Rookie Foster takes maiden pole at Road America

Written by Morgan Holiday

Credit: Dominic Loyer

On a swelteringly hot day at Road America, Rahal Letterman Lanigan rookie driver Louis Foster took pole position ahead of Álex Palou and Kyle Kirkwood.

Group 1

With 13 drivers on track for the first part of qualifying, it was Arrow McLaren's Nolan Siegel who topped the session early on as the first driver in the 1:46s range. He was overtaken on the timing sheets but remained within the top three as the clock ticked down.

Over halfway through the session Graham Rahal held the top spot ahead of Álex Palou and Siegel, Devlin DeFrancesco, Robert Shwartzman and Kyffin Simpson in the final "safe" spots set to advance.

Just outside the top six and looking to improve were Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden. Further down and also looking to improve was Andretti Global's Kyle Kirkwood, who shot up to the top of the board with just a minute to go as Callum Ilott improved to third.

Ilott's PREMA Racing teammate Shwartzman quickly stole his thunder, taking third in his turn and bumping Ilott down to sixth. Not to be outdone, Ilott improved again to second place this time, just behind Palou in the final moments.

Newgarden and Siegel were down in fifth and sixth as a two drivers below were still improving with a chance to bump them out. And both Rahal and Dixon did improve to second and third respectively (behind Palou), knocking out the Team Penske and the Arrow McLaren driver.

Ilott's excellent run put him fourth, and Pato O'Ward and Kirkwood were the final drivers to progress to the next round. Newgarden and Siegel were followed by Marcus Armstrong on the list of eliminations, and Shwartzman, Devlin DeFrancesco, Conor Daly, and Simpson made up the rest of the list.

Before the start of Group 2, however, Dixon received a penalty for holding up DeFrancesco, knocking him down to last place and allowing Newgarden to advance in his stead.

Group 2

Credit: Dominic Loyer

The sole McLaren in Group 2, Christian Lundgaard, held the top spot early on in the second half of the first round of qualifying. The first incident of the session came when a different Christian, (Christian Rasmussen) went into the gravel. He managed to avoid major damage but ruined his run and his tyres.

With seven and a half minutes to go, rookie driver Louis Foster went fastest overall with a lap time of 1.45.142, putting himself ahead of Marcus Ericsson and Santino Ferrucci. Alex Rossi, Colton Herta, and Will Power completed the top six set to advance.

Having recovered from his trip to off the track, Rasmussen improved from last place to fourth, knocking out Herta with five minutes to go.

On his final run, Lundgaard went to the top as Power also improved, but only to fifth. Herta jumped to fourth, also needing another lap to try to stay in the top six as the clock ran out.

No one in the top six was safe as most of the drivers in the elimination zone all had the potential to improve. Power improved from fifth to second before getting overtaken by both McLaughlin and Malukas. No one could beat Lundgaard's lap time of 1:44.740, as Felix Rosenqvist and Foster joined those four drivers in the group set to advance.

Andretti teammates Ericsson and Herta finished seventh and eighth, ahead of Ferrucci, Rasmussen, Rinus VeeKay and Rossi. Sting Ray Robbb and rookie Jacob Abel finished down at the bottom, the final spots of those eliminated.

Fast 12

Credit: Louis Foster

While definitely on the back foot compared to some of the competition, Team Penske was the winning team coming into the Fast 12 as the only team with all three of their drivers having advanced into the second round of qualifying. But with seven minutes to go in the session, McLaughlin was the highest placed of the three in sixth place.

Foster continued to impress in the first half of the session, sitting second to O'Ward and ahead of Palou in third. The group remained static until the final runs, with Kirkwood Rahal and Newgarden rounding out the provisional top six.

Rosenqvist jumped to second behind O'Ward before McLaughlin and Power both improved to first and second respectively. Kirkwood pulled into the pits after putting his No.27 Andretti car in third, opting not to make a final run. He dropped to fourth when Lundgaard improved to split the top Penske cars.

Continuing his run of good performance, Foster put his car in third behind Palou and Lundgaard at the end of the session. McLaughlin in fourth was the sole Penske to advance, as Kirkwood and Rahal made the final cut.

The final driver to improve was Malukas, jumping from 12th to seventh and just missing out on the Fast 6. Power, Ilott, Newgarden, O'Ward and Rosenqvist finished eighth through 12th, their positions set for tomorrow's race.

Fast 6

Credit: Dominic Loyer

The only team with two cars in the hunt for pole position was, surprisingly, Rahal Letterman Lanigian Racing. And Rahal began the session at the front of the field ahead of McLaughlin, Palou, Lundgaard, Foster and Kirkwood.

Kirkwood was suffering from a problem with his hybrid engine but continued out on track, jumping up to fourth.

With just over a minute to go, Palou jumped up to provisional pole position, before being overtaken by the rookie Foster. It looked like no one else would be able to improve on Foster's time of 1:44.514 and in the end no one could stop the rookie from taking his first career pole position.

Palou qualified second and Kirkwood took third. McLaughlin, Lundgaard and Rahal will start tomorrow's race from fourth through sixth as Foster's rookie pole made the headline of the day.

All photos in this article were taken by DIVEBOMB Photographer, Dominic Loyer. You can find Dominic's work on Instagram (@dominicloyer_photography)