CGR Registers Successful Qualifying Day; Ericsson Claims P4 Starting Position

Marcus Ericsson, with an extra set of tires on the day, advanced to the Fast 6 and claimed a second row starting position for the No. 8 Huski Chocolate Honda team. Ericsson’s P4 qualifying result is his best on a street course track throughout his INDYCAR SERIES career. 

Alex Palou will kick off the Streets of St. Petersburg race in P7 position after just missing out on the final round by 0.0095 seconds in the No. 10 The American Legion Honda

In the No. 9 PNC Bank HondaScott Dixon earned a position in the Fast 12 and will begin the race in P9 position. 

Marcus Armstrong, in his first career INDYCAR qualifying session, posted the best result among his rookie class and will line up in P13 with the No. 11 Ridgeline Lubricants Honda crew. 

The green flag will drop at 12:30 p.m. ET tomorrow for the season-opening race, with live coverage available on NBC beginning at noon. 

Marcus Ericsson
No. 8 Huski Chocolate Honda
“I’m really happy with our results and our performance. I think it shows all the hard work we put in this offseason as a team. For myself, I’ve been focusing a lot on qualifying, trying to be better there and improve our qualifying form and this is a great start to that and to the season. I’m really happy, grateful and looking forward to the race tomorrow.”

Scott Dixon
No. 9 PNC Bank Honda
“Definitely interesting day today, crashing in practice this morning. Not too much damage which was great to get the car fixed. Went into qualifying with a few unknowns. We were the quickest in Q1, looking good in Q2, then we had a big balance shift on the last set of tires and just had a lot of understeer. We missed by a few hundredths and frustrating as we’ll start ninth. The PNC Bank No. 9 is definitely a lot quicker than that. It’s been one of the those weekends where we miss by a little bit when it counted the most.”

Alex Palou
No. 10 The American Legion Honda
“It was a shame that we qualified so close to advancing to the Fast 6, but the No. 10 The American Legion car was great. It was great yesterday and now today, so we’ll make a few tweaks tomorrow in the warm-up to try to get the win in the race.”

Marcus Armstrong
No. 11 Ridgeline Lubricants Honda
“Qualifying done and dusted; A little bit earlier than I would have liked. But it was close. Probably not the best scenario for us with the red flag at the end with us not getting out there to do another lap. But the No. 11 Ridgeline Lubricants was really good; It’s just the fine margins.”