NOTE: Tomorrow’s Java House Grand Prix of Arlington has been moved up on hour. FOX will be on the air at 11:30 am Eastern time with the green flag at Noon Eastern. The change is due to predicted high winds later in the afternoon.

It has been 13 years since Marcus Ericsson won a pole position for a race. Today that streak ended as Ericsson won the pole in a new format for tomorrow’s IndyCar race at Arlington, Texas. Ericsson had the advantage of running his single Fast Six lap on warm tires, and his time stood up to a challenge by Alex Palou, the last driver on track.

“I’ve waited long enough; I can tell you that,” a jubilant Ericsson said. “I think 2013 was the last pole I had. I feel like this is a giant thing for me because of that. Two-hundredths of a second away at St. Pete.”

Ericsson’s winning margin was a bit less than half a second over the defending series champion.

Team Penske had won the pole in each of the first two races, with Scott McLaughlin in the top spot at St. Petersburg and David Malukas in first after qualifying at Phoenix. Today was not the team’s best day. While all three cars were very fast, Josef Newgarden hit the wall in morning practice, forcing him to go to a backup car. In qualifying Scott McLaughlin also made wall contact in Round 1. Malukas couldn’t quite find the speed he had earlier. No Penske car made the Fast Six.

Another pole favorite, Kyle Kirkwood, also missed the Fast Six. His teammates, Ericsson and Will Power, did get to the final round. Kirkwood starts seventh tomorrow.

For Power, today marks his first sign of success with the team after a difficult morning in which he made contact Scott Dixon.

Meyer Shank Racing put both of their cars in the Fast Six. Felix Rosenqvist will star fifth, and Marcus Armstrong rolls off sixth.

The New Fast Six

I didn’t hate it, but I can’t say I was thrilled by it. I think the Fast Six format has potential with some tweaking. A better television presentation might have helped hold my interest more also.

Rule Changes: Ericsson seemed to have a big advantage going first since his tires were still warm from the end of Round 2. There are ways to remedy this. Here are some suggestions, not necessarily meant to be implemented as a group

1. A 10 minute break allowing everyone’s tires to cool. OR
2. The leader of Round 2 gets to choose when he makes his run. OR
3. Tire warmers which must come off when the car on track is two corners from the alt. start line.
4. Limit use of this format to tracks shorter than Arlington. I thought the length of the track contributed to some of the dullness of the shootout.

FOX could help viewer interest by providing sector times with comparison to where the leader was at a particular point on track. Showing times in green and red was a halfway job of marking progress. I want to know how much slower or faster t6he car is to the leader on the board. A map tracker would also help for the entire run.

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