ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — After a failure in the morning practice session kept Felix Rosenqvist down on the speed chart, the Swede put together a solid qualifying run to put himself on the outside of the second row for Sunday’s (June 21) XPEL Grand Prix at Road America for the NTT IndyCar Series.
The No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda turned a fastest lap of 1:44.0502 to average 138.879 mph around the 14-turn, 4.014-mile road course. Alex Palou claimed pole position ahead of David Malukas and Marcus Armstrong.
Armstrong’s run meant he and Rosenqvist locked out the second row for Meyer Shank Racing.
“We just transferred [out of] Q1 and then kind of got better and better,” Rosenqvist told Frontstretch. “But I didn’t really feel like I had more in Q3, so yeah, a little disappointed I guess, but yeah, P4 is great. Second row lockout for the team, so it’s pretty, pretty solid.”
In the first group of the first round of knockout qualifying, Rosenqvist was the last of the six cars that transferred from that group into the second round of qualifying by just over a tenth of a second over Christian Lundgaard. In the second round of qualifying, Rosenqvist was second fastest to Malukas while teammate Armstrong was third fastest, advancing both to the Firestone Fast Six.
It was the best way to end a day that started out challenging, with the morning’s mechanical issue putting Rosenqvist on the back foot.
“I don’t know exactly, but after we had our crash in the GP, when I kind of climbed onto Sting Ray [Robb] or Kyffin [Simpson], whoever it was, something broke in that specific part. And then we reused that part and then we realized that it was broken, so yeah, I’m happy we just got back from that because sometimes you don’t figure out what it is, you know, so it’s all good now.”
The contact had, in fact, been between Rosenqvist and Simpson. That broken part contributed to the 2026 Indianapolis 500 winner going no better than 20th fastest in the morning practice session after going second fastest on Friday.
Rosenqvist’s qualifying result nonetheless positions him well to continue a streak of strong pace for the No. 60 team; Rosenqvist has an average finish of 9.2 across the last five races, including a runner-up at Long Beach and his win in the Indianapolis 500. Those efforts likewise included pole position at Long Beach, a third-place qualifying effort on the IMS road course and fourth-place starts at the Indy 500 and World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.
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