Christian Lundgaaqrd won the pole for tomorrow’s Honda Indy200 at Mid-Ohio as he and teammate Pato O’Ward locked out the front row. The pole for the Danish driver ends a streak of five consecutive poles for Alex Palou, but another Palou streak also fell today.

Palou missed the Fast Six for the first time since Long Beach in 2024. He starts eighth tomorrow.

The Fast Six was a surprise not only for who advanced, but for who didn’t advance. In addition to Palou, Kyle Kirkwood had been fast both yesterday and today but will roll off 10th Sunday. Josef Newgarden was strong in rounds 1 but faded to ninth.

The final round saw Lundgaard, O’Ward, Will Power, David Malukas, Rinus VeeKay, and Christian Rasmussen competing for the pole.

Row 1- Lundgaard, O’Ward- teammates for now, with Lundgaard not returning in 2027

Row 2- Power, Malukas- Malukas replaced Power at Team Penske

Row 3- Rasmussen, VeeKay- Rasmussen replaced VeeKay at ECR

Notes

VeeKay continues to outperform his equipment. Imagine what he could do on a stronger team.

Malukas has an opportunity to gain some significant points on Palou tomorrow. Kirkwood will have to get past Palou to pick up some ground.

Lundgaard won the last race at Road America, and he starts on pole tomorrow. It is rare to see a driver other than Palou these days who backs up what they did in the previous race.

Even though Scott Dixon did not advance, and probably wouldn’t have, his blocking penalty on Romain Grosjean was justified. Dixon is having a difficult year. I hope the change of scenery next season will get him back up to speed.

That will do it for me for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with a pre-race post, then post tire selections and have a wrap up after the race. Thanks for following along today.

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