using the combined classification of the groups, it means the latter two still start ninth and 11th.
Andretti’s practice pace-setter Max Taylor was the driver to beat early in group B, at that point a considerable way off de Tullio’s benchmark. He then suffered a heavy lock-up which hindered his progress.
Red flags were brought out with just under six minutes remaining, after Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Alexander Koreiba ran into issues that prevented him from registering a flying lap.
When the session resumed, Fittipaldi improved to 1m38.9825s to go 0.3081s quicker than Taylor. He needed to find another tenth of a second to better de Tullio, but both he and Taylor failed to find more pace on their final laps so will start the race from second and fourth.
Cape’s points leader Nikita Johnson was third quickest in group B, 0.4219s off Fittipaldi and 0.0696s ahead of Andretti’s Lochie Hughes.
Rowe and Andretti’s Josh Pierson were the only others within a second of Fittipaldi’s pace, and Pierson was highest placed of the last-lap improvers.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Group 1 | Group 2 | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alessandro de Tullio | AJ Foyt Racing | 1m38.8841s | 6 | |
| 2 | Enzo Fittipaldi | HMD Motorsports | 1m38.9825s | 8 | |
| 3 | Tymek Kucharczyk | HMD Motorsports | 1m39.2294s | 8 | |
| 4 | Max Taylor | Andretti Global | 1m39.2906s | 8 | |
| 5 | Jack Beeton | HMD Motorsports | 1m39.3742s | 8 | |
| 6 | Nikita Johnson | Cape by ECR | 1m39.4044s | 8 | |
| 7 | Juan Manuel Correa | Cusick Morgan Motorsports | 1m39.4651s | 7 | |
| 8 | Lochie Hughes | Andretti Global | 1m39.4740s | 8 | |
| 9 | Matteo Nannini | Cape by ECR | 1m39.6165s | 8 | |
| 10 | Seb Murray | Andretti Global | 1m39.6521s | 8 | |
| 11 | Myles Rowe | Abel w/ Force Indy | 1m39.6534s | 8 | |
| 12 | Josh Pierson | Andretti Global | 1m39.7305s | 8 | |
| 13 | Salvador de Alba | HMD Motorsports | 1m40.0407s | 7 | |
| 14 | Nicolas Stati | Cusick Morgan Motorsports | 1m40.0525s | 8 | |
| 15 | Max Garcia | Abel Motorsports | 1m40.1184s | 6 | |
| 16 | Colin Kaminsky | Abel Motorsports | 1m40.1521s | 8 | |
| 17 | Jordan Missig | Abel Motorsports | 1m40.1867s | 7 | |
| 18 | Ricardo Escotto | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 1m40.4954s | 8 | |
| 19 | Niels Koolen | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1m40.5795s | 7 | |
| 20 | Nicholas Monteiro | AJ Foyt Racing | 1m41.2516s | 5 | |
| 21 | Carson Etter | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1m41.3805s | 8 | |
| 22 | James Roe Jr | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1m41.4264s | 8 | |
| 23 | Bryce Aron | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1m42.0142s | 7 | |
| 24 | Alexander Koreiba | Juncos Hollinger Racing | no time | 3 |