Rosenqvist Rockets to Pole Position on IMS Road Course

For the third time this season, IndyCar will race at their home track as they tackle the 2.439-mile road course once again. Colton Herta dominated the first race in May, leading 50 laps to claim the victory. That has been the only bright spot for Andretti Autosport this year, something they hope to change tomorrow.

Herta's Andretti Autosport teammate Alexander Rossi will start tomorrow's Grand Prix from the front row, but pole position went to Felix Rosenqvist. The Swede put down a quick lap of 70.2265 seconds to secure his second pole of the season. His Arrow McLaren SP teammate Pato O'Ward qualified 3rd, completing a near-perfect day for the organization.

"Our Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet was unbelievable," Felix said. "It was on rails all day and I felt so calm in the car. I think I knew when I did that lap that it was the one. Big thanks to the team for giving me a really good car. I think the car is more suited to me this year so I can maximize it everywhere we go."

"I think the whole team has just done a really good prep work for this race. We tested here a month ago, which I think really helped. We kind of got here with a good starting package, so we knew that this was going to be one that we had to really extract everything in qualifying. Today was just a day about execution, and now eyes forward to tomorrow."

Despite missing out on pole, Rossi was pleased with his team's performance today. "This is by far the best result we’ve had here as a team. We had a good test here last month and very relieved it translated. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow. We’ve always raced really well here, we’ve just never had qualifying pace." Rossi has only led two laps in his ten starts here, but the 2016 Indy 500 winner does have a pair of podiums and four top-five finishes in this event.

Will Power starts 4th tomorrow, and is always the man to watch on this circuit. The Team Penske driver has five wins and six poles on the road course, and has led 341 laps in this event. For comparison, no other active driver has led more than 81 laps here. Power is one of only two drivers to have completed all 986 laps in the 12 races here. The other is six-time champion, Scott Dixon, who had another rough qualifying effort today.

Dixon had a stretch where he finished 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, and 1st in this event, but has finished 8th or worse in each of the last five races here. His starting positions in those five races were 12th, 15th, 16th, 26th, and 21st. It was a frustrating Friday for the kiwi, who starts 20th tomorrow.

"The red flag kind of threw us," Dixon said. "We didn’t go out on blacks, while everyone else did, and then we missed making the changes to the car from blacks to reds. We got misplaced on the out lap and it was just one of those sessions. That was a complete mess. A bit of an amateur hour over here."

The Month of May wasn't great for Josef Newgarden, especially by his standards. The two-time series champion finished 25th in this race, failed to qualify in the top 12 for the Indy 500, where finished 13th. It was a dismal month for the entire organization, but they hope to bounce back tomorrow in a race where they have won eight times. Today was much better, finishing 2nd in practice and qualifying 5th.

Newgarden, won this race in 2020, was in danger of not being able to race this weekend. After dominating at Iowa, his car suffered a shock failure that sent him hard into the wall while leading the race. After being released from the medical center, he ended up fainting and hitting the back of his head. He was flown to the local hospital and stayed overnight for observation. On Thursday, he was cleared by the IndyCar medial team to compete this weekend.

Christian Lundgaard made his IndyCar debut on the IMS road course in 2020, and has quickly figured it out. He advanced to the Firestone Fast Six and will start 6th tomorrow. Alex Palou just missed the cutoff but will have a solid starting position tomorrow in 7th, leading the way for Chip Ganassi's team.

Palou has had some rotten luck the last two starts here. The reigning series champion finished 27th last year after his engine expired while running up front, and was 18th in the race this season after starting on the front row. He has only led one lap in his six career starts on the road course. Starting alongside him on Row 4 will be former race winner Rinus VeeKay.

Herta and Conor Daly round out the top ten from today's qualifying session. Herta will be aiming for an IMS road course sweep while Conor will be hunting for his first career victory. It was a great day for Ed Carpenter Racing, getting both of their cars inside the top ten, but they need to execute on race day.

Herta has been strong here for the most part. In addition to his win earlier this year, he has two more podium finishes and a pair of 4th place finishes, along with 81 laps led. Current points leader Marcus Ericsson has never been on the podium in this race, but he did finish 4th earlier this year before winning the biggest race in the world. That will be tough to duplicate tomorrow, as a mechanical issue prevented him from qualifying.

Romain Grosjean finished runner-up in his first two starts on this track, including his first career pole. Both of those races came with Dale Coyne Racing, when he led 44 laps in his first start. Earlier this year, he finished a disappointing 17th. That has been the story of his season, as his move to Andretti just hasn't quite worked out the way everyone had envisioned. He qualified 22nd today, the worst of the Andretti bunch.

Helio Castroneves always enjoys coming back to the Speedway, even if they aren't racing on the oval. The four-time Indy 500 winner has not had much luck in this race though. His last four finishes here are 21st, 20th, 21st, and 21st. The Meyer Shank Racing driver starts back in 16th tomorrow.

No one has improved from their starting position in this event more than Graham Rahal. The second-generation driver has gained 75 positions from where he started, to where he finished. He is tied with Dixon for the most top-ten finishes here (10) but has never won the event. He starts 17th tomorrow, and will likely be moving forward.

Qualifying is typically very important for this event. Seven of the 12 races have been won by the front row, including five from pole position. Herta's win earlier this year came from the 14th starting spot, which was the first time in the history of the event that it was won from beyond 8th place.

The race distance is 207.32 miles, which is 85 laps around the 14-turn course. It incorporates parts of Turns 1 and 2 of the famed oval, as well as the front stretch as cars cross the yard of bricks in the opposite direction.

With practice and qualifying in the books, the only thing left to do is race. Tomorrow will be a busy day as the series shares the track with the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity series. Coverage for the Gallagher Grand Prix begins at Noon ET on NBC.