Rinus VeeKay took a surprise pole position at Barber Motorsports Park in the #21 Sonax Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing. With a lap of 66.2507 seconds in the Firestone Fast Six, VeeKay picked up his second career pole position and his first since the first Harvest Grand Prix race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in October 2020. This is only the second time the Dutchman has started on the front row in his career. Last year, he scored his first career victory from seventh in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He has led in two of three races this season. VeeKay picked up Ed Carpenter Racing's first top ten finish at Barber since 2016 with his sixth place run last year. This is the seventh pole position for the Ed Carpenter Racing's organization. It has never won a race from pole position, but it has finished in the top five from half of its pole positions.
Patricio O'Ward joins VeeKay on an all-Chevrolet row one. O'Ward was 0.1496 seconds off VeeKay's time. Last year, O'Ward led 25 laps from pole position at Barber but fell to fourth. He has not led a lap in his last five starts. The only time he has gone longer than five starts without a lap led was the first 11 starts of his IndyCar career. O'Ward has started on the front row five times prior in his career. He has never won from the front row, but he has finished on the podium in four of those races and his worst finish is fifth.
Álex Palou won at Barber last year from third on the grid and a little over a year later, Palou again starts third. He was 0.1908 seconds slower than VeeKay.Palou started and finished third at Long Beach in the most recent race. The Spaniard has finished seventh in the fourth race of the season in each of his first two seasons in IndyCar. Those races came at Road America and Texas.
Scott McLaughlin was the top Team Penske driver in fourth, just under a quarter-second off VeeKay's pole time. This is the fourth consecutive race McLaughlin has started in the top ten. He had only three top ten starts in his first 17 IndyCar races. McLaughlin has yet to finish in the top five on a natural-terrain road course in his IndyCar career. His only top ten finishes on natural-terrain road courses were eighth in the 2021 Grand Prix of Indianapolis and ninth at Portland last year.
Alexander Rossi matched his best qualifying result of the season in fifth, overcoming an accident in the pre-qualifying practice Saturday morning. Rossi was just over three-tenths off pole position. In Rossi's first five Barber starts he has finished 15th, fifth, 11th, fifth and ninth. Rossi has finished worse than his starting position in five of the last seven races and in two of those races he started in the top five. Rossi's only victory when starting outside one of the top three positions was his Indianapolis 500 victory in 2016 from 11th.
Felix Rosenqvist rounded out the Firestone Fast Six, nearly four-tenths behind VeeKay. This is the second time he has made the Fast Six in 2022. He made the Fast Six only three times in the entire 2021 season. Rosenqvist's last five top five finishes have come on natural-terrain road courses, but he has not had a top five finish since he was fifth in the first race of the 2020 Harvest Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Josef Newgarden missed out on advancing to the final round of qualifying by 0.0195 seconds, and Newgarden will start seventh. The good news is Newgarden likes seventh. He won the 2017 Barber race from seventh, and four of Newgarden's 22 victories have been from seventh position, the same number of times he has won from pole position. The only starting position he has won from more is second, which he has won from seven times. A victory for Josef Newgarden means this would be the 57th time in IndyCar history a driver has won three consecutive races. Newgarden would become the 34th driver to complete the achievement.
Romain Grosjean joins Newgarden on row four. Grosjean picked up his third career runner-up finish last time out at Long Beach. The bad news for Grosjean is he has finished outside the top ten in his previous three starts following at podium finish. He has yet to have consecutive top five finishes in his IndyCar career. This will be Grosjean's 17th career start. Six drivers have scored their first career victory in their 17th start, most notably Lloyd Ruby, Gil de Ferran and Will Power.
Graham Rahal gets his first top ten finish of the season, ending up ninth. Rahal has finished better than his starting position in five consecutive races. Rahal's last podium finishes was third in the second Texas race 364 days ago. Only one of his last six podium finishes have come on a natural-terrain road course. Rahal has made 76 starts since his most recent victory.
Colton Herta rounds the top ten on the grid after being caught out when the red flag came out for Marcus Ericsson's spin. Herta has finished 24th and 22nd in his first two Barber starts, and in each of those races he started ninth. Though it is a small sample size, this is Herta's worst track according to average finish. He has finished fifth in the fourth race of the season the last two years. He went from tenth to fifth in the first Texas race last year.
Callum Ilott advanced from the first round of qualifying for the first time in his IndyCar career and Ilott will start 11th. It is also Juncos Racing's best starting position in IndyCar. Juncos Racing has won five times at Barber Motorsports Park in Road to Indy competition. Martin Scuncio won the second Star Mazda race in 2012 before Spencer Pigot swept the Star Mazda races in 2014. Pigot then swept the Indy Lights races at the track in 2015.
Marcus Ericsson will make his 50th IndyCar start this season from 12th on the grid after causing a red flag in the second round of qualifying. Ericsson was 22nd at Long Beach. Only twice has he had consecutive finishes outside the top ten since joining Chip Ganassi Racing. He has finishes of seventh and eighth in his two Barber starts.
For the first time ever at Barber Motorsports Park, Scott Dixon will start an IndyCar race outside the top six, and Dixon didn't even advance from the first round of qualifying. He was 0.0126 seconds shy of advancing from group one. Dixon has won four times when starting outside the top ten, tied for the most all-time in IndyCar history with Al Unser, Jr., Dan Wheldon and Sébastien Bourdais. This is the eighth time Dixon has started 13th in his career. His best finish in those previous seven starts was third at Pocono in 2018. The only track where Scott Dixon has more podium finishes than his nine at Barber Motorsports Park is Texas Motor Speedway. Dixon has ten podium finishes at Texas, five of which are victories.
Christian Lundgaard makes his Barber debut from 14th on the grid beside Dixon. This is Lundgaard's best starting position of the season. He has finished better than his starting position in every race this season, but his only lead lap finish was at St. Petersburg. Fourteen IndyCar races have been won from 14th starting position. The most recent was Colton Herta in the 2021 season finale from Long Beach.
Jack Harvey starts a position behind his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammate in 15th. This is the seventh consecutive race Harvey has started outside the top ten. Harvey has not finished in the top fifteen in the fourth race of the season in his career. He was 22nd at Long Beach in 2019, and he was 17th in the fourth race of the season the last two years.
Hélio Castroneves joins Harvey on row eight. This is Castroneves' first Barber appearance since 2017, and it is his worst starting position ever at this track. His previous worse was seventh in 2016. Castroneves has led a lap in five of his eight Barber starts and he has completed all 699 laps in his eight Barber appearances. Castroneves has never won an IndyCar race in the month of May outside of the Indianapolis 500.
Dale Coyne Racing swept row nine with Takuma Sato leading the way in 17th position. Sato is one of four drivers to have started all 11 Barber races, but Sato has only three top ten finishes at the track, and all three of those finishes have come in the last four Barber races. This is the tenth time in 12 Barber appearances Sato has started outside the top ten.
David Malukas caused a red flag in group two of round one and lost his fastest two lap times. This relegated Malukas to 18th on the grid. Malukas won last year at Barber in Indy Lights. No driver has won at Barber Motorsports Park in IndyCar and Indy Lights. Malukas is one of three drivers entered that have won in Indy Lights at this track. The other drivers are Colton and Patricio O'Ward.
Will Power will start 19th, his worst Barber starting position. He had started in the top ten in all 11 Barber races with eight front row starts. Power is looking for his fourth consecutive top five finish. Power has not had four consecutive top five finishes since 2017. This would be the second time in his career he has opened a season with four consecutive top five finishes. He previously did it in 2010.
Devlin DeFrancesco rounds out the top twenty on the grid. DeFrancesco could become the first driver to open a season with four consecutive finishes outside the top twenty since Francesco Dracone opened the 2015 season with five consecutive results outside the top twenty.
Kyle Kirkwood occupies 21st on the grid. Kirkwood picked up his first career top ten finish at Long Beach. Last year, Sébastien Bourdais picked up A.J. Foyt Racing's first top five finish at Barber and only the team's second top ten result at the track with a fifth-place result. Kirkwood was ninth and fifth in the Barber Indy Lights races last year.
Conor Daly starts 21 positions behind his Ed Carpenter Racing teammate Rinus VeeKay with the American rolling off from 22nd position. VeeKay has started on average 11.75 spots better than Daly over the four races this season. Daly has gone 24 races since his last top ten finish. He has finished outside the top fifteen in each of his three Barber starts, but his finishes have improved each time out. His Barber results have been 20th, 18th and 16th.
Dalton Kellett is immediately behind his A.J. Foyt Racing teammate Kirkwood on row 12 in 23rd position. This is the 25th time in 28 IndyCar races Kellett will start outside the top twenty. He has one finish in the top fifteen in 27 IndyCar starts.
Simon Pagenaud ended up 24th on the grid, Pagenaud's worst ever starting position at Barber and his worst starting position ever on a road/street course. The other three races he has started 24th or worse are oval races. He had nine consecutive top ten finishes at Barber before he finished 12th last year. He has not led at the track since his 2016 victory when he led 84 of 90 laps.
Jimmie Johnson rounds out the grid in 26th, matching his worst starting position of the season. Johnson has finished better than his starting position in 12 of 15 IndyCar starts. He is still looking for his first top fifteen finish on a road/street course race in his IndyCar career.
NBC's coverage of the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama begins at 1:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 1:05 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 90 laps.
