Alex Palou takes pole and ruins David Malukas' day - 2025 IndyCar Milwaukee 250 qualifying results

A relentless Alex Palou ruined David Malukas’ qualifying Saturday after he set a blistering average of 162.971mph showing that even though the championship is wrapped up, Palou is not finished yet.

The final car to run thanks to oval qualifying running in reverse championship order, Palou's first lap time of a 163.297 was the only lap to go into the 163 mph territory.

Malukas had set an incredible time to put himself in contention for his first ever pole position in a weekend that looked to be crucial for his future drive in IndyCar.

Lined up to move to Team Penske for 2026, Malukas showed his raw speed on ovals with an average of 162.256mph moments after Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin had raised the bar with an average which was a second quicker than provisional pole sitter, Josef Newgarden.

With only two drivers to go, the tension was palpable in the AJ Foyt pit box as Pato O’Ward narrowly missed out on pole by just under 0.2mph.

Relieved to still be at the top of times, Palou wiped the smile off Malukas’ face in a reminder that he is still the driver to beat.

Clearly frustrated to be marginally denied his first pole, Malukas said: “Before he went out, I mean, I told you, I was like, ‘he's look fast in practice one’.

“He's going to be the one to beat and as soon as I saw that first lap, I saw him come out of four, and I was like, ‘all right, that one looked pretty good’.

“Again, we're going to be starting on that front row here in Milwaukee so it's on a good streak for us, and we can still do a lot from up there.”

Malukas has been one of the fastest drivers on an oval all season which included a second-place finish in the Indy 500.

Conor Daly, who had finished third in Practice One, was the first driver to break the 160mph average line setting a 160.181.

Josef Newgarden took to track minutes after Daly and put himself above the Juncos Hollinger driver in a reminder by Newgarden why he is known as one of the best as he set an average of 160.330mph putting a big gap between him and second place.

However, as averages continued to roll in, both Newgarden and Daly slowly slipped down the order and qualified eighth and ninth.

It was Newgarden’s teammate, Scott McLaughlin, who put the hammer down after he set an average of 161.758 which was over 1 mph faster than Newgarden.

David Malukas was next on track after the Penske driver; seeing what McLaughlin did, he immediately bested it with a blazing average of 162.256.

McLaughlin stayed in the front pack throughout the session and qualified fourth overall.

Colton Herta was next to follow and tried to match Malukas’ pace but in doing so spun the car on his first flying lap.

Lucky to keep it out of the wall, Herta finished his laps and set an average of 112.717mph.

“I don’t think that I saved it” Herta joked after it was suggested it had done well to keep it out of the wall, “it looks like we're just too loose right from the beginning, and as soon as we touch that lower pavement.

“It's really frustrating for me, [we] just weren't really there in practice.

“It's that patch which my teammate Marcus is able to use and I think he had a better line; I went to his line there for qualifying.

“The car just didn't like that patch, it seems so that's frustrating.

“I really don’t know what to say right now because we couldn't find anything in practice and now we just did that in qualifying so we really need to do a big 180 here.”

Due to setting an average, Herta won’t start last thanks to Felix Rosenqvist hit with the wall on his first flying lap.

Turning into one of the oval’s corners, the rear or Rosenqvist’s Meyer Shank stepped out on the Swedish driver and set him into the wall with a big impact.

Rosenqvist had been the highest average qualifier at ovals before that crash.

Both Scott Dixon and Kyffin Simpson will take six-place grid penalties for tomorrow’s race as Chip Ganassi opted to change both driver’s Honda engines.

Simpson, who went before Dixon, was unable to put a strong average together and initially sat in seventh after an average of 158.132. He began to slink down the order and will start 26th.

Dixon threatened to challenge McLaughlin and Malukas at the top of the field but could only set a 160.951 average.

After his strong 4th place result in Portland, Graham Rahal has come to Milwaukee with a bounce in his step which he translated onto the track.

Quick in practice, Rahal was millimetres off breaching into a 160 mph average after he set a 159.995mph. 

Still a bit off the top two of Daly and Newgarden at that time, his impressive result will put him 10th for tomorrow’s race.

Rasmussen also once again impressed on an oval as he became the third driver of the day to set an average above 160 mph with a 160.158.

milliseconds off Daly’s time, he will start ninth.

Callum Ilott, who had been on a hot streak of results, will start dead last after his car looked deeply uncomfortable to drive.

Unable to feel like he could put his throttle down, Ilott set an average of 156.460 mph.

When asked what he could have done better Ilott dryly replied: “Drive faster. I don't know. It didn't feel amazing. We tried a different direction after FP1 and didn't feel great but let's live and learn.”