Team Penske drivers Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden took the top spots for the Hy-Vee Milwaukee 250s in the NTT IndyCar Series’ return to the Milwaukee Mile. Later today (Aug. 31) McLaughlin will lead the field to green, while Newgarden will do likewise on Sunday.
It was an afternoon session filled with drivers fighting either understeer or a loose-handling car as they made two laps per run. Just like the doubleheader at the Hy-Vee IndyCar Weekend at Iowa, the first lap sets the field for Race 1 and the ensuing circuit sets Race 2.
For McLaughlin, he earns his fifth pole of the season, his fourth on an oval.
‘It’s great, you know the car’s been great at every oval we’ve been to this season, to pick up another pole, it’s fantastic,” McLaughlin said. “I shifted pretty hard into [turns] 3 and 4 on the second lap and we might have doubled it up.”
Newgarden was provisionally second-fastest for Race 1, but will incur a nine-place grid penalty for exceeding his engine component allotment for the season. It was more fortuitous that he locked the pole for the race he won’t have to deal with a drop of nine spots.
“It’s different, we went aggressive, [we’ve] been on the other end of this where we weren’t aggressive enough in qualifying and it really bit us, ” Newgarden said. “So we probably overcooked it just slightly there, but the car was still good. You go back and you look at this and you’re going to quarterback it from the couch, after the fact.”
As for the race itself later today, Newgarden was unfazed by his starting position.
“The race is going to be a totally different animal, I think we will have good race ability,” he said.
David Malukas continues to display his prominent ability to go fast on short ovals, sweeping the third starting spot for both races. Since his return from a pre-season injury, the American has earned six top 10 starting positions, including four in the top three.
Alexander Rossi was the better Arrow McLaren car, taking fourth for both races. Rookie Linus Lundqvist will start fifth in Race 1.
Championship contender Will Power didn’t have the speed to match his teammates, which took him out of the running of the two available points for winning the dual poles. Instead, he starts sixth for Race 1 and fifth for Sunday.
His championship rival and current points leader Alex Palou had mid-field speed, earning the 13th and 10th grid spots. That won’t matter as much when the green drops, as Palou has been strong in advancing from his oval starting spots. At World Wide Technology Raceway, he started 16th but finished fourth.
Besides Newgarden, six other cars will have grid penalties, which will move other drivers up the order for the start later today. Those afflicted include Marcus Armstrong (qualified seventh for Race 1), Conor Daly (18th), Pietro Fittipaldi (27th), Christian Lundgaard (26th), Christian Rasmussen (16th) and Nolan Siegel (17th).
2024 Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250 – Race 1 Qualifying Results
2024 Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250 – Race 2 Qualifying Results
Race 1 coverage will begin later today (Aug. 31) at 6 p.m. exclusively on Peacock and Race 2 on Sunday, Sept. 1 at 2:30 p.m. on the 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.