Arrow McLaren Grand Prix of Portland: Qualifying Report

The Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team had a strong start to the day, seeing the cars within tenths of a second of each other in Practice 2.

Changing track conditions during qualifying, derailed the success in the morning session, leaving the drivers ending qualifying P18, P23 and P24.

There is a long way to go on Sunday, but the team is confident in each of the car's race pace.

Read the thoughts of the drivers and Team Principal Gavin Ward after a busy Saturday at Portland International Raceway.

"I don't know what to say. We were really good in both practice sessions, and it resulted in nothing in qualifying. I wouldn't have changed anything with the balance or execution, there was just no performance to be had."

"I don't know what was going on with the Firestone Alternate tires, because the car didn't feel horrible with the Firestone Primaries. It felt like the car never switched on with the alternates. I don't know if it was because of how we brought them in or having to back down when some of the cars in front of us slowed down and got us off sequence. That session was obviously a handful. There was just no pace in it at all; I couldn't really get it out of the car. There's not much more I could've done or I would've been spinning. It's a bummer, because I thought we had a chance for at least the Firestone Fast 6, if not the pole, but we just couldn't get the car to switch on."

"We felt pretty strong pace-wise in practice, and thought we had a good shot at transferring. We got a pretty clean run in, and nothing really went wrong; we were just lacking pace. Obviously, it’s not a stellar day, and we’ll have to keep searching to find more. I don’t know how much strategizing there will be with this race. We’ll have to see, but I’ll be learning, see what I can do and will be hoping to make up similar ground to last week in Gateway."

Gavin Ward, Team Principal, Arrow McLaren, said:

"It was a strange day. We’re not 100% sure what went wrong for us in qualifying, but we definitely didn’t have the pace anymore with the changes on the track from practice to qualifying. Racing is a complicated game, and if we all had it figured out, you wouldn’t see missteps like this when things turn on its head a little bit. At the end of the day, we will try to learn from it and be a better race team. One thing is for sure, it’s the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, and you can still have a pretty good day starting anywhere. Our focus is on a strong race."

Session Times