Louis Foster took the pole for tomorrow’s XPel Grand Prix in the car that he crashed last Sunday night. It was the second straight year that a rookie has won the pole at Road America. Linus Lundqvist won the pole in 2024.

Foster earned the first pole for RLL Racing since 2023 in Portland when Graham Rahal started at the point. Rahal was also in the Fast Six today, and he will start sixth.

RLL drivers have flirted with the pole before in 2025. Rahal nearly started first in the Sonsio Grand Prix at IMS.

With Robert Shwartzman winning the pole for the Indianapolis 500, two rookies have poles halfway through the season. I am sure someone will find another time that this has occurred.

Notes

It was not the day Team Penske hoped for. Scott McLaughlin was the only driver to advance to the Fast Six while Will Power will start eighth and Josef Newgarden will start 10th. Newgarden got intom the second round when Scott Dixon received a penalty for impeding another driver.

Points leader Alex Palou starts second and Kyle Kirkwood, thiSaturday usually draws a large rd in points, starts third. Second place Pato O’Ward starts 11th.

Today’s attendance was arguably the largest Saturday crowd I’ve seen here. I watched qualifying from the top of hte hill at turn five. The area looked like it normally does on race day.

Results