Scott McLaughlin Shocks Grid, Beats Palou for Laguna Seca Pole

It appeared throughout NTT IndyCar Series qualifying at WeatherTech Raceway that newly crowned champion Alex Palou was going to take the pole.

But Scott McLaughlin had other plans.

With a time of 1:09.136, McLaughlin bumped the champ off the top spot for the Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey, earning his second pole of the season, and first since the opener at St. Petersburg.

Palou maintained his front row start, with a time of 1:09:154.

Indy 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist in his last race with Meyer Shank Racing appeared to have some speed early in his final run, but it wasn’t enough to leap the two in front of him. Instead he will line up third.

Alexander Rossi earned a fourth, his best starting position on a road course this year in his home state race.

Firestone Fast Six

A surprise run by McLaughlin best Palou, who dominated all groups previously. Christian Lundgaard, in his final start with Arrow McLaren and David Malukas cruised through the session, qualifying fifth and sixth respectively. However Lundgaard has a six-spot grid penalty and will lineup 11th.

The pole continued a strong effort from McLaughlin to close out the season. At Milwaukee he finished fourth and second at the doubleheaders,

Position	Driver	Number	Team
1.	Scott McLaughlin	No. 3	Team Penske
2.	Alex Palou	No. 10	Chip Ganassi Racing
3.	Felix Rosenqvist	No. 60	Meyer Shank Racing
4.	Alexander Rossi	No. 20	Ed Carpenter Racing
5.	Christian Lundgaard	No. 7	Arrow McLaren Racing
6.	David Malukas	No. 12	Team Penske

Round 2

Palou was untouchable. Team Penske duo of McLaughlin and Malukas maintained their top speed from Round 1 and made the Fast Six. Lundgaard, who bumped his way into Round 2 at the last second, did so again to make the fight for the pole.

Andretti Global’s two cars that were in the round both missed out on the Firestone Fast Six. Kyle Kirkwood roles off seventh and Marcus Ericsson eighth.

Caio Collet was the fastest rookie as the battle for the Rookie of the Year award goes down to the final race. However, he has a six-place grid penalty for an engine change. He will start 18th.

Position	Driver	Number	Team
7.	Kyle Kirkwood	No. 27	Andretti Global
8..	Marcus Ericsson	No. 28	Andretti Global
9.	Kyffin Simpson	No. 8	Chip Ganassi Racing
10.	Marcus Armstrong	No. 66	Meyer Shank Racing
11.	Louis Foster	No. 45	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
12	Caio Collet	No. 4	AJ Foyt Enterprises

Round 1 Group 1

Leading the way for the first 12 cars on track was Malukas. Team Penske teammate McLaughlin was second fastest.

Scott Dixon, in his last qualifying session in the No. 9 for Chip Ganassi Racing, went wide on his final hot lap. He was unable to recover and missed the cut-off to advance.

Milwaukee winner Pato O’Ward didn’t continue his momentum from sweeping the doubleheader weekend. He was only able to muster seventh fastest, just missing moving on.

Position	Driver	Number	Team
13.	Pato O’Ward	No. 5	Arrow McLaren
15.	Mick Schumacher	No. 47	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
17.	Scott Dixon	No. 9	Chip Ganassi Racing
19.	Santino Ferrucci	No. 14	AJ Foyt Enterprises
21.	Rinus VeeKay	No. 76	Juncos Hollinger Racing
23.	Romain Grosjean	No. 18	Dale Coyne Racing

Round 1 Group 1

Palou easily took the top spot in the second group, though Ericsson eventually cut the gap to a tenth.

Lundgaard seemed on his way to missing out on Round 2, but on his very last lap jumped to sixth, making the cut.

Collet was the only rookie fast enough to get out of the first round of qualifying.

Josef Newgarden and Christian Rasmussen didn’t match their teammates speed, both unable to advance.

Position	Driver	Number	Team
14.	Will Power	No. 26	Andretti Global
16.	Nolan Siegel	No. 6	Arrow McLaren Racing
18.	Christian Rasmussen	No. 21	Ed Carpenter Racing
20.	Josef Newgarden	No. 2	Team Penske
22.	Graham Rahal	No. 15	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
24.	Dennis Hauger	No. 19	Dale Coyne Racing
25.	Sting Ray Robb	No. 77	Juncos Hollinger Racing