Scott McLaughlin bounced back from a crash in Friday’s practice to take his second pole at St. Petersburg. The Penske driver edged Colton Herta by 0.1769 seconds. McLaughlin has now won 11 IndyCar poles.

It was a very interesting qualifying under cloudy skies as the temperature cooled significantly. Favorites Pato O’Ward and Will Power were eliminated in the first rounds. Power had suffered a hybrid failure in the morning practice.

The Fast 12 had several surprise entries, among them Rinus VeeKay, Nolan Siegel, and both Shank cars of Felix Rosenqvist and Marcus Armstrong. Meyer Shank was the only team to have multiple representatives in the Fast Six.

Santino Ferrucci brushed the wall at the end of the front stretch in round 1. He brought the car to a stop on the escape road at turn 1 and it remained there until qualifying ended. Scott Dixon spun in turn one but kept the car off the wall and continued.

McLaughlin and Herta both said that the race will be interesting because of tire strategy.

Fast Six Results

Fan Fun

FOX isn’t fooling around with their promos. Two kiosks on the Mahaffey lawn bring to life exc erpts from the Newgarden and O’Ward commercials.

This from a faux magazine stand. The books are blank.

Samples available.