In Saturday’s qualifying from Laguna Seca, it was Will Power who once again earned the top spot and put his Team Penske Chevy on pole.
Power’s pole is the 68th of his career, and puts him alone at the top of IndyCar’s all-time pole records ahead of the legendary Mario Andretti.
The pole also gives the Australian a critical bonus point in his championship bid, and places him 21 ahead of both Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon.
Callum Ilott put on an amazing show of his own, as the rookie earned the outside front row spot in his first trip to the Fast 6 of his young career.
Two Andretti Autosport drivers advanced to the Fast 6 as well, but the driver everyone was expecting to be at the front was not included.
Alexander Rossi and Romain Grosjean both participated in all three rounds, and were able to earn both positions of the second row.
Colton Herta was only able to qualify in 18th while he watched his team-mates advance to the final round.
Last year’s champion Alex Palou attempted to make his final qualifying run on the harder black tires, but the strategy did not work out. He will start from fifth alongside Pato O’Ward, who attempted the same strategy.
Another rookie David Malukas nearly joined Ilott in the Fast 6, and will start from the fourth row alongside Scott McLaughlin.
It was a very tough session for the two men chasing Power in the championship race, as both Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon had qualifying sessions they would like to forget.
Newgarden had the worst afternoon of all, as he ran off the course in the first session after trying to be too aggressive in the infamous corkscrew.
He hit the inside curbing, and had to be rescued from the dirt by the safety crew. The two-time champion will start Sunday’s race from the final row.
Dixon was looking like he was going be at the very back as well after the red flag interrupted his fast lap. Race control gave all drivers one more run, however, and he was able to improve enough to start 13th.
Regardless, the six-time champion has made extra work for himself is he is to gain enough ground on Will Power to claim another title.
All eyes now turn to the final race of the season on Sunday afternoon, with 95 laps scheduled around the 2.24-mile track that has been chewing through tires all weekend.
| # | Driver | Time | Avg Speed (MPH) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Will Power | 01:11.6127 | 112.505 |
| 2 | Callum Ilott | 01:11.6320 | 112.475 |
| 3 | Alexander Rossi | 01:11.7698 | 112.259 |
| 4 | Romain Grosjean | 01:11.7858 | 112.234 |
| 5 | Alex Palou | 01:12.1625 | 111.648 |
| 6 | Pato O’Ward | 01:12.4542 | 111.199 |
| 7 | David Malukas | 01:11.6295 | 112.479 |
| 8 | Scott McLaughlin | 01:11.6916 | 112.381 |
| 9 | Felix Rosenqvist | 01:11.7285 | 112.324 |
| 10 | Marcus Ericsson | 01:12.1359 | 111.689 |
| 11 | Simon Pagenaud | 01:12.2808 | 111.465 |
| 12 | Helio Castroneves | 01:12.8856 | 110.54 |
| 13 | Scott Dixon | 01:12.1722 | 111.633 |
| 14 | Rinus VeeKay | 01:12.1442 | 111.676 |
| 15 | Conor Daly | 01:12.2661 | 111.488 |
| 16 | Christian Lundgaard | 01:12.2093 | 111.576 |
| 17 | Kyle Kirkwood | 01:12.4299 | 111.236 |
| 18 | Colton Herta | 01:12.2720 | 111.479 |
| 19 | Graham Rahal | 01:12.5970 | 110.98 |
| 20 | Devlin DeFrancesco | 01:12.2996 | 111.436 |
| 21 | Jack Harvey | 01:12.8366 | 110.615 |
| 22 | Takuma Sato | 01:12.4489 | 111.207 |
| 23 | Jimmie Johnson | 01:13.4172 | 109.74 |
| 24 | Dalton Kellett | 01:12.8001 | 110.67 |
| 25 | Josef Newgarden | No Time | 0 |
| 26 | Simona De Silvestro | 01:13.5181 | 109.589 |
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