Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park – Jack William Miller Claims USF Pro 2000 Pole for Freedom 90 – Qualifying Notes and Quick Preview

By Tony DiZinno

Jack William Miller will lead the 18-car field of USF Pro 2000 presented by Cooper Tires competitors to the green flag for Friday night’s Cooper Tires Freedom 90 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

The Carmel, Indiana native in his No. 40 Miller Vinatieri Motorsports lapped the 0.686-mile oval in a total of 41.726 seconds over two laps, equating to an average speed of 118.372mph.

Miller’s MVM Tatuus IP-22 was ahead of two Exclusive Autosport entries, Joel Granfors and Salvador de Alba. Granfors, the 18-year-old Swede, is fresh off his first USF Pro 2000 win on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course earlier this month and will look to emulate last year’s series champion and Exclusive Autosport driver, Louis Foster, in winning on the IRP oval shortly after capturing his first series win on the IMS road course.

TJ Speed Motorsports’ Francesco Pizzi and Pabst Racing with Force Indy’s Myles Rowe complete the top five on the grid.

Rowe enters the race with a 39-point lead on Kiko Porto, who only qualified his DeForce Racing entry in 11th place (139-100). Pizzi is third on 99, Granfors fourth on 95 and Jace Denmark fifth on 91.

The only oval on the schedule means the USF Pro 2000 field has a slightly different points structure.

A win is 45 points, second 38, third 33, fourth 29, fifth 26, with the remainder of the top 10 23-21-20-18-17 and then 15 for 11th down to 2 for 20th.

Key to the race in recent years? Tire management. Drivers need to hold onto their Cooper Tires over the course of 90 laps, and often times, managing the fall-off and keeping enough in hand when encountering slower traffic decides the winner.

Foster’s win last year was for Exclusive Autosport. Other recent winners with the Tatuus chassis include: Christian Rasmussen for Jay Howard Driver Development (2021), Kody Swanson for Legacy Autosport (2020), Danial Frost for Exclusive Autosport (2019) and Parker Thompson for Exclusive Autosport (2018).

Qualifying Results

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Lap 1	Lap 2	Total Time	Avg. Speed
1	40	Jack William Miller	Miller Vinatieri Motorsports	20.758	20.968	41.726	118.372
2	92	Joel Granfors	Exclusive Autosport	20.910	20.849	41.759	118.279
3	91	Salvador de Alba	Exclusive Autosport	21.022	20.873	41.895	117.895
4	55	Francesco Pizzi	TJ Speed Motorsports	21.066	20.896	41.962	117.706
5	99	Myles Rowe	Pabst Racing w/Force Indy	21.137	20.893	42.030	117.516
6	20	Jace Denmark	Pabst Racing	21.182	20.950	42.132	117.232
7	1	Michael d’Orlando	Turn 3 Motorsport	21.119	21.210	42.329	116.686
8	2	Jonathan Browne	Turn 3 Motorsport	21.144	21.245	42.389	116.521
9	32	Christian Weir	TJ Speed Motorsports	21.187	21.236	42.423	116.427
10	47	Jackson Lee	Turn 3 Motorsport	21.291	21.250	42.541	116.104
11	12	Kiko Porto	DEForce Racing	21.384	21.204	42.588	115.976
12	4	Ricardo Escotto	Jay Howard Driver Development	21.415	21.297	42.712	115.640
13	81	Nicholas Monteiro	NeoTech Motorsport	21.421	21.308	42.729	115.594
14	7	Bijoy Garg	DEForce Racing	21.376	21.362	42.738	115.569
15	90	Yuven Sundaramoorthy	Exclusive Autosport	21.478	21.363	42.841	115.291
16	93	Lindsay Brewer	Exclusive Autosport	21.678	21.715	43.393	113.825
17	6	Reece Ushijima	Jay Howard Driver Development	-.—-	-.—-	No Time	No Speed
18	19	Jordan Missig	Pabst Racing	-.—-	-.—-	No Time	No Speed