WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Colton Herta will start on pole for the season finale of the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires at Watkins Glen International. Herta’s best lap of 1:32.439 was more than three tenths of a second quicker than second-place Santi Urrutia, whose best lap came in at 1:32.795.
For Herta, this is his seventh pole of 2017 and comes at the end of a year that seen a lot of speed from the 17-year-old, but a string of inconsistent finishes and bad luck hampered his overall championship efforts
“I think it’s just been a lot of me gaining my confidence in the races. We’ve been quick all year. We’ve had a lot of poles this year, but just haven’t quite gotten it done in the races. But, we have a car for the race, we were really quick on old tires, and we were obviously quick on new tires. So, it should be good,” Herta told NBC Sports after qualifying.
The aforementioned Urrutia will flank Herta on the front row. Aaron Telitz, Nico Jamin, and Zachary Claman De Melo completed the top five. Champion-elect Kyle Kaiser, who need only start Sunday morning’s race to clinch the 2017 Indy Lights championship, qualified tenth.
Qualifying results are below. Sunday morning’s race begins at 10:50 a.m.
Checkered flag! P1 @ColtonHerta p2 @Santi_Urrutia p3 @AaronTelitz MRTI #TeamCooperTire pic.twitter.com/ylMMeC7bRV
— Team Cooper Tire (@TeamCooperTire) September 2, 2017