DETROIT — For the third NTT IndyCar Series race in a row, Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing is on the pole.
The four-time IndyCar Series champion won the16th IndyCar pole of his career with a lap at 1:01.9017 in 9-turn, 1.645-mile street course in the No. 10 Honda Racing Corp. Honda on the streets of Detroit.
Palou’s trio of poles in a row are on three different types of courses including the IMS Road Course in the Sonsio Grand Prix, the 110thIndianapolis 500 on the massive Indianapolis Motor Speedway 2.5-mile oval and on a street course in downtown Detroit.
He will lead the field to green in Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.
“You never know, man, you never know especially with these Fast Six rules,” Palou said. “I’m so happy we made it to the pole and I’m so happy to get that No. 10 Honda Honda car on the pole and get there for tomorrow.
“I would not change the position we are in right now, but it’s tough. We can get a clean start working from there. Great start, man.”
Andretti Global driver Will Power was second fastest at 1:02.1249 in the No. 26 Honda.
“There’s always a bit of mayhem getting around here,” Power said.
Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske was the first driver to go out in the single lap runs but made a mistake at the start of the long straight out of Turn 2 but was able to quickly get back to speed and complete a lap at 1:02.4559. That was over one second off the fastest time he set in the previous round.
He finished third.
“Going out first was a major gamble, but starting third is a great spot to start tomorrow,” McLaughlin said. “We’ll take what we can get and make sure we don’t make any mistakes.”
That gave the other five drivers a shot if they could turn a fast lap without making a similar mistake.
Next up was Andretti Global driver Will Power in the No. 26 Honda, IndyCar’s all-time pole winner. Power got through Turn 2 better than McLaughlin and he was trending for a better lap that McLaughlin. Power kept it clean and finished with a 1:02.1249 to take over No. 1.
Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Global locked it up entering the hairpin and that ruined what could have been a very fast lap. Instead, his time was 1:03.030 in the No. 27 Honda.
Three drivers down, three more to go.
And the first of that trio was Palou, who was attempting to win his third pole in a row and was trending faster than Power’s lap. Palou had a slide entering one of the turns, but it didn’t stop him from posting the fastest speed at that point at 1:01.0917.
That left it up to Christian Lundgaard and Scott Dixon as the last two drivers that could keep Palou from the pole.
Lundgaard jumped ahead of Kirkwood for fourth with a lap at 1:02.7870, guaranteeing Palou of a front row start.
After Dixon’s lap at 1:02.6805 in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda moved him up to fourth, Palou won the pole.
“The 9 car had the speed, but I got too aggressive,” Dixon said. “We hope to put on a good show and kudos to Alex for winning the pole.”
