IndyCar GP Indy: Power scores 64th pole, sixth at IMS

Firestone Fast Six

Power delivered a 69.7664sec on worn reds, 0.0426sec ahead of Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda, with an average lap speed of 125.854mph. The achievement leaves him just three poles short of Mario Andretti’s record tally.

Palou delivered on a day when his Ganassi teammates all fell in Q1 and was also the only Honda to make it through to the Firestone Fast Six.

Power’s teammate Josef Newgarden bounced back superbly from a clutch issue in FP2 to end up 0.0679sec adrift of Power, and just ahead of the happiest surprise of the session. Conor Daly upheld his and Ed Carpenter Racing’s honor in front of their home crowd with fourth fastest, beating the two Arrow McLaren SPs of Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist.

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	12	Will Power	1:09.7664	1:09.7664	0.000	3	3	1:09.7664	2		4	125.854	6:30.4382	Chevy	A	11	Team Penske
2	10	Alex Palou	1:09.8090	0.0426	0.0426	3	3	1:09.8090	2		1	125.777	5:25.1180	Honda	A	9	Chip Ganassi Racing
3	2	Josef Newgarden	1:09.8343	0.0679	0.0253	2	2	1:09.8343	1		5	125.732	5:34.8655	Chevy	A	1	Team Penske
4	20	Conor Daly	1:09.9063	0.1399	0.0720	3	3	1:09.9063	2		6	125.602	6:02.4360	Chevy	A	15	Ed Carpenter Racing
5	5	Pato O'Ward	1:10.0546	0.2882	0.1483	3	4	1:10.0546	2		3	125.337	6:36.5916	Chevy	A	4	Arrow McLaren SP
6	7	Felix Rosenqvist	1:10.0605	0.2941	0.0059	3	3	1:10.0605	2		2	125.326	5:50.0897	Chevy	A	6	Arrow McLaren SP

Will Power topped the times on the harder primaries as track temperature dropped a tad from the start of the session, going from 129 to 126degF. His time was a 1min10.7082, barely a hundredth ahead of teammate Scott McLaughlin, with Conor Daly inserting his ECR car in third to edge his former Indy Lights teammate Josef Newgarden.

Onto alternates, Alex Palou delivered with 69.4114sec to leave him hundredths ahead of the two Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolets, Will Power and Josef Newgarden, and home boy Conor Daly. Thus Palou was the only Honda driver to make the Fast Six.

Callum Ilott, the only driver without a teammate, did another sterling job to deliver P7, just 0.24sec from top spot and only 0.0144sec from making it into the Firestone Fast Six.

Scott McLaughlin was a surprise elimination, admitting that he made a slight error in his first lap, on a day when the drop off on the second lap on Firestone alternates was around 0.3sec.

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	10	Alex Palou	1:09.4114	1:09.4114	0.000	5	7	1:15.9100	4		3	126.498	10:33.6078	Honda	A	9	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	7	Felix Rosenqvist	1:09.4379	0.0265	0.0265	5	6	1:21.6442	4		5	126.450	10:54.3624	Chevy	A	6	Arrow McLaren SP
3	5	Pato O'Ward	1:09.4574	0.0460	0.0195	4	5	1:09.4574	3		2	126.414	9:38.1701	Chevy	A	4	Arrow McLaren SP
4	12	Will Power	1:09.4905	0.0791	0.0331	5	6	1:10.7161	4		1	126.354	10:41.2062	Chevy	A	11	Team Penske
5	2	Josef Newgarden	1:09.5837	0.1723	0.0932	5	7	1:09.7970	4		7	126.185	10:31.7303	Chevy	A	1	Team Penske
6	20	Conor Daly	1:09.6387	0.2273	0.0550	5	6	1:09.9462	4		10	126.085	10:28.1396	Chevy	A	15	Ed Carpenter Racing
7	77	Callum Ilott	1:09.6530	0.2416	0.0143	4	5	1:09.6530	3		8	126.059	9:44.7070	Chevy	A	26	Juncos Hollinger Racing
8	30	Christian Lundgaard	1:09.6594	0.2480	0.0064	5	6	1:10.0140	4		6	126.048	10:36.7055	Honda	A	21	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
9	45	Jack Harvey	1:09.6899	0.2785	0.0305	5	6	1:09.9621	4		9	125.992	10:43.0984	Honda	A	22	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
10	28	Romain Grosjean	1:09.7100	0.2986	0.0201	5	6	1:14.2126	4		11	125.956	10:58.2627	Honda	A	19	Andretti Autosport
11	3	Scott McLaughlin	1:09.7847	0.3733	0.0747	6	6	1:09.7847	4		4	125.821	10:21.8961	Chevy	A	2	Team Penske
12	15	Graham Rahal	1:10.2950	0.8836	0.5103	6	6	1:10.2950	4		12	124.908	10:46.3935	Honda	A	13	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Q1 Group 2

Last year’s polesitter for the second Indy road course race, Pato O’Ward, went fastest by a mere 0.08sec ahead of Scott McLaughlin, while Christian Lundgaard and Graham Rahal ensured that all three Rahal Letterman Lanigan cars advanced to Q2.

Callum Ilott was fourth fastest for Juncos Hollinger, while Conor Daly did what VeeKay could not by getting an ECR car into Q2.

Neither Colton Herta nor Alexander Rossi were able to progress, while Meyer Shank Racing’s Simon Pagenaud was another surprise casualty.

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	5	Pato O'Ward	1:09.4708	1:09.4708	0.000	5	6	1:09.4708	4		1	126.390	10:00.8703	Chevy	A	4	Arrow McLaren SP
2	3	Scott McLaughlin	1:09.5511	0.0803	0.0803	5	6	1:09.5511	4		6	126.244	9:38.2744	Chevy	A	2	Team Penske
3	30	Christian Lundgaard	1:09.6777	0.2069	0.1266	5	6	1:12.5095	4		3	126.014	9:50.3174	Honda	A	21	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
4	77	Callum Ilott	1:09.7025	0.2317	0.0248	5	6	1:16.4887	4		10	125.970	10:12.9115	Chevy	A	26	Juncos Hollinger Racing
5	20	Conor Daly	1:09.7210	0.2502	0.0185	5	6	1:09.9925	4		4	125.936	10:22.1560	Chevy	A	15	Ed Carpenter Racing
6	15	Graham Rahal	1:09.7458	0.2750	0.0248	6	6	1:09.7458	4		8	125.891	9:55.4288	Honda	A	13	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
7	26	Colton Herta	1:09.8527	0.3819	0.1069	5	6	1:09.8882	4		2	125.699	10:17.6637	Honda	A	17	Andretti Autosport
8	27	Alexander Rossi	1:09.9178	0.4470	0.0651	5	6	1:14.0024	4		9	125.582	10:18.9935	Honda	A	18	Andretti Autosport
9	8	Marcus Ericsson	1:09.9294	0.4586	0.0116	5	6	1:10.1703	4		7	125.561	10:00.0338	Honda	A	7	Chip Ganassi Racing
10	60	Simon Pagenaud	1:09.9717	0.5009	0.0423	5	5	1:09.9717	4		5	125.485	9:15.7911	Honda	A	25	Meyer Shank Racing
11	14	Kyle Kirkwood	1:10.1954	0.7246	0.2237	5	5	1:10.1954	3		11	125.085	9:28.6999	Chevy	A	12	AJ Foyt Enterprises
12	18	David Malukas	1:10.4755	1.0047	0.2801	5	6	1:10.7293	4		12	124.588	9:32.0486	Honda	A	14	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
13	4	Dalton Kellett	1:10.7187	1.2479	0.2432	6	7	1:10.7187	4		13	124.160	10:07.9401	Chevy	A	3	AJ Foyt Enterprises
14	48	Jimmie Johnson	1:11.5380	2.0672	0.8193	6	7	1:11.5380	4		14	122.738	10:00.8266	Honda	A	23	Chip Ganassi Racing

Q1 Group 1

Rinus VeeKay was the fastest driver on primary tires, clocking a 70.6265, while Devlin DeFrancesco was second fastest, having gone out straight away on alternates. Then Palou and Rosenqvist hit the top two spots, with 69.5 and 69.6 respectively.

Then Power clipped 0.0139sec off Palou’s time to land a 69.5544sec lap and go quickest.

Palou, Rosenqvist, Josef Newgarden, Jack Harvey and Romain Grosjean also made it through. Surprise exclusions were VeeKay, last year’s winner here for Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet, and Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda). The six-time champion was left baffled, explaining that the car “felt like a different car every time out”.

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	12	Will Power	1:09.5544	1:09.5544	0.000	5	6	1:15.8198	4		5	126.238	10:44.1855	Chevy	A	102	Team Penske
2	10	Alex Palou	1:09.5683	0.0139	0.0139	5	6	1:11.3045	4		1	126.213	9:59.8889	Honda	A	103	Chip Ganassi Racing
3	7	Felix Rosenqvist	1:09.6831	0.1287	0.1148	5	6	1:13.6918	4		4	126.005	10:06.7692	Chevy	A	42	Arrow McLaren SP
4	2	Josef Newgarden	1:09.7151	0.1607	0.0320	5	5	1:09.7151	4		8	125.947	9:15.2723	Chevy	A	118	Team Penske
5	45	Jack Harvey	1:09.7910	0.2366	0.0759	5	6	1:12.3098	4		6	125.810	10:37.7305	Honda	A	32	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
6	28	Romain Grosjean	1:09.8214	0.2670	0.0304	5	6	1:10.3568	4		3	125.755	10:15.2460	Honda	A	75	Andretti Autosport
7	51	Takuma Sato	1:09.8239	0.2695	0.0025	6	7	1:10.4829	5		7	125.751	10:55.3775	Honda	A	44	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
8	21	Rinus VeeKay	1:09.9550	0.4006	0.1311	5	6	1:10.5586	4		2	125.515	10:08.3845	Chevy	A	67	Ed Carpenter Racing
9	29	Devlin DeFrancesco	1:10.1306	0.5762	0.1756	4	4	1:10.1306	3		11	125.201	9:18.6464	Honda	A	20	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
10	06	Helio Castroneves	1:10.1417	0.5873	0.0111	4	5	1:10.5069	3		9	125.181	10:33.1024	Honda	A	46	Meyer Shank Racing
11	9	Scott Dixon	1:10.1694	0.6150	0.0277	5	6	1:19.7706	4		10	125.131	10:31.9889	Honda	A	83	Chip Ganassi Racing
12	6	Juan Pablo Montoya	1:10.7610	1.2066	0.5916	5	5	1:10.7610	4		12	124.085	9:42.7895	Chevy	A	28	Arrow McLaren SP
13	11	Tatiana Calderon	1:11.0020	1.4476	0.2410	5	6	1:11.4916	3		13	123.664	10:45.7288	Chevy	A	20	AJ Foyt Enterprises