Photo by Kyle McInnes

Scott McLaughlin took the pole away from his teammates with a solid 234.220 mph average speed. He edged Will Power by three tenths of a second and Josef Newgarden by four tenths. The Penske trio was nearly a mile an hour ahead of fourth place Alexander Rossi.

Penske also swept the front row in 1988 when pole winner Rick Mears also won the race.

The pole shootout was anticlimactic as only the drivers kept the same positions they earned in the earlier round of 12.

As usual, all the drama took place in the Last Chance Shootout for the final three spots on the grid.

While most fans expected the drama to come down to Graham Rahal versus Nolan Siege, but it was Marcus Ericsson who created the tension.

Ericsson was on a run that would have comfortably made the field, but he lifted after taking the white flag. Ericsson went out agauin, mainky tom cool his engine. He then waited until there were about six minutes remained to make an attempt which knocked Nolan Siegel out of the race. Siegel went out for one last attempt. His first lap was too slow to make the race, and his last ditch effort ended when he hit the wall in turn 1, and slid to a stop in turn 2, ending a valiant effort by the 19 year old and his crew, who worked all night to get a car ready for qualifying after his crash on Friday.

Graham Rahal made the race on his own merit this year after being bumped in 2023 but getting to start as a replacement for Stefan Wilson.

Katherine Legge was the fastest of the Last Chance round and she will start 31st.

Notes

. I like Alexander Rossi’s chances on Race Day.

Scott McLaughlin is the future of Team Penske. This pole is the first of what I think will be many achievements accomplish at IMS.

I am becoming for a fan of the first day of qualifying than I was when this format first started. It is fun and intriguing. Day two still needs some work. I think it is confusing and a bad marketing move to have both bumping and the pole decided on the same day.

The pole should be determined on Saturday, and the pole winner should be in the broadcast booth while drivers battle for the last few spots.

I will have some more thoughts tomorrow morning. Thanks for following along this entire week.

Provisional Grid