Scott McLaughlin and Alex Palou captured poles for IndyCar’s doubleheader round at The Milwaukee Mile.
The two-lap qualifying round saw the first lap determined the field for Race 1 set for later today (2:30 p.m. ET), with the second lap locking the field for Race 2 on Sunday (1 p.m. ET).
Driving the #3 Team Penske Chevrolet, McLaughlin posted a 165.536mph opening lap to take Race 1 pole. Reigning and four-time IndyCar Series champion Palou, driving the #10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, was the last driver to go out and hit a second lap of 164.658mph, which knocked off Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward by a slim 0.0003s.
McLaughlin will be credited with the Race 1 pole but will not start from the front after receiving a grid penalty for an unapproved engine change. Palou, who set the second-fastest opening lap, and third-fastest David Malukas received the same penalty. That promotes O’Ward, fourth-fastest on the opening laps at 164.019mph, to the Race 1 starting pole.
None of the unapproved engine change penalties ahead of Race 1 carry over to Race 2.
Qualifying rundownJuncos Hollinger Racing’s Sting Ray Robb was the first driver to hit the track, with a 159.564mph with his opening lap and a second lap of 159.392mph.
Rookie Mick Schumacher was the second one to go out, and posted back-to-back laps of 162.344mph and 163.244mph in the #47 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) Honda. Both laps put him on provisional pole.
Fellow rookie Caio Collet went out third in the #4 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet, hitting an initial lap of 160.033mph before following it up with a 159.847mph.
Christian Rasmussen, who took his maiden IndyCar win at Milwaukee last year and was also involved in a crash during practice on Friday, went out fourth in a rebuilt #21 ECR Chevrolet. He hit a first lap of 161.015mph, with a second of 160.409mph.
Hauger recorded a 163.192mph first lap and 161.253mph second lap.
Dale Coyne Racing rookie Dennis Hauger, who was second-fastest in practice, was the fifth driver on-track. Hauger recorded a 163.192mph first lap and 161.253mph second lap. Hauger’s first lap knocked off Schumacher from provisional pole for Race 1.
Next up was RLL’s Louis Foster, who recorded an opening lap of 163.011mph and a last lap of 162.910mph.
Nolan Siegel, who crashed in practice, went out seventh in the #6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, logging a pair of laps of 155.959mph and 157.754mph, respectively.
The eighth driver to go out on track was Dale Coyne Racing’s Romain Grosjean. Grosjean posted consecutive laps of 162.379mph and 160.260mph.
AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci, the ninth driver out on track, delivered a first lap of 159.040mph, with a second at 159.595mph.
Alexander Rossi was next up and posted a 162.536mph first lap before nailing a 160.745mph run on his second in the #20 ECR Chevrolet. Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong went out 11th and hit a first lap of 161.163mph, with a 162.331mph on his second lap.
The 12th driver to go out on track was RLL’s Graham Rahal, who posted an opening lap of 160.651mph before a second of 160.309mph.
Kyffin Simpson was the next driver up in the #8 Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) Honda, with a 161.065mph first lap and a 160.313mph run on his second lap.
Six-time IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon followed his CGR teammate as the 14th driver to qualify, with a first lap showing of 161.820mph before a second lap of 162.153mph.
Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Rinus VeeKay was the 15th driver to hit the track and managed back-to-back laps of 160.978mph and 161.776mph, respectively.
Andretti Global’s Will Power, a two-time IndyCar champion, hit the track after VeeKay and hit a 163.220mph on his first lap before a 163.243mph second lap.
McLaughlin was due up next. He rocketed to a 165.536mph opening lap - to take provisional pole - before fading to a 162.560mph on his second lap.
It was Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist as the 18th driver to hit the track. The Swede’s first lap was 163.183mph, and followed it up with a 162.667mph outing.
Fellow Swede Marcus Ericsson followed in the #28 Andretti Global Honda. He delivered a first lap of 161.896mph, with a second lap performance of 161.623mph.
Next up was two-time IndyCar Series champion Josef Newgarden, who had a 163.771mph opening lap in the #2 Team Penske Chevrolet. He managed a second lap of 163.767mph to take provisional pole from Schumacher in Race 2.
O’Ward, who sits fifth in the championship standings, led the run of the final five drivers to go out. O’Ward posted a 164.019mph first lap, good enough for second overall provisionally, with a second lap quick enough to knock Newgarden off from provisional pole in Race 2 with a run of 164.655mph.
Team Penske’s Malukas went out next and clawed out an initial lap of 164.058mph to slot ahead of O’Ward in Race 1, with a second lap significantly off the mark at 161.615mph.
Christian Lundgaard, driving the #7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, put down a first lap of 162.573mph before knocking out a second lap of 162.087mph.
Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood, who was involved in the practice crash with Rasmussen on Friday, was the second-to-last driver to go out. The Floridian had a wiggle on his warm-up lap before a nervous first lap of 159.919mph and a second of 159.234mph.
Palou was the last driver to hit the track in the qualifying bout. He extracted a run of 164.147mph on the first lap, before knocking off O’Ward from pole for Race 2 narrowly with a 164.658mph lap.
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