Palou takes "phenomenal" pole position - Mid-Ohio qualifying results

Alex Palou and Chip Ganassi Racing will start on pole position for the Indy 200 Mid-Ohio race on Sunday July 6 after setting a lightning-fast lap of 1:05.021 to beat Christian Lundgaard in his Arrow McLaren to first.

Lundgaard, who will start second, was two-tenths slower than Palou but was the only driver who could get near the current championship leader on pace with third place Kyffin Simpson over seven tenths slower than his teammate.

Delighted with the result, Palou said: “Ever since I started with Chip Ganassi Racing, we've had great cars but I would say we've always struggled qualifying up front, so this year it's been phenomenal.

“The speed we have in the cars, in every single race track we show up, it's been amazing.”

Palou shared that he believed he could have saved the last of the soft tires to “try and have an advantage tomorrow” but recognised that starting on pole should “benefit us more.”

He said: “We know that there’s going to be some cars that save those tires so they're going to be a big threat for tomorrow. But, yeah, happy with our car, happy obviously with our starting position and can't wait.”

While Simpson had nowhere near the pace to take pole, he walked away happy from qualifying with his career best qualifying position in IndyCar.

Never before qualifying in the Fast Six, Simpson confirmed that he would get this when he knocked out the only other race winner bar Palou in 2025, Kyle Kirkwood in his Andretti, in round two.

Setting a lap time in the final moments, Simpson pipped Kirkwood to take the final spot in round two.

Following qualifying, Simpson shared: “It was incredible. It was a tough qualifying and it was very close, especially in those first couple of segments.

“So just barely slipping through in sixth place in both of them was a little nerve-wracking and then being P3 in that session, I was very surprised about but very happily surprised.

Simpson is one of the drivers Palou mentioned will be a threat tomorrow due to a saved set of red tires. 

Asked on his thoughts on this, Simpson shared that this gives him extra confidence going into tomorrow’s race.

He explained: “We're the highest ones starting with an extra set of reds, so I think that's pretty good for us. I think we've got a lot of pace. We felt good and now we can just focus on the race and do our best there.”

Kirkwood was unable to share Simpson’s elation after the session and was visibly upset with his result.

He believed that he had been hindered by being behind one of Ed Carpenter drivers which led to him being unable to put a good enough lap time in.

Kirkwood will start seventh and on row four for tomorrow's race.

Kirkwood lamented: “One of the Carpenter cars was in front of us and we got too close to them. They were just backing up.

“I don't know what lap they were on or what they were doing but we were probably just outside of a second away, which I don't think is technically impeding, but that's enough in a high-speed corner to cost you a handful of hundreds.”

“I lost probably a tenth and a half in the back sector, so really upset about that, I'm not gonna lie.”

“We were on for like a two or a three and that would have easily transferred us and we would have had a shot at the pole once again but that just ruined our session there.”

“We're seventh, we got an extra set of reds, so take the positives where we can.”

Kirkwood was not the only driver to have a bad day in the office with the 2024 Mid-Ohio race winner Pato O’Ward unable to make it past Q1 Group One and finished eighth within the group.

O’Ward was joined by Penske driver Scott McLaughlin in the knockout zone in Group One who finished 11th. Palou will start tomorrow in 15th and McLaughlin 21st.

In Group Two, Penske suffered another loss when Will Power was also knocked out early and found himself 11th to secure himself to start 22nd in tomorrow’s race behind McLaughlin.

Power had earlier confronted and swore multiple times at Palou after practice two after he believed the Spaniard had blocked him several times during the session. 

He made comments following the confrontation that Palou's actions were stopping him and team from “trying to get an idea of what our car is doing”.

Alongside Power, Felix Rosenqvist in his Ozzy Osbourne/Black Sabbath livery Meyer Shank car and David Malukas were also knocked out in Group Two and will start 16th and 14th respectively.

Alongside Simpson, Nolan Siegel also celebrated his best-ever qualifying position and will start fourth for tomorrow’s race.

The second highest Arrow McLaren driver, Siegel was happy with the result but believed if he was given fresh red tyres, he could have challenged Lundgaard and even been the fastest McLaren.

He said: “'I’m happy. I think we could have given Christian a run for the front row on new reds so that would have been fun.

But [for] now [I’m] really happy to be starting fourth, best Indy car starting position, and nice to be in the Fast Six again.

“We've had a rough few weekends and things are really turning around. The group's doing a great job. Got some new faces on the number six NTT Data Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. It's all working well.”

Josef Newgarden joined his Penske brothers with a poor result as the team continued to go from bad to worse following the Indy 500. The former world champion will start 18th in tomorrow's race.