Dixon on pole for Grand Prix of Baltimore (VIDEO) - MotorSportsTalk

Scott Dixon scored his second Verizon P1 Award of the season and 20th pole position of his IZOD IndyCar Series career Saturday in qualifying for Sunday’s Grand Prix of Baltimore presented by SRT.

Dixon only barely made it into the Firestone Fast Six when Graham Rahal, who had been quicker, lost his two fastest laps for causing a red flag in the second qualifying session comprising the top 12 cars from Q1. Once into the Fast Six, the New Zealander lapped the 2.04-mile, 12-turn circuit in 1:18.0838 on his final lap in the Fast Six.

“Q1 went pretty smooth, tried to get quite tricky in Q2 and run the same set of tires but unfortunately we had a censor go on the engine, so I had no straight line speed in 2,” Dixon said. “Luckily we were able to fix the censor come Q3, and the car was pretty decent. I made a mistake, actually, on my quick lap. I lost a couple of tenths on the hairpin, so the car seems to be racked in pretty well here.”

Dixon’s time edged Will Power’s best lap of 1:18.1171; Power had the pole but did not improve on his final attempt to retake the point. Power estimated he lost five tenths of a second on the lap before locking his brakes at the Turn 3 chicane, removing any chance he had to score his third Baltimore pole in as many years.

“Yeah, still pretty happy to be on the front row, it seems like the Honda guys have got it,” Power said. “I’m the only Chevy guy here, so waving the flag for them. Hopefully, we can wave it real high tomorrow.”

Behind them it was a bit of an odd Fast Six with three drivers making their first appearance in the final portion of road or street course qualifying this season.

Simon Pagenaud, Justin Wilson and Josef Newgarden all have their best starts of the season. For Newgarden, it’s his first ever Firestone Fast Six appearance and his best career qualifying effort (seventh on three different occasions was his prior best). Newgarden started second at Long Beach a year ago, and was promoted to the position thanks to five Chevrolets with engine change grid penalties ahead of him.

Tristan Vautier rounded out the Fast Six but it was an odd qualifying session for the Frenchman from Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.

In Q2, Vautier hit Graham Rahal’s crashed car at the Turn 8 barriers – Rahal had nosed in moments earlier – but Rahal was docked his two fastest laps for causing a red flag during the session. Vautier’s times held up even though he hit Rahal’s rear. The session was not immediately red flagged when Rahal hit the barriers.

Also knocked out in Q2 were championship contenders Helio Castroneves and Ryan Hunter-Reay, Mid-Ohio winner Charlie Kimball, Long Beach winner Takuma Sato and three-time 2013 winner James Hinchcliffe. Rahal will start 12th.

Rahal’s teammate, James Jakes, led those knocked out in Q1 in 13th but will take a 10-spot grid penalty for switching to his sixth engine of the season, one over the maximum five allotted. It’s an unfortunate situation because Jakes had an engine issue the previous round, which would ordinarily allow for a change without a grid penalty.

Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan and Marco Andretti were the bigger names that also failed to advance from Q1.

The final three qualifiers were E.J. Viso, who only completed one lap before pancaking the wall on exit to the Pratt Street chicane; series debutante Stefan Wilson, who continued to find time in the second Dale Coyne car; and Sebastien Bourdais, who also crashed over the same chicane and didn’t complete a single lap.

Grand Prix of Baltimore presented by SRT
Unofficial Qualifying Results

BALTIMORE – Qualifying Saturday for the Grand Prix of Baltimore IZOD IndyCar Series event on the 2.04 mile(s) Baltimore Street Circuit, with qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, time and speed in parentheses:

1. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 01:18.0838 (94.053)
2. (12) Will Power, Dallara-Chevy, 01:18.1171 (94.013)
3. (77) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 01:18.4307 (93.637)
4. (19) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 01:18.8698 (93.115)
5. (67) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Honda, 01:18.9022 (93.077)
6. (55) Tristan Vautier, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.0380 (92.917)
7. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevy, 01:19.0288 (92.928)
8. (1) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Chevy, 01:19.0367 (92.919)
9. (83) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.0523 (92.901)
10. (14) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.2216 (92.702)
11. (27) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Chevy, 01:19.3182 (92.589)
12. (15) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 01:22.2045 (89.338)
13. (16) James Jakes, Dallara-Honda, 01:18.6398 (93.388)
14. (98) Luca Filippi, Dallara-Honda, 01:19.1242 (92.816)
15. (10) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 01:18.6694 (93.353)
16. (11) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevy, 01:19.3051 (92.604)
17. (4) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Chevy, 01:18.8075 (93.189)
18. (25) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Chevy, 01:19.4738 (92.408)
19. (78) Simona De Silvestro, Dallara-Chevy, 01:18.9829 (92.982)
20. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Chevy, 01:20.5694 (91.151)
21. (6) Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Chevy, 01:19.2440 (92.676)
22. (5) EJ Viso, Dallara-Chevy, 02:16.3120 (53.876)
23. (18) Stefan Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 01:20.1871 (91.586)
24. (7) Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevy, No Time (No Speed)

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It took four attempts for Kyle Larson to win his first High Limit Sprint Car Series race in the series he co-owns with brother-in-law Brad Sweet, but once he found victory lane, he has been undefeated with his win at Eagle (Nebraska) Raceway. For the second week, Abreu led early only to fall prey to Larson.

The win was Larson’s third straight victory and the fifth consecutive top-five, giving him a perfect sweep of the season after finishing 10th in last year’s inaugural race at Lincoln Park Speedway in Putnamville, Indiana.

Larson started third behind Abreu and Brent Marks but was embroiled in a fierce battle with Anthony Macri for third during the first dozen laps. Larson slipped by Macri in traffic until a red flag waved for a flip by Lachlan McHugh.

Meanwhile at the front of the pack, Marks retook the lead from Abreu on Lap 18. Larson followed one lap later and then caution waved again. Tyler Courtney lost power and fell to 24th after starting eighth.

Marks scooted away on the restart but tragedy struck in Lap 26. Leading the race, Marks hit a pothole in Turn 1, bicycled and then flipped, handing the lead to Larson.

Abreu caught Larson again during the final laps and in a reprise of their battle at Tri-City Speedway, the two threw sliders at one another for several laps until Larson built some separation and ran away to the checkers.

𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧. 𝗪𝗔𝗦. 𝗘𝗣𝗜𝗖.@EagleRaceway went above and beyond in their return to the main stage with the High Limit Sprint Car Series tonight!

pic.twitter.com/H3XKQEOpg6

— High Limit Racing (@HighLimitRacing) June 7, 2023

“I didn’t feel like my pace in [Turns] 1 & 2 slowed down a ton,” Larson said from victory lane. “I missed it once there and then I saw his nose in 3 & 4. I didn’t know if he nailed the bottom that well behind me and I think he might have slid me in the next corner, so he was definitely on the top.

“I was nervous to move up there because my car was really pogoing up in the entry of 1. I got up just in time, made a few mistakes and he threw a couple more sliders at me but he was just a little too far back and I was able to squirt around him. Then I really had to commit to hitting my marks – back my effort down a bit to avoid mistakes.”

After leading early, Abreu fell back as far as sixth, but faith in his car kept hope alive.

“I just needed to do a few things a few laps before I did and fix some angles, then my car got a whole lot better,” Abreu said. “I’m thankful for this team; they do an amazing job. They don’t give up on me. I know my car is going to be there right at the end of these races, so it’s just the discipline of being patient.”

For Abreu, it was his third near-miss this season. He was leading at Lakeside in the 2023 opener until a tire went flat in the closing laps and he lost the lead to Larson late in the Tri-City Speedway race. Abreu has finished sixth or better in his last three High Limit races with each result being progressively better until his pair of runner-up results.

Third-place finisher Scelzi was the hard charger, advancing from 17th.

“I had a very specific plan; don’t go near [the hole in Turn 1],” Scelzi said. “It worked out. No one wanted to start on the top. I think I gained a couple of rows there on the choose cone and ran the middle, which seemed to be better than right around the bottom.”

Michael “Buddy” Kofoid in fourth and Macri rounded out the top five.

World of Outlaws star and former NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne was one of 41 entrants, but he was not among the 26 starters. He failed to advance to the Main after finishing eighth in the B Main and seventh in his heat.

Feature Results

A Feature (40 Laps): 1. 57-Kyle Larson[4]; 2. 24-Rico Abreu[1]; 3. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[17]; 4. 71-Michael Kofoid[5]; 5. 39M-Anthony Macri[3]; 6. 9-Chase Randall[9]; 7. 26-Zeb Wise[14]; 8. 1X-Jake Bubak[15]; 9. 8-Aaron Reutzel[10]; 10. 14D-Corey Day[18]; 11. 11-Cory Eliason[12]; 12. 5T-Ryan Timms[11]; 13. 88-Austin McCarl[13]; 14. 21H-Brady Bacon[22]; 15. 48-Danny Dietrich[16]; 16. 7S-Robbie Price[19]; 17. 21-Brian Brown[23]; 18. 22-Riley Goodno[26]; 19. 52-Blake Hahn[25]; 20. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[21]; 21. 3J-Dusty Zomer[6]; 22. 14-Cole Macedo[7]; 23. 19-Brent Marks[2]; 24. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[8]; 25. 25-Lachlan McHugh[20]; 26. 53-Jack Dover[24]

2023 High Limit Sprint Car Series

Race 1: Giovanni Scelzi wins at Lakeside Speedway
Race2: Anthony Macri wins at 34 Raceway
Race 3: Kyle Larson wins at Wayne County Speedway
Race 4: Kyle Larson wins at Tri-City Speedway

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