STEAM CORNERS, Ohio — Alex Palou’s season of domination continued Saturday as the NTT IndyCar Series points leader claimed his third P1 Award as the fastest qualifier for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.
Palou’s pole winning time was 1:05.0215 around the 13-turn, 2.258-mile Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in the No. 10 OpenAI Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing. It was career pole No. 9.
“Ever since I started with CGR, we’ve had great cars, but we have struggled at qualifying up front, so this year has been phenomenal,” Palou said. “I’m super happy starting up front, for sure.
“We could have saved the last set of soft tires to have an advantage in the race, but we believe starting up front is more valuable.
“We can’t wait.”
Rookie Louis Foster was at the top of the times when he pulled into the pits with under one minute left. But Palou took it away in the closing minute. Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Kyffin Simpson moved up to second, before he was displaced by Christian Lundgaard of Arrow McLaren.
Kyffin Simpson was third, the highest the driver from the Camen Islands has ever qualified in an IndyCar Series race.
“It was incredible,” Simpson said. “It was a tough qualifying, especially in those final seconds. I feel good about Sunday. We’re the highest ones starting with an extra set of Reds. That is good for us, and we have a lot of pace.
“Now, we can focus on the race and do our best there.”
Lundgaard’s No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet was second at 1:05.2126 followed by Simpson’s No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda at 1:05.7555, Siegel’s No. 6 Chevrolet 1:05.9262.
“I’m really happy to be starting fourth, highest starting position in IndyCar and back in the Fast Six again,” Siegel said. “It’s all working well.”
This is also the first race with former Team Penske IndyCar General Manager Kyle Moyer as the new Competition Director at Arrow McLaren.
Moyer also call’s Siegel’s race strategy.
“This is a great start to our relationship,” Siegel said. “I had never met Kyle Moyer until setup day at Iowa Speedway last week. I’m really happy to have Kyle on board and to have him on the radio and the stand, we have a great mix of youth and experience. We have really smart, young people that are hungry for it with some really experienced, proven faces.
“I’m really excited about the second half of this year.”
Colton Herta of Andretti Global was fifth in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda at 1:06.1218 with Louis Foster rounding out the Firestone Fast Six at 1:06.2398.
Half of the Firestone Fast six included rookie Foster, second-year driver Simpson and 20-year-old Siegel. All of those drivers represent some of IndyCar’s younger and newer drivers.
In the second round, Foster’s No. 45 Honda briefly ran into the dirt, but he quickly got back on track and continued his lap without losing control.
Andretti Global drivers Colton Herta and Kyle Kirkwood swapped the lead midway through the session as the speeds increased, and the times dropped.
With under one minute left, Palou went to the top, displacing Kirkwood from the fastest position. Christian Lundgaard knocked Palou down one position with 10 seconds remaining before Foster claimed the fastest speed.
Once the session ended, Foster was the fastest at 1:05.0897. He was followed by Christian Lundgaard’s 1:05.1837, Palou’s 1:05.2861, Herta’s 1:05.3819, Siegel’s 1:05.3866 and Simpson’s 1:05.4082.
Those drivers would fight it out in the Fast Six.
Those who didn’t advance into the final round were Kirkwood (1:05.4443), Armstrong (1:05.5469), Scott Dixon (1:05.5570), Christian Rasmussen (1:05.5861), Marcus Ericsson (1:05.5952), and Alexander Rossi (1:05.9275).
“What impacts it is one of the Carpenter cars in front of us, we got too close to them, they were backing up and were outside of a second away that wasn’t technically impeding, but it was enough to cost us,” said Kirkwood, who will start seventh. “I’m really upset about that; I’m not going to lie.
“We were better than that but got held up.”
Team Penske’s misfortunes in qualifications continued as all three drivers including Scott McLaughlin, Will Power and Josef Newgarden failed to advance out of their qualification groups in the first segment.
The drivers that advanced out of the first group in Segment One included Christian Lundgaard (1:05.2835), Marcus Ericsson (1:05.5758), Colton Herta (1:05.6518), Nolan Siegel (1:05.6788), Christian Rasmussen (1:05.7168) and Kyffin Simpson (1:05.7185).
Missing the cut were, in order, Conor Daly (1:05.7573), Pato O’Ward (1:05.7726), Santino Ferrucci (1:05.8138), Sting Ray Robb (1:05.8303), Scott McLaughlin (1:05.853), Devlin DeFrancesco (1:06.0593) and Jacob Abel (1:06.6460).
Segment Two was paced by Alex Palou (1:05.2463) followed by Louis Foster (1:05.2518), Scott Dixon (1:05.3944), Kyle Kirkwood (1:05.5061), Marcus Armstrong (1:05.5609), and Alexander Rossi (1:05.6267).
Missing out in order was David Malukas (1:05.6384), Felix Rosenqvist (1:05.6932), Josef Newgarden (1:05.6489), Graham Rahal (1:05.6728), Will Power (1:05.6745), Callum Ilott (105.6757), Rinus VeeKay (105.8516) and Robert Shwartzman (1:06.3827).
Newgarden turned down interview requests, but Rosenqvist was more than happy to speak.
“I had Shwartzman in front of me and he was slowing down, he was slow as it was, I got really close to him and I pitted,” Rosenqvist said. “My first lap was almost fast enough.”
Earlier in the day during the morning practice session, Will Power confronted Chip Ganassi Racing championship-leading driver Palou.
Power was attempting to make a qualification simulation when he radioed to his crew that Palou was slow ahead of him. In-car camera showed Palou’s No. 10 Honda further up the track, but not near Power’s No. 12 Chevrolet.
“Why is (bleep) Palou there?” Power said over the radio.
He was told, “I think the car ahead of him is getting a flag.”
But after practice concluded, Power marched down to Palou’s pit as he was talking to his crew.
“You came out in front of me again, twice,” Power said as he poked his finger at Palou. “I always move people out of the way. I always move people out of the way.
“I always get out of the way.”
Palou asked, “Why are you mad?”
Power responded, “You (bleeped) up the whole session.
“Just so you know.”
Palou very much kept his cool during the confrontation.
