By Patrick Stephan

Hunter McElrea took his first INDY NXT by Firestone pole of 2023 besting James Roe to take the top spot for this afternoon’s INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix. This is his first pole of 2023, after winning three last year in his rookie season of what was then INDY Lights.

This is Roe’s best start of 2023 and his career, improving on 4th at Iowa a few weeks back.

McElrea entered the weekend 59 points out of the championship lead held by Christian Rasmussen who qualified just 9th. Nolan Siegel, who trails Rasmussen by 45 timed in 7th, potentially giving McElrea a chance to close down the gap to the leaders with 5 races remaining.

The first of those is today at 5:00pm Eastern Time, followed by single races on the oval at Gateway, Portland, and then a double header to conclude the championship at Laguna Seca.

INDY NXT by Firestone Qualifying Results:

Pos	Car #	Driver	Best Time	Diff	Gap	Fast Lap	Total Laps	Team
1	27	Hunter McElrea	1:15.1216	1:15.1216	‑‑.‑‑‑‑	4	6	Andretti Autosport
2	29	James Roe	1:15.5074	0.3858	0.3858	5	6	Andretti Autosport
3	21	Kyffin Simpson	1:15.5134	0.3918	0.006	4	6	HMD Motorsports
4	26	Louis Foster	1:15.5276	0.406	0.0142	3	6	Andretti Autosport
5	10	Reece Gold	1:15.5907	0.4691	0.0631	5	6	HMD Motorsports
6	14	Josh Pierson	1:15.6159	0.4943	0.0252	4	6	HMD Motorsports
7	39	Nolan Siegel	1:15.6246	0.503	0.0087	4	6	HMD Motorsports
8	51	Jacob Abel	1:15.6632	0.5416	0.0386	4	7	Abel Motorsports
9	6	Christian Rasmussen	1:15.6679	0.5463	0.0047	6	6	HMD Motorsports
10	28	Jamie Chadwick	1:15.6747	0.5531	0.0068	6	6	Andretti Autosport
11	75	Victor Franzoni	1:15.7161	0.5945	0.0414	3	7	Juncos Hollinger Racing
12	68	Danial Frost	1:15.8318	0.7102	0.1157	4	6	HMD Motorsports
13	47	Kiko Porto	1:15.8467	0.7251	0.0149	5	6	Cape Motorsports
14	99	Ernie Francis Jr.	1:15.8765	0.7549	0.0298	4	6	HMD Motorsports
15	7	Christian Bogle	1:15.9153	0.7937	0.0388	3	6	HMD Motorsports
16	76	Rasmus Lindh	1:15.9229	0.8013	0.0076	4	7	Juncos Hollinger Racing
17	55	Francesco Pizzi	1:15.9899	0.8683	0.067	3	6	Abel Motorsports
18	98	Jagger Jones	1:16.0598	0.9382	0.0699	6	7	Cape Motorsports
19	57	Colin Kaminsky	1:16.3637	1.2421	0.3039	6	6	Abel Motorsports