A podium finish for Lundgaard at last week’s race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course appears to have unlocked his confidence and as he lapped the bumpy 2.1-mile street course in Nashville 1min15.9695sec to head the field by over two-tenths.
With an extra set of primaries to use, it was predominantly the rookies who hit the 2.1-mile course in the opening 15 minutes, with David Malukas of Dale Coyne Racing with HMD-Honda setting a 1min18.1595sec, an average speed of 96.725mph. He was just ahead of Andretti Autosport-Honda’s Devlin De Francesco, and Rookie of the Year points leader Christian Lundgaard of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda.
Then Josef Newgarden was first of the race-winners to show his hand, with a 1min18.0728sec in the Team Penske-Chevrolet.
Meyer Shank Racing’s Helio Castroneves, who is to suffer a six-place grid penalty on Sunday, then suffered misfire in his new Honda and had to pit.
At this time Newgarden started to stretch his advantage with a 1min17.3855sec lap, with Romain Grosjean (Andretti) slotting into second but 0.61sec in arrears. Then out came the red flag for Dalton Kellett sliding into the Turn 1 run-off, and not having enough room to spin the AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet back around.
Scott McLaughlin just had time to slot into second – still half a second off Newgarden – before Rinus VeeKay had a similar issue in Turn 1 and the newly re-signed Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet driver needed rescuing.
Following the green flag, Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet, and Penske’s championship leader Will Power moved up to second and third, 0.045 and 0.26sec respectively off Newgarden’s benchmark, while last year’s polesitter Colton Herta slotted into fifth. Then Newgarden shaved his best time down to a 1min17.2591sec (97.853mph), and last year’s Nashville runner-up Scott Dixon moved into third, 0.19sec behind.
Castroneves, whose engine issue had been resolved, bent a toelink against a wall under braking and had to limp back to the pits with 30mins of the session remaining.
McLaughlin then moved the game on with a 1min16.8441sec effort on primaries, 0.415sec clear of teammate Newgarden and the first 98mph lap of the weekend.
Felix Rosenqvist moved into fifth, just under 0.3sec from teammate O’Ward, and then the third red flag flew for Herta stalled in the Turn 1 runoff, complaining of clutch issues.
With the session restarting with under 20mins remaining, several drivers took on a set of the alternate Firestones – green side-walled this weekend, since the sidewall rubber is made from the guayule shrub. Using these, defending series champion Alex Palou moved his Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda into second.
This was thoroughly eclipsed by Rosenqvist, also using the ‘greens’ to deliver a 1min16.2050sec lap – a 99.206mph lap. No less impressive was rookie Lundgaard who went fourth fastest, 0.79sec behind, but using the hard primaries. Then with the alternates on, Lundgaard delivered a brilliant 1min15.9659sec to go top, 0.24sec clear of Rosenqvist, while his big rookie rival Malukas claimed third.
Alexander Rossi spent much of the session stuck in the pits, having his brakes bled, but when he emerged he took alternates and produced a 1min16.7041, sixth best.
| P | Name | FTime | Diff | FL | Laps | FSpeed | Engine | Tire | Team |
| 1 | Christian Lundgaard | 1:15.9659 | - | 25 | 29 | 99.518 | Honda | A | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 2 | Felix Rosenqvist | 1:16.2050 | 0.2391 | 15 | 22 | 99.206 | Chevy | A | Arrow McLaren SP |
| 3 | David Malukas | 1:16.2366 | 0.2707 | 22 | 25 | 99.165 | Honda | A | Dale Coyne Racing with HMD |
| 4 | Scott McLaughlin | 1:16.5755 | 0.6096 | 20 | 23 | 98.726 | Chevy | A | Team Penske |
| 5 | Josef Newgarden | 1:16.6957 | 0.7298 | 24 | 27 | 98.571 | Chevy | A | Team Penske |
| 6 | Alexander Rossi | 1:16.7041 | 0.7382 | 12 | 16 | 98.561 | Honda | A | Andretti Autosport |
| 7 | Will Power | 1:16.8330 | 0.8671 | 22 | 26 | 98.395 | Chevy | A | Team Penske |
| 8 | Colton Herta | 1:16.8435 | 0.8776 | 17 | 20 | 98.382 | Honda | A | Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian |
| 9 | Alex Palou | 1:16.8505 | 0.8846 | 17 | 24 | 98.373 | Honda | A | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 10 | Romain Grosjean | 1:16.9479 | 0.9820 | 25 | 28 | 98.248 | Honda | A | Andretti Autosport |
| 11 | Marcus Ericsson | 1:16.9763 | 1.0104 | 20 | 25 | 98.212 | Honda | A | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 12 | Simon Pagenaud | 1:17.0123 | 1.0464 | 21 | 23 | 98.166 | Honda | A | Meyer Shank Racing |
| 13 | Callum Ilott | 1:17.1922 | 1.2263 | 28 | 31 | 97.937 | Chevy | A | Juncos Hollinger Racing |
| 14 | Pato O'Ward | 1:17.3180 | 1.3521 | 10 | 25 | 97.778 | Chevy | A | Arrow McLaren SP |
| 15 | Takuma Sato | 1:17.4097 | 1.4438 | 23 | 26 | 97.662 | Honda | A | Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR |
| 16 | Scott Dixon | 1:17.4430 | 1.4771 | 12 | 21 | 97.620 | Honda | A | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 17 | Kyle Kirkwood | 1:17.5373 | 1.5714 | 20 | 21 | 97.501 | Chevy | A | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
| 18 | Devlin DeFrancesco | 1:17.5815 | 1.6156 | 25 | 29 | 97.446 | Honda | A | Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport |
| 19 | Jack Harvey | 1:17.6736 | 1.7077 | 20 | 23 | 97.330 | Honda | A | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 20 | Graham Rahal | 1:17.7000 | 1.7341 | 12 | 22 | 97.297 | Honda | A | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 21 | Conor Daly | 1:17.7633 | 1.7974 | 24 | 27 | 97.218 | Chevy | A | Ed Carpenter Racing |
| 22 | Rinus VeeKay | 1:17.8434 | 1.8775 | 22 | 28 | 97.118 | Chevy | A | Ed Carpenter Racing |
| 23 | Helio Castroneves | 1:18.1575 | 2.1916 | 19 | 21 | 96.728 | Honda | A | Meyer Shank Racing |
| 24 | Jimmie Johnson | 1:18.7645 | 2.7986 | 22 | 25 | 95.982 | Honda | A | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 25 | Simona De Silvestro | 1:18.9245 | 2.9586 | 24 | 28 | 95.788 | Chevy | A | Paretta Autosport |
| 26 | Dalton Kellett | 1:19.3271 | 3.3612 | 22 | 24 | 95.302 | Chevy | A | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
