Arrow McLaren struggles continue in Portland qualifying

The good news for Arrow McLaren fans is that Christian Lundgaard went from last to first at Road America in June to win his second race of the season for Arrow McLaren. The bad news is Lundgaard will need to do it again, this time at the OnlyBulls Grand Prix of Portland, after mounting electrical problems with the No. 7 Chevy left the Dane without the necessary speed and power to set a capable lap time.

"Quite disappointed in how our day ended up, considering we seemed to have made progress overnight with our pace,” said Lundgaard, who entered Portland holding fourth in the drivers’ championship. “My dash froze when we came in for the tire change midway through Q1, and when we fired up again, my hybrid didn’t work after that. I had to do what I could with the car for the remainder of the session, which obviously wasn’t much without the hybrid functioning. We’ll start from the back tomorrow, which may be tough on this track, but we’re up for the challenge."

Where electrical issues were to blame for Lundgaard’s lack of pace and 25th-place starting spot, Pato O’Ward – who sits fifth in the standings – was missing the right combination of chassis settings to run higher than 17th.

“We’ve been struggling for pace,” O’Ward said, overstating the obvious. “It’s been very difficult to extract lap time. Since Practice 1, we’ve gotten it a bit more comfortable but we’re nowhere near where we have to be. Disappointing; I wouldn’t say I’m shocked considering where we were yesterday. I knew it was going to be difficult to transfer.”

Nolan Siegel, the youngest and least experienced member of the team, achieved a rare feat by outqualifying O’Ward and Lundgaard; he starts 16th.

“Very rough start to the whole weekend as a group,” he said. “We’re just lacking a lot of pace. We made gains from yesterday to today but just not enough. So, we’re going to have a lot of work to do overnight and tomorrow, and we’ll see if we can turn it around."