Felix Rosenqvist won the fourth pole position of his NTT IndyCar Series career by topping the charts during Saturday’s (April 1) qualifying session at Texas Motor Speedway for the PPG 375.
Roseqvist led an impressive outing for Arrow McLaren which saw the team’s trio of drivers place first, third, and fifth. Alexander Rossi will line up in the second row from third place while Pato O’Ward will lead the third row of the grid in fifth place. Rosenqvist will share the front row with Scott Dixon when the green flag drops during Sunday’s (April 2) race.
“Arrow McLaren just gave us a weapon today,” Rosenqvist told NBC’s Marty Snider. “We’ll take it! Big thanks to all our partners … I think we’ve always been good here, but this is a whole different confidence level compared to last year.”
Rosenqvist took the provisional pole during the first half of the session, being only the 10th driver to take the track in a field of 28 drivers who made their qualifying runs in the reverse finishing order of the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Making an impression further back in the pack was Takuma Sato, who is making the first of a series of oval starts this year for the No. 11 Chip Ganassi Honda, a ride he is sharing with rookie Marcus Armstrong. Sato will roll off in sixth place for Sunday’s race, but ran as high as third before the session’s end.
Likewise, Agustin Canapino put on an impressive performance, despite describing his car as having “Un poquito de understeer.” The Argentinian rookie placed 19th on the day, with a startling 0.004 second difference between his two timed laps.
On the flip side of the coin, Team Penske suffered a comparatively disappointing day as their drivers qualified in fourth, eighth and 15th. Josef Newgarden and Will Power will certainly be factors in the race from fourth and eighth, however more was expected from The Captain’s stable with the dramatic performance Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin, who qualified 14th, put on at the end of last year’s race.
The full results of qualifying for this year’s 28-car field — the largest field for IndyCar at Texas since 2011 — can be found here:
The 2023 PPG 375 will take place on Sunday, April 2, at 12 p.m. ET with coverage on NBC.
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