
Defending Long Beach winner Herta delivered the eighth pole position of his IndyCar career after struggling during Friday practice on the extremely gripped-up street track.
Herta produced a 1m05.309s lap in the decisive Fast Six session, eclipsing the previous qualifying lap record by 0.9s and earning pole by 0.445s over Team Penske's Josef Newgarden. But he admitted it came as a result of difficulties in opening practice when he was almost seven-tenths off the pace.