Lundqvist nabs second Barber Motorsports Park and fourth Indy Lights pole

Linus Lundqvist (HMD Motorsports with Dale Coyne Racing) relaxes at Barber Motorsports Park. The Swedish driver won his fourth pole. (Photo Courtesy of Penske Entertainment)

By Steve Wittich

Qualifying for the Indy Lights Grand Prix Of Alabama received the green flag at 2:35 pm. After cloud cover during the past few hours, the sun came back out at Barber Motorsports Park. The ambient temperature was 81F.

Most of the drivers were on pit road at the halfway mark of the 30-minute session for fresh Cooper Tires and adjustments.

With a lap of 72.6753 seconds, Rasmussen was the quickest driver in the first half of qualifying. The rest of the timesheet was as follows: Robb (Andretti Autosport), Pedersen (Global Racing Group), Danial Frost (HMD Motorsports w/ Dale Coyne Racing), Lundqvist, Kyffin Simpson (TJ Speed Motorsports), Hunter McElrea (Andretti Autosport), Matthew Brabham (Andretti Autosport), Manuel Sulaiman (HMD Motorsports w/ Dale Coyne Racing), Jacob Abel (Abel Motorsports), Ernie Francis, Jr. (Force Indy), James Roe, Jr. (TJ Speed Motorsports), Christian Bogle (HMD Motorsports w/ Dale Coyne Racing) and Antonio Serravalle (Abel Motorsports).

Lundqvist was the first driver to go to the provisional pole, with a lap only two-hundredths of a second ahead of fellow series sophomore Pederson. Rasmussen, only a tenth of a second back, was Rasmussen, completing a trio of Nordic drivers in the top three.

Robb, the last driver with a chance to knock Lundqvist off the pole, turned his quickest qualifying lap, missing the pole by a tenth of a second and improving to the inside of the second row.

The biggest surprise of qualifying was Danial Frost (HMD Motorsports) starting from outside the fourth row. The Singaporean driver led both practice sessions on the 2.3-mile, 17-turn natural terrain road course.

Indy Lights Grand Prix Of Alabama