The first day of on-track action for the 2021 NTT INDYCAR SERIES kicked off today at Barber Motorsports Park with two practices followed by qualifying for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. Alexander Rossi topped Practice 2 and finished quickest overall in practice for the day before going on to grab his highest career starting position (P2) at Barber, missing out on the pole by only .0707 seconds.
A 30-minute warm-up session will kick off the morning followed by the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama on NBC at 3 p.m. ET.
COLTON HERTA
No. 26 GAINBRIDGE HONDA
STARTING POSITION
9
QUALIFYING TIME
01:05.7957
OF NOTE:
Following an incident in Turn 2 during Practice 2 that caused damage to the 26 car, the team worked quickly to repair the damage prior to qualifying // After just narrowly missing out on Round 2 of knockout qualifying, an on-track incident that forced the No. 7 car to lose their best time pushed the No. 26 car into Round 2 of qualifying.
“I’m fairly happy with qualifying – ninth is not a terrible spot to start. Obviously, we wanted into the Firestone Fast Six but we just couldn’t get there today. I’m happy with ninth and happy with starting on the inside. The Gainbridge Honda was super good, I just needed that little bit, less than a tenth, to crack into the top six and we just messed it up. I think we have a good race car and I think we’ll do stuff between now and morning warm-up to make sure we have a good race car. I think the baseline we have right now is really nice and we still have some stuff to do. It should be a really fun race tomorrow and 90 laps is a long time to make it to the front.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
