Saturday afternoon at the historic Laguna Seca circuit was reserved for NTT IndyCar Series qualifying.
A typical knockout format was in play, which keeps drivers on their toes and forces them to set quick laps multiple times in order to take the top sport.
Pulling out a fantastic lap at the end of the session, Scott McLaughlin grabbed his third pole of the year.
READ MORE: IndyCar Laguna Seca – Full Qualifying Results
McLaughlin’s lap was completed in 1:09.1363, and grabbed the top spot by just 0.02 seconds.
The Kiwi has been knocking on the door of a win all year, and will use his advantageous position to try to earn one to cap off the season.
With one of the most consistent performances of the day, Alex Palou set nearly the same time for every one of the three rounds.
His lap was just a hair short of the mark when it counted, however, leaving him with second place on the grid.
Felix Rosenqvist was also in the mix for pole, but ultimately crossed the line with the third best time.
Alexander Rossi was next on the time sheets, earning a position on the second row for Sunday’s race.
Christian Lundgaard made it to the final round, but has a six-place grid penalty for an engine change coming into the weekend.
He qualified in fifth, but will start down in 11th on Sunday.
David Malukas wrapped up the Fast Six, and was promoted up to fifth on account of the penalty.
Missing the cut
Andretti Global, which has a long history at this circuit, just barely missed out on advancing to the final round.
Kyle Kirkwood was 0.16 seconds below the cut line, which meant he was locked into seventh in the results. That was boosted up to sixth after the penalty.
Marcus Ericsson set nearly the same time, and locked in the next position on the grid.
Kyffin Simpson and Marcus Armstrong were next on the time sheets, locking in spots on the fifth row.
Qualifying 11th was Louis Foster, with the Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver the highest qualifiers among his team.
Caio Collet rounded out the Top 12 session, but a grid penalty of his own will push him down to 18th on the grid.
Outside looking in
Pato O’Ward had looked speedy early in the weekend, but just missed out on advancing in the first round.
He related that there was nothing that felt particularly bad about his run, just that it wasn’t quick enough to get through to the next round. O’Ward was promoted up to 12th following others’ penalties.
Will Power was in the second group of the first round, and was the first to be eliminated from his group.
He will line up just behind O’Ward on the grid as he continues to search for his first win as an Andretti driver.
Another veteran down in the back of the grid was Scott Dixon, who did not qualify up to his standards in what was his last qualifying run with Chip Ganassi Racing.
Rinus VeeKay has been on a good run of form in the latter half of this season, but did not lay down a lap good enough to advance out of the first round.
The Dutch driver qualified into the 19th place on the grid.
Well off the pace, and a lot slower than his Team Penske team-mates, was Josef Newgarden.
The two-time series champion simply did not have the pace, and could only muster a 20th place grid position.
Sunday’s race will cap off the 2026 season, with green flag waving just past noon pacific time.
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