Felix Rosenqvist took his second career position and his first on an oval with a two-lap average of 221.110 mph at Texas Motor Speedway. It is Rosenqvist's first pole position since the 2020 Grand Prix of Indianapolis, his fifth career start. This is Rosenqvist's first top five qualifying effort on an oval. His previous best oval start was seventh for the first Iowa race in 2020. Rosenqvist has finished at least two laps down in three of his four Texas starts. He completed all 212 laps in the first race last year. He has finished ahead of his starting position in three of those four Texas starts.
Championship leader Scott McLaughlin starts next to Rosenqvist on row one. McLaughlin had a two-lap average of 221.096 mph, only 0.0030 seconds off pole position. This is the second consecutive race McLaughlin has started on the front row and it is his first oval front row start. After winning at St. Petersburg, McLaughlin is looking to do something he accomplished on 14 occasions in his Supercars career. That is win consecutive races. Seven of those winning streaks were three races or longer.
Takuma Sato will be making his 200th IndyCar start this weekend, the 26th driver to reach this milestone, and he will do it from third on the grid. This is the first top ten starting position for Sato since he was on pole position for the second Gateway race in 2020, snapping a 22-race streak. Last season was the first time Sato did not have a top five finish in an oval race since 2016, his final season with A.J. Foyt Racing. His last three podium finishes and six of his last nine podium results have been on ovals. His only top five finish at Texas was fifth in the first race of the 2011 doubleheader.
Will Power was third in the opening race of the season at St. Petersburg, and he will start fourth for the second race of 2022. This will be the 11th time Power has started in the top five at Texas and the 15th time he has started in the top ten in 16 Texas starts. He has not opened a season with consecutive podium finishes since 2014. He also opened the 2007, 2010 and 2011 seasons with consecutive podium finishes.
Scott Dixon rounds out the top five on the grid. Dixon was the final driver to average over 221 mph over his two-lap qualifying at 221.011 mph. This is the tenth consecutive Texas race Dixon has started in the top ten and the fifth consecutive race he has started in the top fifth. The only other time Dixon has started in fifth position at Texas was October 2004, and he finished sixth.
Next to Dixon on row three will be Hélio Castroneves. This is Castroneves' first IndyCar oval race outside of Indianapolis Motor Speedway since Gateway 2017 when he finished fourth. In his six oval starts in 2017, he had a victory, four top five finishes and five top ten finishes, but his worst finish was 20th and that came at Texas. That 20th-place result matched his worst Texas finish.
Josef Newgarden wound up seventh on the grid. For the second consecutive season, Josef Newgarden finished outside the top ten in the season opener. He has finished on the podium in the second race of the season in four of the last five years. He won the second race of the 2018 season at Phoenix. Newgarden also won from seventh at Texas in 2019.
Rinus VeeKay qualified eighth for his fourth Texas start. VeeKay started eighth in the first Texas race last year. His best Texas finish was ninth in the second race last year. He has finished in the top ten in the second race of his first two seasons in IndyCar.
Colton Herta will be making his 50th start this weekend and it will come from ninth on the grid. Herta has three consecutive top five finishes. Herta has never had four consecutive top five finishes in his career. He has had two three-race stretches of top five finishes, both coming in the 2020 season. He was fifth in the second Texas race last year.
Herta's past Indy Lights teammate Patricio O'Ward joins him on row five. O'Ward could become the second driver to win consecutive IndyCar races at Texas. Scott Dixon became the first driver to do it last season when he won the first Texas race after winning the 2020 race. O'Ward enters Texas on a bit of a slump. He has finished outside the top ten in the last two races, his longest drought driving for Arrow McLaren SP.
Álex Palou starts on row six. Palou was champion last year, but he is still looking for his first oval victory. He had three top ten finishes in the four oval races last season. He enters with four consecutive top five finishes, the longest stretch of his IndyCar career.
Alexander Rossi will be to Palou's outside. Rossi has not had a top five finish on an oval since he was runner-up at Texas in 2019 to Josef Newgarden. That is 13 oval starts since his last top five result. His average finish over those 13 starts is 15.615 with only four top ten results.
Romain Grosjean is making his second career oval start and it will be from 13th on the grid. At Gateway last year, he started and finished 14th. Texas comes after Grosjean finished fifth in the St. Petersburg season opener. He has yet to finish in the top five of consecutive races in his IndyCar career.
Next to Grosjean will be his good friend Marcus Ericsson in 14th position, his worst oval start since 17th at the 2020 Texas race. He was seventh in his first Texas start back in 2019, but he has finished outside the top ten in the last three Texas races.
Despite being fastest in the opening practice session, Simon Pagenaud finds himself 15th on the grid. Pagenaud has the best average finish driver among all drivers with at least Texas starts at 6.1. He has seven consecutive top ten finishes at Texas. The only driver with a better average finish at Texas and more than three starts is Ryan Briscoe, who had an average finish of 5.2 in nine Texas starts.
Conor Daly qualified 16th, his best Texas start. His previous best at this track was 19th in 2019 and 2020. While Conor Daly has two top ten finishes at Texas, he has finished outside the top twenty in three Texas starts, including both races of last year's doubleheader.
IndyCar oval debutants occupy row nine on the grid. Devlin DeFrancesco starts on the inside in 17th position. DeFrancesco could become the second Canadian to win at Texas Motor Speedway in IndyCar after Scott Goodyear, who here in June 1999 and October 2000.
Jimmie Johnson's first IndyCar oval start will be from 18th on the grid. Johnson has completed 11,106 laps around Texas Motor Speedway in 35 NASCAR Cup Series starts, the sixth most laps he has completed at a track in his NASCAR career behind Martinsville, Bristol, Dover, Richmond and Charlotte. His 16,659 miles completed at Texas is third most behind only Charlotte and Talladega.
David Malukas qualified 19th for his first IndyCar oval race. Nine IndyCar races have been won from 19th starting position, most recently was Fontana 2015 with Graham Rahal. Seven of those nine victories from 19th position have come on ovals. One of the two non-oval races won from 19th was by a Dale Coyne Racing driver in the state of Texas. It was Carlos Huertas in the first Houston race in 2014.
Callum Ilott will be making his oval debut this weekend and he rounds out the top twenty. Ilott could become the first British driver to win an IndyCar oval race since Justin Wilson won at Texas in 2012. This will also be Juncos Racing's first Texas appearance.
In a third Ed Carpenter Racing entry, Ed Carpenter will start 21st. Carpenter is making his first IndyCar start outside of car #20 for the first time since his first career victory at Kentucky in 2011 when he won driving the #67 Dollar General Honda for Sarah Fisher Racing.
Dalton Kellett was the top A.J. Foyt Racing qualifier in 22nd. It is only the second time Kellett has been the top qualifier for a team in his IndyCar career. The other was the second Mid-Ohio race in 2020 when he started 20th to Charlie Kimball's 23rd. Kellett's average finish in five oval starts is 18th with three finishes outside the top twenty.
Kyle Kirkwood starts 23rd. A.J. Foyt Racing has only two top five finishes on ovals in the DW12-era, both were at Gateway with Conor Daly in fifth in 2017 and Tony Kanaan finishing third in 2019. The last time A.J. Foyt Racing had a top five finish on an oval other than Gateway was Darren Manning finishing fifth at the inaugural Iowa race in 2007. The last time the team had a top five finish on a 1.5-mile oval was the team's most recent oval victory, 2002 at Kansas with Airton Daré. Daré had finished at Texas three races prior to that victory.
Jack Harvey is the top Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing starter back in 24th position. It is the third consecutive race Harvey has started outside the top twenty. This is his worst starting position on an oval outside of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Harvey has five top ten finishes in the last nine IndyCar oval races. Unfortunately, Harvey had an accident in the final practice session and will run his backup car.
Christian Lundgaard was 0.0071 seconds behind his RLLR teammate Harvey qualifying 25th. Danish drivers have combined to start just three IndyCar oval races. Jan Magnussen started the 1999 CART race at Chicago Motor Speedway and only made it 85 laps before exiting the race in an accident. Ronnie Bremer started both Champ Car races in 2005. Bremer was eighth at Milwaukee, one lap down. At Las Vegas, Bremer had a pit lane incident end his race after 41 laps and he was classified 18th, last place.
J.R. Hildebrand will start 26th. Hildebrand is driving the #11 Chevrolet for A.J. Foyt Racing and he will contest all the oval races in this entry. This is his first Texas appearance since 2017 and he has four starts at the track. He was fifth in 2012 from 23rd on the grid and with a torn ACL, which occurred in a promotional event for the Texas race.
Graham Rahal rounds out the grid in 27th position with a two-lap average at 218.410 mph, only 0.5797 seconds off Rosenqvist's time over two laps. It is Rahal's worst starting position since qualifying 30th for the 2018 Indianapolis 500 and the third worst starting position of his career. Rahal has six top ten finishes in his last seven Texas starts with five top five finishes in that span. However, he has only led 22 laps combined in those seven Texas races.
NBC's coverage of the XPEL 375 begins at 12:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 12:40 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 248 laps.
