IndyCar Nashville starting lineup: Scott McLaughlin wins pole for Team Penske

Associated PressAug 6, 2022, 8:00 PM EDT
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee — Scott McLaughlin won the second pole of his IndyCar career, and Romain Grosjean and Christian Lundgaard earned their highest starting spots of the season in the starting lineup for Sunday’s Music City Grand Prix (3 p.m. ET, NBC).

McLaughlin won the pole on a flying final run around the 11-turn, 2.1-mile course in Saturday’s session, which started 90 minutes late because of weather delays, and a sloppy, shortened first qualifying group left some drivers steaming with anger in the hot, humid Nashville post-rain conditions.

The Team Penske driver was also fastest in Saturday morning practice. The New Zealand native opened the season by winning from the pole in St. Petersburg, Florida, for his first career victory.

INDYCAR AT NASHVILLE: Schedules, details for watching this weekend on NBC

QUALIFYING RESULTS: Click here for the full report from Nashville l Round 1, Group 1 l Round 1, Group 2 l Round 2 l Fast Six

TIRE DESIGNATIONS: Starting lineup with initial choices on compound

“This car was phenomenal,” McLaughlin told NBC Sports’ Kevin Lee of the No. 3 Dallara-Chevrolet. “One of those good laps. Hopefully, more of the same (Sunday). Heads down, bums up and focus on what we need to do.”

Grosjean qualified second for Andretti Autosport, which had three drivers eliminated in the first round of qualifying. Lundgaard was a career-best third for Rahal Letterman Lanigan, which advanced all three of its drivers to the top 12.

Alex Palou, Pato O’Ward and Josef Newgarden rounded out the Fast Six drivers who made the final round of qualifying.

The top five starting spots were represented by five teams: Team Penske, Andretti Autosport, Rahal Letterman Lanigan, Chip Ganassi Racing and Arrow McLaren SP.

Lundgaard overcame a penalty in the second round and locked a tire in the final round and still managed to qualify third.

The championship contenders had a mixed day with reigning champion Palou, who is ranked sixth in the six-driver fight, the highest qualifier (fourth). O’Ward, who is fifth in the standings, advanced only because IndyCar points leader Will Power was knocked from the Fast Six for impeding O’Ward’s lap when he went off course in the top 12.

The penalty stripped Power of his fastest lap and O’Ward took his spot. Power holds a nine-point lead over defending race winner Marcus Ericsson, and only 52 points separate Power from Palou with Sunday’s race the first of the final four this season.

“We can have a great day tomorrow,” Power said of starting eighth. “Get good strategy, good pit stops and see what we’ve got.”

Josef Newgarden of Penske, who is third in the standings, qualified sixth.

Ericsson and Scott Dixon, fourth in the standings, failed to advance out of the first round. Dixon will start 14th and Ericsson 18th, where he started from in last year’s victory.

“We need to come up with a good strategy and play the race as it comes,” Ericsson told NBC Sports’ Dillon Welch. “It’s been a lot of incidents this weekend again like last year. I think there’s still going to be opportunities. We’ve been struggling all weekend. I haven’t got the feeling in the car that I want. The team did a good job in qualifying to get it more to my liking and felt a step in the right direction.

“We’re just lacking too much speed to the fastest guys. It’s a bit strange. I will say in (the second practice), the car was very consistent to drive. A bit of work tonight, but I’m hoping for a better day tomorrow. I think if there’s anyone in this pit lane that can fight from the back to the front, we’re always strong doing that. We have that confidence.”

Colton Herta crashed in the first group of the first round to bring out a session-ending red flag that ruined multiple drivers’ runs, including teammate Alexander Rossi.

“Little bit too ambitious for what the conditions were. After it rained a lot of that grip kind of fell away, just trying to find the right braking point, and I just overdid it,” Herta told NBC Sports’ Dave Burns. “I apologize to my team, especially to Andretti, because I think I probably screwed over Rossi there pretty good, too. And probably a few other guys.

“I don’t try to do that on purpose, and was really an honest mistake, so I feel bad for everybody involved.”

Drivers were seething after the first group because it was so short. Prior to Herta’s spin, Andretti Autosport rookie Devlin DeFrancesco also spun to bring out a yellow that chewed up three of the 10 scheduled minutes in the qualifying group.

It meant most of the drivers eliminated in the round barely had a chance to make a qualifying run.

“Man, I’m so frustrated. That is not the sport, man,” said Simon Pagenaud, who will start 13th. “We can wait all the day for storm to pass, but they don’t give us enough time to put our lap down. It’s just unbelievable. I’m speechless.

“It’s such a shame because you just don’t get to perform at your level. We’re going to start again where we don’t belong. A lot of guys don’t belong up there up front.”

Felix Rosenqvist, who crashed in practice earlier Saturday, felt his lap would have advanced him before it was halted by the Herta crash.

“Just annoying,” Rosenqvist said. “I didn’t even have a lap. We had a kind of warmup lap. That’s something we have to look at, maybe we should have gone straight out and tried to do a lap, but it’s annoying when it’s always red flags and can’t even get the session going.”

The abbreviated session meant that Dalton Kellett advanced out of the first group for the first time in 37 career IndyCar starts. He’ll start a career-high 12th and was embraced by team and family members when he finished the top-12 session.

Here’s the IndyCar starting lineup for Sunday’s Music City Grand Prix on the 11-turn, 2.1-mile street course (qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, engine, time, speed):

ROW 1

1. (3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 01:14.5555 (101.401)
2. (28) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 01:14.6975 (101.208)

ROW 2

3. (30) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 01:14.7149 (101.185)
4. (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 01:14.9087 (100.923)

ROW 3

5. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 01:14.9261 (100.899)
6. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 01:15.1461 (100.604)

ROW 4

7. (18) David Malukas, Honda, 01:14.9616 (100.852)
8. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 01:14.9818 (100.824)

ROW 5

9. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 01:15.3112 (100.383)
10. (21) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 01:15.3897 (100.279)

ROW 6

11. (45) Jack Harvey, Honda, 01:15.9758 (99.505)
12. (4) Dalton Kellett, Chevrolet, 01:16.5600 (98.746)

ROW 7

13. (60) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 01:19.4039 (95.209)
14. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 01:15.3179 (100.375)

ROW 8

15. (7) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 01:21.1784 (93.128)
16. (14) Kyle Kirkwood, Chevrolet, 01:15.4382 (100.214)

ROW 9

17. (27) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 01:21.4579 (92.809)
18. (8) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 01:15.4501 (100.199)

ROW 10

19. (77) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 01:57.6982 (64.232)
20. (51) Takuma Sato, Honda, 01:15.5935 (100.009)

ROW 11

21. (16) Simona De Silvestro, Chevrolet, No Time (No Speed)
22. (20) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 01:16.3955 (98.959)

ROW 12

23. (26) Colton Herta, Honda, No Time (No Speed)
24. (06) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 01:16.5898 (98.708)

ROW 13

25. (29) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, No Time (No Speed)
26. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Honda, 01:17.5888 (97.437)

Vicki Golden and 805 Beer tell a unique story from an Inverted Perspective

By Mar 31, 2023, 3:56 PM EDT
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Vicki Golden has earned a career worthy of a thousand stories and 805 Beer tells at least one of them, as “Inverted Perspective” premiered March 30 on the company’s website and YouTube channel.

Golden did more to break the glass ceiling in SuperMotocross than she ever thought possible. She knows this because riders have never felt the need to explain any of her accomplishments with the disclaimer, “for a girl”. 

At this point in Golden’s career, she’s been the first woman to finish top 10 in AMA Arenacross Lites, the first woman to qualify in the Fast 40 in Monster Energy AMA Supercross and the first woman to compete in freestyle Moto X competition, earning a bronze medal by doing so.

Her love for moto came from childhood while she watched her dad and brother ride. By seven she was on her bike and making waves throughout Southern California. 

Golden, 30, is still madly in love with the sport and has no plans on moving away but her career is already one to talk about. 805 Beer’s film series wanted to do exactly that.

“I’m taken aback by it all,” Golden told NBC Sports about the documentary. “It’s just crazy to see your story, it’s one thing to live your life and battle everything that comes about but it’s another to just sit there and talk about it.”

805 approached Golden about the feature by asking, “Do you even realize that what you do, and your story is special?”

Golden took the question as a blank canvas to map out the highs and lows of her career and life. 

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The title “Inverted Perspective” came from a brainstorming session with Dominick Russo and it highlights Golden’s outlook on the sport of SuperMotocross and her life in general. 

“My whole life, my whole career was thinking differently and looking at things that shouldn’t be done and aren’t there, while being able to make a place for myself, where no one thought there should be a place,” Golden said.  “It’s inspiring someone to think in different ways. It sums up my life.”

Vicki Golden is not “fast for a girl”; she’s just fast. – 805 Beer

While Golden is no stranger to the spotlight, this was the first time she’s been fully involved with the storytelling and creation of a feature about herself. 

“It’s not like a full new experience,” Golden said. “Obviously, you get your standard questions about your upbringing and accomplishments, but I’ve never really put into perspective things that happened in my past with my dad and putting that to light. Also, certain other things that maybe got overlooked in previous interviews or films. I wanted to touch on these and Dom wanted to create a story. It’s just cool to see it come to light, it’s a nearly impossible thing to tell somebody’s life story in 40 minutes.”

Golden’s father was left paralyzed after an ATV accident, robbing him the opportunity to ride again. This happened a few months before the father-daughter duo was set to compete in the Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Nationals when Vicki was 12. While she might have been unable to grasp the severity at the time, it’s something she carries with her. Golden continues to ride in his honor.

Years later, an accident in 2018 nearly sidelined the then 25-year-old Vicki when a freestyle accident almost resulted in the amputation of her lower leg. 

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Golden 805 Beer
Vicki Golden has ridden a variety of disciplines in SuperMotocross, which gives her a unique perspective. – 805 Beer

“Inverted Perspective” highlights her father’s diligence in helping Vicki continue with her career and the kindness and strength he carried while fighting his own battle. 

“My dad was the entire reason that I started riding in the first place,” Golden said. “So, to honor his memory and to honor what we went through and how hard he pushed to keep our dream alive and keep everything going – in that sense then, it was really special to be able to honor him and talk about him.”

The 40-minute feature was filmed entirely in black and white, a stark contrast from the oversaturated world of motocross where the brighter the suit the easier it is for fans to find their rider and follow him in the race. By filming in monochrome Russo and Golden had the chance to focus on the race and track from a different perspective. 

“It was cool to be able to film it differently,” Golden said. “It created a challenge in the sense of what was going to be more visually impactful for the film.

“I couldn’t be here without the companies that back me but at the same time, it’s not like the logos or colors disappeared, it’s just different lights shed on different spots. It’s just a cool way to do it and to take color away and still be impactful. When you think of black and white, you think of old school, the OG way of doing things.”

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