WEST ALLIS, Wis. — Team Penske proved its oval expertise Saturday afternoon by winning both poles for this weekend’s Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250s NTT IndyCar Series race.
Scott McLaughlin won the pole for Saturday’s evening first race with a top speed of 162.341 miles per hour in the No. 3 Chevrolet for Team Penske. Teammate Josef Newgarden won the pole for Sunday’s second race with a lap at 160.983 mph in the No. 2 PPG Chevrolet.
IndyCar’s unique doubleheader qualifying format features two-lap runs by each driver. The speed from lap one sets the field for Saturday evening’s first race and the speed from lap two determines the lineup for Sunday’s race.
“That was like proper driving stuff,” McLaughlin said of his first qualification attempt on the flat, 1.015-mile oval located at the Wisconsin State Fair Park. “The UV (ultraviolet rays from the sun) of the track was high. It was quite loose, and a weird sort of grip level.
“It’s not just a flat-out oval track. It’s nice to sort of just wheel one there and managed to get pole there.
“The Dallara-Chevy has been great since we dropped it out of the truck. It’s just massaging it and making sure I was on it from a driving perspective.
“Worked out pretty good.”
Newgarden agreed with his Team Penske teammate at the unique grip level and demands of racing an Indy car at The Milwaukee Mile.
“Those are hard laps around Milwaukee,” Newgarden said. “They make you work for it. We probably overshot a little bit, but we weren’t going to undershoot today. I can promise you that. We’ve been on the wrong side of it too often this year.
“We were going to go the other way, if anything probably put it in the fence. But the car was great. It’s been really good since we rolled off, similar to Scott.
“The race is going to be a different animal, but this is great to get the front row with Team Penske here, the first to start out for both races. Excited to get into race conditions this afternoon.”
Newgarden was the second fastest qualifier for Saturday’s race at 151.640 mph, but he will be starting 10th because of a nine grid-spot penalty for an unapproved engine change. David Malukas of Meyer-Shank Racing was the third-fastest qualifier for Saturday’s race at 161.426 mph followed by Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi’s lap at 160.531 mph in the No. 7 Chevrolet.
Linus Lundqvist of Chip Ganassi Racing was fifth at 160.460 mph in the No. 8 American Legion Honda.
Team Penske’s Will Power enters Sunday’s race second in points, 54 points behind championship leader Alex Palou. He qualified sixth and Palou qualified 13th.
For Sunday’s second race of the doubleheader, McLaughlin was second fastest at 160.912 mph in the No. 3 Chevrolet, Marcus Armstrong of Chip Ganassi Racing was third in the No. 11 Honda at 160.203 mph followed by Power’s 159.939 mph and Lundqvist’s 159.886 mph.
Palou qualified 10th for the Sunday race.
Those starting positions will be adjusted once IndyCar adds the nine grid-spot starting position penalties.
Team Penske has won every oval race in IndyCar this season.
Saturday evening’s race will begin in daylight and conclude around 7 p.m. Central Time with cooler track conditions.
“This is the first doubleheader we’ve had here, even from back in the day, so I imagine it would be a lot more gripped up and the line bigger,” McLaughlin said. “But we’ll have to find out, eh?
“We’ll see.”
McLaughlin, like most of the drivers in qualifications, had to drive a race car with a very “free” setup to get through the flat turns at The Milwaukee Mile.
“It was free, very free,” McLaughlin said. “It was kind of a numb feeling, I guess you could say, because you sort of have a little bit of push, a little bit free — mostly free.
“But it kind of feels more like the test, I don’t know if you agree with it. But that’s kind of what it felt like. Honestly, I think the sun is a big problem, but for the traffic itself.
“But that’s just the same thing for everyone.”
There are only five drivers in the starting lineup for each race that have previously raced at The Milwaukee Mile in their career.
The last IndyCar race at the 1.015-mile oval was in 2015.
This was McLaughlin’s first experience at one of the most famed race courses in America and was asked his first impressions of the unique track.
“It’s sick,” McLaughlin said. “It’s awesome. Love it.
“It’s just fast. You’ve got to drive. You’ve just got to drive it. It’s not just flat and a couple of lifts. It’s like you’re wheeling it, which is fun.”
The 27-car field will start “wheeling it” later Saturday at 6 p.m. Eastern Time.
Sunday’s race is at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time.