Palou continues to master Laguna Seca and wins pole

MONTEREY, Calif. — Two-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou continued his mastery of Laguna Seca Raceway by winning the pole Saturday in a qualifying session dominated by Honda drivers.

It was the second pole of the season for the Chip Ganassi Racing driver who has finished on the podium in his three previous starts at the permanent road course in Monterey, California. He won the race in the 2022 season finale, which many believe was a catalyst in his decision not to leave Ganassi to join Arrow McLaren Racing.

“All the qualifying was very close. I’m really happy, the car was on track,” Palou said. “I think always starting at the front is the best place. Hopefully we can have a clean start, clean first laps and hopefully there won’t be a lot of cautions that could hurt our strategy. “

Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Global qualified second with his best qualifying effort of the season. Five of the top six drivers in qualifying were powered by Honda.

Felix Rosenqvist of Meyer Shank Racing qualified third and was followed by Colton Herta of Andretti.

Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi was the highest qualifying Chevrolet driver in fifth. Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Christian Lundgaard completed the top six on another Honda.

IndyCar points leader Will Power, who holds the series record with 70 top starts, did not leave the first qualifying group. Power earned his first victory in more than two years when he won two weeks ago at Road America in Wisconsin.

“I probably waited too long in the pits,” he said of his qualifying strategy. “You can’t mess around. You had the rhythm, but I just didn’t put it together.”

It was a trend for Team Penske, which had won two of the last three IndyCar races, as Scott McLaughlin was the only driver to advance to the second round of qualifying. Josef Newgarden, two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, was also eliminated in the first round.

“I think it’s just me today, I think our car was really good. I was really struggling to put it together,” Newgarden said. “Our car was really good. I don’t think that’s the problem.”

McLaughlin was then eliminated in the second round, meaning a Team Penske driver failed to qualify for the Fast Six pole shootout.

“I had a little slide on one of the turns and when you lose that momentum going up the hill, it really hurts you,” McLaughlin said. “You just can’t make a mistake.”

David Malukas, for his season debut, came out of the first qualifying group with the new Meyer Shank Racing team. Malukas was supposed to drive for Arrow McLaren this season, but broke his wrist a month before the season opener, and when he missed four races it triggered a clause in his McLaren contract that allowed the team to fire him.

He was hired to replace Tom Blomqvist, who appears to be returning to sports car racing full time after crashing on the first lap of the Indianapolis 500 during a failed move to IndyCar. Malukas said he felt complete relief just to be back in the car and starting 12th on Sunday.

“There are so many different question marks,” Malukas said. “I’m just a little tired from being out of the car for so long.”

Nolan Siegel, the 19-year-old surprisingly hired earlier this week by Arrow McLaren, also didn’t make it out of the first qualifying group in his debut with his new team. Siegel, who was part of the winning LMP2 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last week, is the youngest driver on the IndyCar grid. Siegel is in the car Malukas was hired to drive before his injury.

“We find ourselves in a really difficult situation here, we’ve had very little time to prepare,” Siegel said. “I didn’t know I was driving here until a few days ago, so it’s tough. None of us know each other. We’re getting better with each session. We’re getting to know each other better, I’m starting to know better the car. There’s just a lot of new things and it’s tough.