Kyle Kirkwood claimed the second pole position of his IndyCar career for the season finale, while Will Power took the best starting position of the championship contenders.
Points leader Alex Palou will line up 24th on the grid after his nine-place penalty for an unapproved engine change. Power, the only driver with a realistic change of beating him, will start 20 places ahead.
Kirkwood denied Josef Newgarden pole position with a quickest average speed of 324.316kph (201.521mph), averaging just 0.2kph quicker than his fellow front row starter.
Six drivers ran after Kirkwood but none had the pace to dislodge him from the top spot. Ganassi pair Palou and Scott Dixon were particularly disappointed, the latter taking 13th, Palou two places behind him.
Santino Ferrucci will line up next behind Power, followed by David Malukas and Conor Daly, the latter continuing to impress in his substitute role at Juncos Hollinger.
Pato O’Ward was always likely to claim the highest starting position for a McLaren driver as Nolan Siegel did not run after crashing in practice and Alexander Rossi was another of the four drivers facing engine change penalties. O’Ward wil line up eighth.
Scott McLaughlin’s slim chances of challenging for the title rest on Palou being unable to start tomorrow’s race. He took ninth on the grid, but his engine change penalty will drop him far out of the top 10. Linus Lundqvist and Colton Herta will move up in his place, though the latter complained of a lack of power from his engine following his disappointing run.
Romain Grosjean gambled on using the primary tyres to qualify on, leaving him with an extra set of the softer primary tyres for tomorrow’s race. That could prove a tactical benefit in a race where overtaking is expected to be difficult.
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Qualifying result
Full result to follow.
IndyCar
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