Jack Hawksworth felt there was more time to be found in qualifying at Road America after losing the chance of a final shot at making it through into the second segment by Josef Newgarden’s red flag-inducing off-course moment.
After finding his first lap blocked by Chip Ganassi Racing’s Charlie Kimball while on the slower black Firestone tyres, Hawksworth felt he could have qualified his AJ Foyt Racing car higher than eighteenth had it not been for Newgarden’s incident, after feeling his #41 car was performing well.
Hawksworth’s lap of 1:45.5110 was not representative of his genuine pace, especially after setting a time of 1:43.8337 during final practice on Saturday morning around the Elkhart Lake circuit.
“The car felt OK but I got blocked by Charlie Kimball when I was on my black tires and so we came in for the reds,” said Hawksworth. “I made a mistake on my first lap on the reds so I just chose to save my tires and push on the second lap.
“The car felt pretty good but that’s when the red flag came out [for Newgarden] and I never got to put a lap in so feeling pretty gutted. That’s the way it goes I guess.”
