As he prepares for his third race with a third different team later today, Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel, driver of the No.6 NTT DATA Chevrolet says that he feels that he and the team will be competitive in the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. The highly rated 19-year old has signed for Arrow McLaren for the remainder of the 2024 season and beyond and starts his first race with the team from 23rd place with a time of 01:08.6785s just behind Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyffin Simpson. Commenting on his qualifying, Siegel said:
“I didn’t really get to run on reds at all until now. That’s a big challenge. The tire is very, very different. I think that in the first session, we had a little issue that kept us running most of the session and didn’t get to do our run on reds. Learning the tire on the first run, and then on the second run, I got to push a little bit harder, but it’s just a lot of new things for me. We’re doing our best. We’re getting better every session, but you can’t really expect us to come out having just met each other and never driven the car and be up there. I think the race pace is going to be good. I think the qualifying was going to be the most difficult session of the weekend for us, and I think the race pace is going to be just fine.”
“We’re getting better every session. We’re getting to know each other better. I’m getting to know the car better. It’s just a lot of new things and it’s tough. It’s tough. IndyCar is super competitive. I feel like as long as we can continue improving at this rate every session this weekend. I think we’re gonna hit the ground rolling really well in Mid-Ohio and on to the rest of the season. I’m happy with where we’re at happy with where the trajectory is going and I think that we’re going to be competitive in the race and we’ll be competitive for the rest of the season.”
It was a great session for Alexander Rossi in the No.7 VELO Chevrolet as he is the highest-placed Chevy driver in fifth place with a time of 01:07.3594s and speaking following the action he said:
“It’s been a smooth weekend so far, and it is good to qualify where I think we should be. When you are that close and you fall short, it is a little disappointing, but ultimately the No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet has been awesome. The team has done an amazing job, and I think we’ll have a really strong package going into tomorrow.”
It was a disappointing session for Pato O’Ward in the No.5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet as he starts today’s race from ninth place following a time of 01:07.4900s and speaking following the action he said:
“It wasn’t the best of Saturday’s I would say, but we can work from P9. I was happy with the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, so we’ll see what we can make better for the longer stints and see where it takes us.”
Arrow McLaren Team Principal Gavin Ward has been impressed with Nolan Siegel so far saying that he is getting to grips with the car and speaking following qualifying, Ward commented:
“It was a bit of a mixed bag today. On one hand you’ve got Alexander’s (Rossi0 best qualifying of the year. He did a good job to get up there, and he really pulled out a great lap to get into the Firestone Fast 6. We just didn’t have enough to fight for pole today. Pato (O’Ward) left a bit on the table in Q2. The potential was there to get that car in the Fast 6, but it was a bit of a scrappy session. Nolan (Siegel) is getting to grips with the car. We lost run time yesterday, and not getting a proper run on the softer tire today is a steep learning curve. We’re looking forward to race day.”