Alex Palou began the defense of his 2023 Sonsio Grand Prix victory in the best way possible on Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, earning the pole for this year’s race.
Two-time and reigning NTT INDYCAR Series champion Palou won his fourth career NTT P1 award and his first since the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear last June. Today’s best lap in the Firestone Fast Six was 1 minute, 9.0004 seconds in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
I SEE: Qualifying results
The pole on the 14-turn, 2,439-mile road course came after Palou finished 17th and 11th, respectively, in today’s two practice sessions ahead of qualifying.
“It was a tough day, honestly,” Palou said. βPractice 1 and practice 2 weren’t great. Even the start of the qualifiers. Well, very happy to be there. Not expecting. I’ll take it.
“It was my mom’s birthday today, so it’s probably a good birthday present.”
Live coverage of the 85-lap race begins at 3 p.m. ET Saturday on NBC, the Peacock and the INDYCAR Radio Network. A 30-minute warm-up begins at 11:15 a.m., with live coverage by Peacock and the INDYCAR Radio Network.
Christian Lundgaard qualified second in 1:09:0921 in the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. This was his third consecutive front row start at the IMS road course, having won pole for this event last May and starting second in the Gallagher Grand Prix last August.
Two-time series champion Will Power will start third after his top qualifying lap of 1:09.1636 in the No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet. Teammate Josef Newgarden will join Power on the second row of the starting grid after qualifying fourth in 1:09.2528 in the No. 2 Snap-on Team Penske Chevrolet.
The strong performances for Power and Newgarden came despite working this month without their respective quarterbacks and key mechanics. Team president and Newgarden general Tim Cindric, Power general Ron Ruzewski, Newgarden engineer Luke Mason and Power data engineer Robbie Atkinson were fired from Team Penske for this event and the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge for their roles on the Push to Pass technical violations found in the cars driven by Power, Newgarden and teammate Scott McLaughlin.
Pato O’Ward will start fifth after his best lap of 1:09.3320 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. Six-time series champion Scott Dixon completed the Firestone Fast Six in 1:09.5270 in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
2016 Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi qualified a season-best seventh with a 1:09.0801 in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet after missing the Firestone Fast Six by 0.0185 of a second. Rossi’s previous best start this season was 13th at Long Beach.
Series points leader Colton Herta faces a big bump in Saturday’s race after qualifying 24th of the season in Andretti Global’s No. 26 Gainbridge Honda with Curb-Agajanian. Hertha’s car ran out of fuel on its final lap during the first round of qualifying. He drove the first practice session this morning.
This is Herta’s lowest qualifying position since he also started 24th for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear last June.