A clear indication that Firestone’s softer alternate compound will be the tire of choice in this afternoon’s Big Machine Spiked Cooler Grand Prix is that almost no one put a lap on them, instead focusing on refining their handling on the harder primaries and on full and half-full tanks.
And Ericsson, who has scored more points than any driver since the Indy 500, topped the times with a 1min11.3705sec effort ahead of Andretti Autosport-Honda’s Alexander Rossi by less than two-hundredths.
Ericsson will only roll off 11th this afternoon but is in far better position than his six-time championship-winning teammate Scott Dixon who spun in qualifying yesterday and starts 26th. After a shaky start to today’s warm-up, where he visited two run-off zones in his first two laps, the Ganassi legend put together a decent run on blacks to go ninth fastest.
Another driver who won’t be starting where his pace indicates he should is Josef Newgarden, who qualified only 14th fastest and will take a six-place grid hit for switching to his fifth Chevrolet engine of the year. However, his latent potential was indicated with a strong run on black primaries today, and he finished the session third, ahead of IMS road course star Jack Harvey of Meyer Shank Racing-Honda.
Max Chilton’s Carlin-Chevrolet was a highly encouraging fifth, while Rahal Letterman Lanigan regulars Takuma Sato and Graham Rahal, who have been overshadowed by their debutant teammate Christian Lundgaard thus far, were sixth and seventh. Lundgaard himself was 18th.
Pole-winner Pato O’Ward turned the most laps – 23 – and finished the session in 23rd.
James Hinchcliffe, Sato, Sebastien Bourdais, were among those who had off-track excursions but without incurring damage.
The race begins at 1.00pm local (Eastern) time on NBCSN.
| P | Name | FTime | Diff | FL | Laps | FSpeed | Engine | Tire | Team |
| 1 | Marcus Ericsson | 1:11.3705 | 1:11.3705 | 21 | 22 | 123.026 | Honda | P | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 2 | Alexander Rossi | 1:11.3895 | 0.0190 | 12 | 18 | 122.993 | Honda | P | Andretti Autosport |
| 3 | Josef Newgarden | 1:11.4639 | 0.0934 | 8 | 22 | 122.865 | Chevy | P | Team Penske |
| 4 | Jack Harvey | 1:11.4951 | 0.1246 | 6 | 16 | 122.811 | Honda | P | Meyer Shank Racing |
| 5 | Max Chilton | 1:11.5760 | 0.2055 | 15 | 18 | 122.672 | Chevy | P | Carlin |
| 6 | Takuma Sato | 1:11.6697 | 0.2992 | 14 | 20 | 122.512 | Honda | P | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 7 | Graham Rahal | 1:11.6743 | 0.3038 | 17 | 22 | 122.504 | Honda | P | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 8 | Conor Daly | 1:11.6818 | 0.3113 | 7 | 20 | 122.491 | Chevy | P | Ed Carpenter Racing |
| 9 | Scott Dixon | 1:11.7051 | 0.3346 | 15 | 18 | 122.452 | Honda | P | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 10 | Romain Grosjean | 1:11.7573 | 0.3868 | 16 | 21 | 122.362 | Honda | P | Dale Coyne Racing w/Rick Ware Racing |
| 11 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 1:11.9089 | 0.5384 | 6 | 11 | 122.104 | Honda | P | Andretti Autosport |
| 12 | Alex Palou | 1:11.9822 | 0.6117 | 10 | 15 | 121.980 | Honda | P | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 13 | Scott McLaughlin | 1:12.0939 | 0.7234 | 16 | 21 | 121.791 | Chevy | P | Team Penske |
| 14 | Dalton Kellett | 1:12.0952 | 0.7247 | 15 | 20 | 121.789 | Chevy | A | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
| 15 | Helio Castroneves | 1:12.1239 | 0.7534 | 17 | 19 | 121.741 | Honda | P | Meyer Shank Racing |
| 16 | Colton Herta | 1:12.1262 | 0.7557 | 6 | 16 | 121.737 | Honda | P | Andretti Autosport |
| 17 | Rinus VeeKay | 1:12.1341 | 0.7636 | 15 | 19 | 121.723 | Chevy | P | Ed Carpenter Racing |
| 18 | Christian Lundgaard | 1:12.1840 | 0.8135 | 23 | 23 | 121.639 | Honda | P | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 19 | Ed Jones | 1:12.2053 | 0.8348 | 7 | 18 | 121.603 | Honda | A | Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan |
| 20 | Simon Pagenaud | 1:12.2407 | 0.8702 | 16 | 18 | 121.544 | Chevy | P | Team Penske |
| 21 | Sebastien Bourdais | 1:12.2719 | 0.9014 | 12 | 22 | 121.491 | Chevy | P | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
| 22 | Felix Rosenqvist | 1:12.2981 | 0.9276 | 5 | 22 | 121.447 | Chevy | P | Arrow McLaren SP |
| 23 | Pato O'Ward | 1:12.4092 | 1.0387 | 7 | 23 | 121.261 | Chevy | P | Arrow McLaren SP |
| 24 | Will Power | 1:12.4183 | 1.0478 | 9 | 20 | 121.246 | Chevy | P | Team Penske |
| 25 | Jimmie Johnson | 1:12.5416 | 1.1711 | 8 | 20 | 121.040 | Honda | P | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 26 | James Hinchcliffe | 1:12.8564 | 1.4859 | 13 | 18 | 120.517 | Honda | P | Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport |
| 27 | RC Enerson | 1:12.9689 | 1.5984 | 7 | 15 | 120.331 | Chevy | P | Top Gun Racing |
| 28 | Cody Ware | 1:13.5703 | 2.1998 | 6 | 21 | 119.347 | Honda | P | Dale Coyne Racing w/Rick Ware Racing |
