On a hot day outside St. Louis, Missouri, Scott McLaughlin took his fourth pole of the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series season for the Bommarito Automotive Group 500. He leaped over a Meyer Shank Racing duo to earn the right to pace the field in Saturday (Aug. 16) night’s race.
“I’m so stoked,” McLaughlin said. “We rolled out of the truck today, the DEX Imaging Chevrolet’s been good. Really proud. We had a procedure and got it done. It just makes me proud of everyone. End of the day, Tomorrow’s pay day and we will make sure we’re on top of things. Proud of this whole group.”
“Don’t sleep on us; I want to get back into this championship.”
The qualifying session was run under hot conditions that put the hybrid power units under extreme stress. But it was McLaughlin who held it together the best to earn his second straight pole at Gateway, producing a 179.972 mph average speed over the two-lap run on the 1.25-mile track. It was .017 seconds faster than the second-place starter Felix Rosenqvist.
David Malukas continues his impressive streak of qualifying efforts after jumping into the No. 66 mid-season. He will start third, but due to a nine-place grid penalty for his teammate, eventually roll off second.
Oval king Josef Newgarden, while not as fast as his teammate McLaughlin, will still have a great spot, looking at the inside of row 2 for the first turn tomorrow night, after qualifying fourth before Rosenqvist’s penalty.
Will Power (fifth) and Kyle Kirkwood (sixth) will round out the top five after Rosenqvists penalty is taken into account. It is Kirkwood’s best start on an oval as he builds on his most consistent season.
Championship leader Alex Palou earned the seventh-fastest average time, but will deploy his anchor as well with a nine-spot grid penalty. He will officially start mid-pack.
Recent IndyCar winner Colton Herta unfortunately doused whatever good vibes he had coming into the weekend after his Toronto win 27 days ago. On his second lap, while he was trending into the top five, the rear end came around and backed his No. 26 Gainbridge Honda into the wall.
“Just broke loose, unfortunate,” Herta said. “I think that first lap was decent. I don’t think it would have gotten us the pole but I think it would have gotten us in the top five. The second lap, I don’t know if we wore the tires too much or what happened, and it let go pretty early, and that’s all she wrote.”
While the top five spot was lost, Herta was able to finish his run, which placed him ahead of the two Dale Coyne Racing cars of Jack Harvey and Katherine Legge that didn’t make a qualifying run.
Grid penalties will impact four drivers. Besides the previously mentioned Rosenqvist and Palou, Scott Dixon and Legge will have to drop nine spots. Dixon posted the 10th best qualifying average.
2024 Bommarito Automotive Group 500 Qualifying Results
The Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway will start at 6 p.m. ET on Saturday, Aug. 17, with coverage on USA Network and Peacock.
Tom is an IndyCar writer at Frontstretch, joining in March 2023. Besides writing the IndyCar Previews and frequent editions of Inside IndyCar, he will hop on as a fill-in guest on the Open Wheel podcast The Pit Straight. A native Hoosier, he calls Fort Wayne home. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomBlackburn42.