Photo by Penske Entertainment

A front row lockout, but not by Andretti, and a Fast Six we are not likely to see again highlighted today’s qualifying session for the Thermal Club Grand Prix.

Pato O’Ward is on pole, and teammate Christian Lundgaard will start alongside tomorrow.

I expected a front row lockout might come from Andretti, who had three fast cars during the practices and advanced all their cars to Round 2. Lundgaard had been quick all weekend, but O’Ward had been lagging somewhat. It was a matter of Pato finally getting comfortable with the car.

“I knew if we could get the car to my liking, I would get it done,” O’Ward said. “I’ve got to thank the guys. We turned it around. We dialed it in after Q1 (first qualifying segment) because I was somewhat happy with it but not perfect. Just made a little bit of an adjustment and as soon as we went out in Q2, I said, ‘I’ve got this.’”

If the McLaren front was a surprise, a bigger shock is that none of the Penske cars advanced out of round 1. Newgarden is their highest starter in 17th. Not since 2021 has the first Penske car started lower than 15th.

Notes

I can’t remember the last time that Will Power failed to advance out of Round 1 on consecutive weekends.

Shout out to Louis Foster. The rookie qualified 10th, ahead of Scott Dixon.

Round 2 will probably hold up as one of the best second rounds of qualifying this season. Marcus Armstrong missed the Fast Six by 0.0728 of a second.

The top four in the Fast Six are separated by less than half a second.

I was glad to see FOX show what tire each driver was on, but the graphic was up for just a few seconds in the middle of each round. The tire graphic is going to be important information for viewers throughout the day tomorrow, and it needs to be up the entire race.

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