There’s cause to copy and paste the lede from the last race, because Alex Palou did it again.
The defending NTT IndyCar Series Champion won the pole for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio during Saturday’s (July 6) qualifying session. It was a clean sweep of every qualifying group for the Spaniard, who was clearly the man to beat with the fastest car.
“We knew we had the really fast car,” Palou said.
“We knew we had the advantage on the No. 5 with the tires because we did one less lap in Fast 12 and we didn’t want to risk it. The car’s been awesome, the No. 10 Ridgeline car is going to look good on the front row. It’s nice. It was nice two weeks ago, so we wanted to repeat.”
Pato O’Ward missed out by .0024 seconds in his pursuit for his first pole since 2022. However, it will be his best start on the season. Behind him in third is David Malukas, who is competing in just his second race with Meyer Shank Racing after recovering from an injury sustained to his wrist in the offseason. It’s his best start since Iowa Speedway last year, but even better, the highest he has ever rolled off the grid on a road or street course.
With the in-season testing of the hybrid done heavily by the top four teams – Team Penske, Chip Ganassi Racing, Andretti Global and Arrow McLaren – it was presumed the sessions would favor them. However the results were fairly balanced, with six of the 14 total cars not making it out of Round 1.
Firestone Fast Six
Palou led the way, taking one point in the championship for the pole and will lead the field to the green on Sunday. O’Ward was close but not fast enough on his last lap to overtake Palou.
Malukas’ start is a personal best for him and make Ohio-based owner Mike Shank happy. While Marcus Armstrong continues to be a consistent participant in the Firestone Fast Six, he unfortunately won’t start that high Sunday as he will drop six spots due to an engine change.
| Position | Driver | Number | Team | Time |
| 1 | Alex Palou | 10 | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1::05:3511 |
| 2 | Pato O’Ward | 5 | Arrow McLaren | +0.0024s |
| 3 | David Malukas | 66 | Meyer Shank Racing | +0.2998s |
| 4 | Colton Herta | 26 | Andretti Global | +0.4142s |
| 5 | Marcus Armstrong | 11 | Chip Ganassi Racing | +0.5891s |
| 6 | Marcus Ericsson | 28 | Andretti Global | +0.6081s |
Round 2
Scott McLaughlin, for a second race in a row, put his car seventh on the grid, being the fastest Team Penske car for the weekend. The team has a lot of work ahead of them on Sunday.
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