AVONDALE, Ariz. — David Malukas was already the fastest driver at Phoenix Raceway in Friday morning’s practice session. He more than backed that up in midday qualifications as the Team Penske driver scored his first NTT IndyCar Series Pole in his 63rd start.
The driver of the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet will lead the field to the pole in Saturday’s Good Ranchers 250 and Phoenix.
Malukas won the pole with a combined speed of 175.383 mph over a two-lap run around the 1.0-mile short oval. That was faster than teammate Josef Newgarden’s 174.548 mph two-lap average as Team Penske swept the front row at Phoenix.
Malukas is the 23rd different IndyCar driver to win a pole for Team Penske and the 66th driver overall. It was the 310th IndyCar Pole for Team Penske and the 706th overall.
Malukas earned the second starting spot three times last season with AJ Foyt Racing, including on ovals at Milwaukee and Nashville.
“Finally,” Malukas said. “I’m so happy. So many P2s. The story of ovals last season was we had it, waited until the last few guys and then boom; you get P2.
“But finally, we got it.”
Malukas was the 13th of 24 drivers to make a qualifying attempt today on the 1-mile desert oval at Phoenix after leading practice this morning at 175.605.
“I think the track got in our favor a little bit; it seemed like it was getting a bit worse. It feels so good. What a way to start our Phoenix race day tomorrow.”
For second-place qualifier Newgarden, he won the most recent IndyCar Series race at Phoenix in 2018.
It was also a breakthrough day for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing as Graham Rahal qualified third at 173.993 mph over two laps in the No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Honda, while rookie Mick Schumacher – competing in his first oval race was fourth starting quick at 173.667 mph for two laps in the No. 47 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda.
“We knew what we had to do, and we managed to put a good couple of laps together,” Formula 1 veteran Schumacher said. “I’m excited to run the race. It’s going to be a whole different situation in the race with traffic and everything, so it’s going to be tough.”
The last time a rookie qualified better than third in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES race was June 2025, when Louis Foster earned the pole at Road America for Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Rookie Robert Shwartzman also won the pole for the 109th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge last May.
The third Team Penske driver, Scott McLaughlin, rounded out the top five at 173.448 mph in the No. 3 Chevrolet.
Four-time series champion Alex Palou, who won the season opener last Sunday at St. Petersburg, qualified 10th at 172.980 in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda as the fastest of Ganassi’s three drivers.
The tough start to the 2026 season continued for two-time series champion Will Power at his new home at Andretti Global. Power crashed during qualifying in the No. 26 TWG AI Honda and will start 25th. He finished 22nd in his debut with the team last weekend at St. Petersburg after 17 seasons at Team Penske.
TSO caught up with Power in the Andretti Global garage area afterwards and said it is the first time in his career he has ever crashed in qualifying on a short oval.
As for the start of the season, Power said, “It’s crazy, crazy, crazy” as he admitted the start of the season has been very frustrating for the longtime driver previously with Team Penske.
Felix Rosenqvist didn’t participate
Power and Rosenqvist were unhurt in the incidents.
The man who has taken a major step in his early IndyCar career can celebrate his first career pole.
“The waiting – it was kind of the story of our life last season,” Malukas said. “We had so many provisional poles. We would be like thirteenth in line. You must wait until right at the end, and then somebody would get us. But I think track came in our favor that today and it got worse toward the end.
“So, everybody started to struggle and we maintained our run there. So, it feels very good and, man, thank you to everybody – to the Captain, Team Penske, Verizon, Chevrolet, everybody involved. It’s been a big crew, a lot of hard work this pre-season to get these cars where they need to be and make my job easy. I think it’s going be a good race. I think that NASCAR grip is going be a big play. We’re going to have to go through some data, look at everything, and see where that’s going to put us. But I think we’re in for a good race.”
