| CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C.1.7-mile, 7-turn Washington, D.C. street circuitWashington, DCSaturday Qualifying ReportAugust 22, 2026 WASHINGTON (August 22, 2026) – Scott McLaughlin, the driver of the No. 3 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet, was the quickest of the trio of Team Chevy drivers that advanced to the Firestone Fast Six, where Christian Rasmussen joined him in the No. 21 Splenda Stevia Chevrolet and David Malukas in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. It’s the fifth time this season that McLaughlin, who will start third, has advanced to the Firestone Fast Six, with four of those coming on street circuits. Rasmussen will start a season-best fourth, after making his second Fast Six in the last four races. Malukas, who appeared in his seventh Fast Six of the year, will start from the outside of the third row. Pato O’Ward (No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet), Christian Lundgaard (No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet), Caio Collet (No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet) and Nolan Siegel (No. 6 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet) made Chevrolet the dominant manufacturer in the Fast 12, capturing seven of the dozen spots. |
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| Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. qualifying report: |
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| What they’re saying – Freedom 250 Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet qualified 3rd:“The PPG Chevy felt good, just struggling to get the tires up to temp like some of the cars. We’ll go to work on that. I think we’re in a good spot for tomorrow. To get Fast 6 around here is great. We’ll focus on tomorrow. I think we’ve got a great race car.”Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Splenda Stevia Chevrolet qualified 4th:“It was there from the beginning. We rolled off the truck super well this weekend. We made a few improvements for the second practice and made a few improvements for qualifying. We improved the car; that’s just the name of the game. We started on the right progression and stepped up each time, which is very big for us. I’m very happy, putting the Splenda Stevia Chevy at the right end of the field is exciting and representing these brands well and hopefully have a good race tomorrow.” David Malukas, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet qualified 6th:“It’s obviously a fantastic show for the fans, but for our car specifically, it’s tough because we always struggle with trying to build (tire) temps up. So, it’s a tough situation, and I made a mistake on the lap. We had a big lockup, again, brakes aren’t up to temp, and I had a tow link hit, very light, but I didn’t want to put…Probably could have finished the lap, but I said, you know what? The Verizon Chevy is in one piece, Fast Six, that’s good enough for tomorrow. We can start there; it’s a long race. But yeah, fantastic shootout. I love it. I love the one lap shootout, but we have to figure out how to get our temps up and be on the upper end of it.” Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet qualified 7th:“It’s obviously a fantastic show for the fans, but for our car specifically, it’s tough because we always struggle with trying to build (tire) temps up. So, it’s a tough situation, and I made a mistake on the lap. We had a big lockup, again, brakes aren’t up to temp, and I had a tow link hit, very light, but I didn’t want to put…Probably could have finished the lap, but I said, you know what? The Verizon Chevy is in one piece, Fast Six, that’s good enough for tomorrow. We can start there; it’s a long race. But yeah, fantastic shootout. I love it. I love the one lap shootout, but we have to figure out how to get our temps up and be on the upper end of it.” Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet qualified 9th:“Long day at the office. We’re obviously driving on a track with some cool surroundings. It’s one hell of an event that’s being put on by the NTT INDYCAR SERIES this weekend. We rolled off pretty well this morning, and I’m a little bummed that we didn’t execute as well as we could have in Q2 as we were fighting grip, fighting lap time. It’s a long race tomorrow, though, so it’s just about being in it.” Caio Collet, No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet qualified 11th:Yeah, quite decent. Just couldn’t really extract a lot of lap time in the fast 12. Need to understand why. We put new tires on and somehow, we went a little bit slower. So yeah, just trying to analyze that, see what happened. Not a bad place to start – 11th. So hopefully we can have a clean race tomorrow.” Nolan Siegel, No. 6 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet qualified 12th:“It was a very weird day here in D.C. I thought we were going to be in the Fast 6 after Practice 2 but just lost some pace in Qualifying. So, I’m a little disappointed with that, but we will be in an okay spot, and we will be able to pass on this track through a long race.” Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet qualified 16th:“Yeah, just missed transferring to the second round. Obviously, this is a short circuit with short lap times, so fewer areas to make up time. It’s a very technical track with the bumps and I love that. While I’m still not racing at 100 percent, I know this team will give me a great Astemo Chevy tomorrow. What a beautiful scheme too. It will look good coming through the field.” Rinus VeeKay, No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet qualified 19th: Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet qualified 22nd:“The only positives are that we’re racing in D.C. right now. I hit the wall on the first set. The second set, people go off in front of you, and then it goes red, so you just don’t get another lap. It’s just a terrible situation to be put in, insanely unfortunate. So, we’ll just see what happens in the race. I need to be able to have a car to drive and not stuff it in the wall. We’ve got a lot of work to do tonight.” Sting Ray Robb, No. 77 Juncos Hollinger – Goodheart Chevrolet qualified 24th: |
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| CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIESFreedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C.1.7-mile, 7-turn Washington, D.C. street circuitWashington, DCSaturday Qualifying ReportAugust 22, 2026 WASHINGTON (August 22, 2026) – Scott McLaughlin, the driver of the No. 3 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet, was the quickest of the trio of Team Chevy drivers that advanced to the Firestone Fast Six, where Christian Rasmussen joined him in the No. 21 Splenda Stevia Chevrolet and David Malukas in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. It’s the fifth time this season that McLaughlin, who will start third, has advanced to the Firestone Fast Six, with four of those coming on street circuits. Rasmussen will start a season-best fourth, after making his second Fast Six in the last four races. Malukas, who appeared in his seventh Fast Six of the year, will start from the outside of the third row. Pato O’Ward (No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet), Christian Lundgaard (No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet), Caio Collet (No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet) and Nolan Siegel (No. 6 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet) made Chevrolet the dominant manufacturer in the Fast 12, capturing seven of the dozen spots. |
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| Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. qualifying report: |
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| What they’re saying – Freedom 250 Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet qualified 3rd:“The PPG Chevy felt good, just struggling to get the tires up to temp like some of the cars. We’ll go to work on that. I think we’re in a good spot for tomorrow. To get Fast 6 around here is great. We’ll focus on tomorrow. I think we’ve got a great race car.”Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Splenda Stevia Chevrolet qualified 4th:“It was there from the beginning. We rolled off the truck super well this weekend. We made a few improvements for the second practice and made a few improvements for qualifying. We improved the car; that’s just the name of the game. We started on the right progression and stepped up each time, which is very big for us. I’m very happy, putting the Splenda Stevia Chevy at the right end of the field is exciting and representing these brands well and hopefully have a good race tomorrow.” David Malukas, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet qualified 6th:“It’s obviously a fantastic show for the fans, but for our car specifically, it’s tough because we always struggle with trying to build (tire) temps up. So, it’s a tough situation, and I made a mistake on the lap. We had a big lockup, again, brakes aren’t up to temp, and I had a tow link hit, very light, but I didn’t want to put…Probably could have finished the lap, but I said, you know what? The Verizon Chevy is in one piece, Fast Six, that’s good enough for tomorrow. We can start there; it’s a long race. But yeah, fantastic shootout. I love it. I love the one lap shootout, but we have to figure out how to get our temps up and be on the upper end of it.” Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet qualified 7th:“It’s obviously a fantastic show for the fans, but for our car specifically, it’s tough because we always struggle with trying to build (tire) temps up. So, it’s a tough situation, and I made a mistake on the lap. We had a big lockup, again, brakes aren’t up to temp, and I had a tow link hit, very light, but I didn’t want to put…Probably could have finished the lap, but I said, you know what? The Verizon Chevy is in one piece, Fast Six, that’s good enough for tomorrow. We can start there; it’s a long race. But yeah, fantastic shootout. I love it. I love the one lap shootout, but we have to figure out how to get our temps up and be on the upper end of it.” Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet qualified 9th:“Long day at the office. We’re obviously driving on a track with some cool surroundings. It’s one hell of an event that’s being put on by the NTT INDYCAR SERIES this weekend. We rolled off pretty well this morning, and I’m a little bummed that we didn’t execute as well as we could have in Q2 as we were fighting grip, fighting lap time. It’s a long race tomorrow, though, so it’s just about being in it.” Caio Collet, No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet qualified 11th:Yeah, quite decent. Just couldn’t really extract a lot of lap time in the fast 12. Need to understand why. We put new tires on and somehow, we went a little bit slower. So yeah, just trying to analyze that, see what happened. Not a bad place to start – 11th. So hopefully we can have a clean race tomorrow.” Nolan Siegel, No. 6 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet qualified 12th:“It was a very weird day here in D.C. I thought we were going to be in the Fast 6 after Practice 2 but just lost some pace in Qualifying. So, I’m a little disappointed with that, but we will be in an okay spot, and we will be able to pass on this track through a long race.” Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet qualified 16th:“Yeah, just missed transferring to the second round. Obviously, this is a short circuit with short lap times, so fewer areas to make up time. It’s a very technical track with the bumps and I love that. While I’m still not racing at 100 percent, I know this team will give me a great Astemo Chevy tomorrow. What a beautiful scheme too. It will look good coming through the field.” Rinus VeeKay, No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet qualified 19th: Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet qualified 22nd:“The only positives are that we’re racing in D.C. right now. I hit the wall on the first set. The second set, people go off in front of you, and then it goes red, so you just don’t get another lap. It’s just a terrible situation to be put in, insanely unfortunate. So, we’ll just see what happens in the race. I need to be able to have a car to drive and not stuff it in the wall. We’ve got a lot of work to do tonight.” Sting Ray Robb, No. 77 Juncos Hollinger – Goodheart Chevrolet qualified 24th: |
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| Tune-In Guide Sunday, August 9NTT INDYCAR SERIES Warm Up – 9am (ET)/8am (CT)/7am (MT)/6am (PT) – FS1/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218Freedom 250 Grand Prix Pre-Race Show – 11:30am (ET)/10:30am (CT)9:30am (MT)/8:30am (PT) – FOXFreedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. (125 laps) — 1pm (ET)/noon (CT)11am (MT)/10am (PT) – FOX/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218 |