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Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin earned his second consecutive NTT P1 Award at World Wide Technology Raceway, and this time he gets the prime race starting position that goes with it.
A year ago, McLaughlin’s terrific qualifying run was tempered by a penalty for an unapproved engine change, knocking him nine places deeper in the starting order for the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline. That penalty proved to be significant as the NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver struggled in traffic, and he finished in fifth place.
Those fears won’t be present when McLaughlin takes the green flag in the No. 2 DEX Imaging Team Penske Chevrolet, but that’s not his focus. He seeks the third win of the season following victories at Barber Motorsports Park and Iowa Speedway, and he has a championship to chase.
“At the end of the day, tomorrow’s payday,” McLaughlin said of the 260-lap race that airs live on USA Network, Peacock and the INDYCAR Radio Network. “We’ll make sure we’re on top of things.”
With a two-lap average of 179.972 mph, McLaughlin earned his fourth pole of the season and the ninth of his career, and this one puts him in a strong position to make a dent in the 83-point deficit he faces for the series title. Two drivers ahead of him in the standings, including series leader Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing, will have one of those nine-grid penalties that hampered him in last year’s race.
Palou qualified seventh at 178.363 mph in the No. 10 Samaritan Purse Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, and teammate Scott Dixon, who drives the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, will be moved back nine spots to begin the race. Dixon qualified 10th at 177.905 mph. The six-time series champion won last year’s race by 22.2 seconds.
Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist, who had the second-best qualifying performance at 179.796 mph, also will incur such a penalty.
Another benefactor of the post-qualifying movement will be David Malukas, who has scored a pair of top-three finishes at this 1.25-mile oval each of the past two years. The third-fastest qualifier at 179.503 mph will start a career-best second in Meyer Shank Racing’s No. 66 AutoNation/Arctic Wolf Honda.
Meyer Shank Racing has a technical alliance with Andretti Global, which had the three fastest cars in the recent eight-car test at this track. Kyle Kirkwood used some of that knowledge gained to earn the best oval qualifying performance of his career — sixth at 178.417 mph — in the No. 27 AutoNation Honda, the best oval effort of his career. Teammate Marcus Ericsson qualified ninth at 178.114 mph in the No. 28 Delaware Life Honda.
Colton Herta was bidding for his second consecutive pole and fourth in the past eight races when his No. 26 Gainbridge Honda spun lazily through Turn 1 on his second lap. The impact was relatively square with the rear, but the Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian driver was left with the 25th qualifying position. Dale Coyne Racing teammates Jack Harvey (No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda) and Katherine Legge (No. 51 e.l.f. Cosmetics Honda) did not post times.
“It just broke loose,” Herta said of the car. “(It’s) unfortunate. I think that first lap was decent – I don’t think it was going to get us the pole, but I think it could have got us in the top five. Second lap, I don’t if we wore the tires too much or what happened. (The grip) just let go pretty early and that’s all she wrote.”
Saturday’s race is the first of five races to end the season, and with 54 points available it could go a long way to setting the tone for the frenetic stretch run. Palou leads Team Penske’s Will Power by 49 points in pursuit of his third series championship in the past four years. Power, who qualified fifth at 179.262 mph in the No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet, also is driving toward a third series title.
Dixon, Herta and Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward round out the top five in the standings. They are 53, 57 and 71 points behind Palou, respectively. O’Ward qualified 11th at 177.160 mph in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.
Josef Newgarden (No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet) has won this event a record four times, and he will start Saturday’s race from the third position after posting a qualifying average of 179.424 mph. Besides Dixon, Power is the only other active driver to have won this event.
