The NTT IndyCar Series held a thrilling knockout qualifying session at Portland International Raceway on Saturday afternoon.
With a last minute run to the line, Felix Rosenqvist slipped ahead of his competitors and earned his second pole of the season.
His fast time was completed in 58.4828 seconds, at an average speed of 120.897 MPH.
READ MORE: IndyCar Portland – Full Qualifying Results
Rosenqvist is sporting a special Grateful Dead livery, and is already giving it plenty of exposure with his performance that allows him to line up at the head of the grid.
The Swede already has a contract signed with Arrow McLaren for next season, but sees this as an opportunity to increase his value even more.
Lining up second, and only a bit disappointed with that result, is reigning series champion Alex Palou.
The speedy Spaniard rolled off the truck quick on Friday and looked set to take a seventh pole of 2026, but was just 0.018 seconds too slow.
Andretti Global filled the next couple positions, with Will Power and Marcus Ericsson taking the third and fourth grid positions.
Rinus VeeKay continued his hot streak, and took the fifth grid position with his effort. He also was the lone Chevy representative in the Firestone Fast 6.
Rounding out the Fast 6 was Kyffin Simpson in his #8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
Outside looking in
Kyle Kirkwood was the first driver to miss the cut into the Firestone Fast 6, and earned the seventh starting position in the process.
Graham Rahal was eighth quick, placing himself considerably higher on the grid than his Rahal Letterman Lanigan team-mates.
Ninth quick was David Malukas, but the young Team Penske driver earned a grid penalty on account of his crash in Nashville that necessitated a fresh engine.
Rookie Dennis Hauger was next on timesheets, which earned him a spot on the fifth row when the green flag flies on Sunday.
Scott Dixon and Romain Grosjean clipped the inside barriers at Turn 1, which have given drivers broken wheels all weekend.
The two veterans were just the latest in a string of casualties, and they were the slowest two in the Fast 12 session on account of the incidents.
Big names at the rear
There were more than a few surprising eliminations in the early rounds, and some of the series’ best drivers exited early.
Two members of Team Penske were eliminated in the first round, with Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden taking the 14th and 15th grid positions respectively.
A disappointing day overall for one of the most reliable teams in the series.
Arrow McLaren also had a disappointing qualifying session, and all three members of the papaya squad were eliminated early.
Nolan Siegel was the fastest of the three, earning the 16th starting position. Pato O’Ward will line up just behind in 17th.
Christian Lundgaard experienced a hybrid issue on his run, which led to him setting the slowest overall time of the afternoon.
More sets of team-mates took up residence at the back of the grid, including both AJ Foyt Racing drivers Caio Collet and Santino Ferrucci.
The duo indicated they were not sure why their pace was so far off the others, and they would need to work on getting the tires to work better on Sunday.
Alexander Rossi and Christian Rasmussen joined each other as well, earning the 18th and 19th positions on the grid.
Only one short warm-up session remains for teams to get a grip on their setups before the race on Sunday at 1:00 PM pacific time.
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