By David Morgan, Associate Editor
MADISON, Ill. – When it comes to qualifying on ovals in 2024, Scott McLaughlin has been on it.
The driver of the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet has not started off the front row in any of the oval races thus far through the NTT IndyCar Series season, adding another oval pole with his qualifying run on Friday afternoon at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
McLaughlin rocketed to the pole with a two-lap average of 179.972 mph to bank the top spot over Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist.
“The Dex Imaging Chevy was just great from the jump,” McLaughlin said. “We had a focus this morning, well, early noon, just to focus on the qualifying car because we knew we only had a short run before qualifying, and we knew how important it is to be at the front here. It went to plan. The car has been great from the jump. We’re in a really good spot, obviously, for tomorrow.
“As we know, this is INDYCAR. Anything can happen. But we’ll try to stay on our toes and focus on this last practice session tonight just to get our race balance right, and hopefully we can come with a pretty fast printer wagon for tomorrow.”
David Malukas backed up his fast time in practice with a third-place run to give Meyer Shank two out of the top-three fastest in qualifying. Malukas comes into the weekend with a 2.5 average finish at Gateway, looking to finish out the trifecta at the top of the podium on Saturday.
“We definitely did a really good job with the setup,” Malukas said. “Missed it a little bit, but it’s so hard to judge, with the temperature changing and the track being so green. There’s a little bit more time in it, but coming from practice one, it was pretty good.”
Malukas was fearless in his run, nearly skating into the outside wall in both Turn 2 during his run, but kept his foot in it and kept it off the wall to post his fast lap.
“It was definitely getting a little bit close! On that exit from Turn 2, I had to lay on the deployment of the hybrid, I was really pushing it, getting close to those walls – and that’s what it takes to get a good lap.”
Though Rosenqvist was fast enough to capture the outside pole, he won’t be able to enjoy the fruits of his labor as he will have to take a nine-position grid penalty for going over the engine limit. As a result, he will drop to 11th on the start and Malukas will take his place on the front row.
“It was a pretty…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Motorsports Tribune…