Will Power swept the pole positions for the doubleheader at Iowa Speedway as Power's second qualifying lap was completed in 18.0796 seconds during the Saturday morning time trial session. Power now has 66 career pole positions, one shy of tying Mario Andretti's record for most pole positions in IndyCar history. This is the 12th season where Power has won at least three pole positions. This is the first time Power has won consecutive pole positions since the final two races of the 2020 season, the second Harvest Grand Prix race from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and the St. Petersburg season finale. Power leads all active drivers with 18 career victories from pole position, the most recent being that second Harvest Grand Prix race.
Josef Newgarden won from second position yesterday at Iowa and Newgarden will look to make it three consecutive Iowa victories. Newgarden was 0.0111 seconds off Power's pole position time for race two. Newgarden's victory yesterday was the sixth time the second place starting position has won this season and the third consecutive race that was won from second on the grid. This is the first time a starting position has produced three consecutive winners since Long Beach, Barber and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis in 2018. The last time one starting position produced four consecutive winners was the final four races of the 2009 season, all of which were won from pole position.
Conor Daly starts third for the second consecutive race, as the top three starters are all identical from yesterday’s race. Daly was 0.0740 seconds slower than Power's lap. This will be the sixth time Daly has started in the top five in his IndyCar career. He has never finished better than his starting position in those cases and his only top five finish from a top five starting position was at this year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He started fourth and finished fifth.
Takuma Sato was 0.009 seconds off of Daly’s qualifying time, but this will be Sato's third top five starting position this season and his second on an oval. However, Sato has zero top five finishes this season and he has finished outside the top ten in six consecutive races. This is the fourth time Sato has started in the top five at but, he has only two top ten finishes in 13 Iowa starts.
Scott McLaughlin will start fifth. McLaughlin was only 0.0754 seconds off his teammate Power's qualifying time. Team Penske had all three cars start in the top five in yesterday's race, the first time the team had all three cars start in the top five. This is the second consecutive race all three Penske cars are starting in the top ten. Penske had all its cars start in the top ten for the first three races, but it had not happened in the seven races prior to Iowa.
Jack Harvey will start sixth, his second consecutive race starting in the top ten. Prior to this weekend, the only other time Harvey was the top Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing qualifier was Texas, a race he did not start due to an accident in final practice. He was not medically cleared for the Texas race and Santino Ferrucci drove his car to a ninth-place finish. Harvey went from seventh to 18th in the first Iowa race. Harvey has finished worse than his starting position in four of ten starts this season, but all four of those races have been the only four times Harvey has qualified inside the top fifteen this season.
Patricio O'Ward went from fourth to second in Saturday's race. Today O'Ward will start from seventh position. His runner-up position snapped a three-race top ten finish drought. O'Ward has not had consecutive podium finishes since the Belle Isle doubleheader last year and he won the second race. O'Ward has won the second race of the last two doubleheader and the only three times he has had consecutive podium finishes were all doubleheader weekends.
Rinus VeeKay starts eighth for the second Iowa race this weekend. After starting eighth yesterday, this is the second consecutive race VeeKay has started inside the top ten after starting outside the top ten for four consecutive races. He has never had consecutive top five finishes in his IndyCar career.
Felix Rosenqvist was 0.1668 seconds off the pole position time and the Swede will start ninth. Rosenqvist has finished outside the top twenty in two of the last three races. He has not finished better than 14th in four Iowa starts. He has finished outside the top ten in six of the last seven oval races.
Romain Grosjean is coming off his first career top ten finish on an oval and Grosjean will start tenth today. Yesterday was the first time Grosjean has been the top Andretti Autosport finisher since Barber in May. Only twice has he had consecutive top ten finishes in his career. He was fifth and seventh at Road America and Mid-Ohio last year and he was second and seventh at Long Beach and Barber this year.
Álex Palou rolls off from the inside of row six. Palou has finished sixth in the last two races and in three of the last five races. The Spaniard opened the season with three podium finishes in the first four races. He has only one podium finish in the last seven races and he is still looking for his first career victory.
Colton Herta qualified third for the second Iowa race, 0.0497 seconds off Power, but Herta’s team is making an unscheduled engine change and will take a nine-spot grid penalty, dropping him to 12th in the starting order for today's race. Despite having qualified in the top five for half of his Iowa starts, Herta's best finish at the track is 18th. He was eight laps down in race one after suffering an electrical issue that prevented the car from getting in gear. Each time Herta has in the top five this season, he has followed it with a result outside the top ten. Three of those have been results of 15th or worse.
Jimmie Johnson starts 13th a day after finishing 11th in the first Iowa race. Johnson did lead 19 laps in yesterday's race during a pit cycle. He also led in the Indianapolis 500, meaning he has led in the last two oval races. Chip Ganassi Racing is looking to have four top ten finishers for the first time since Fontana 2015.
David Malukas starts 14th in his second Iowa start. Malukas dropped from sixth starting position to finish 14th yesterday, one lap down. Yesterday was the first time Malukas did not finish on the lead lap since he retired from the Long Beach race due to an accident.
Championship leader Marcus Ericsson will start 15th and Ericsson's championship lead is down to 15 points over Josef Newgarden entering today's race. This is Ericsson's worst starting position since he stared 18th for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. When the green flag falls, Ericsson will lose the championship lead. Power will assume the championship lead with 403 points with Newgarden on 400 points and Ericsson on 390 points.
Simon Pagenaud hopes to have a better day from Saturday, but Pagenaud will have to work from 16th position. This will be the fourth consecutive Iowa race Pagenaud has started outside the top fifteen. In his previous seven Iowa races, his worst starting position was 11th. Yesterday's 23rd-place finish snapped a streak of six consecutive top ten finishes at Iowa.
Christian Lundgaard starts on the inside of row nine, Lundgaard's best starting position on an oval. He rolled off from 20th yesterday, his previous best oval starting position and finished tenth. Lundgaard is one of seven drivers to have top ten finishes in at least three of the last four races along with Marcus Ericsson, Josef Newgarden, Álex Palou, Scott Dixon, Scott McLaughlin and Graham Rahal.
Scott Dixon will start 18th after qualifying 0.3718 seconds off Power's pole position lap. This is the fourth consecutive Iowa race Dixon has started outside the top ten and this will be the eighth consecutive Iowa race Dixon has started outside the top five. He has never won from 18th starting position before in his IndyCar career. He has twice finished second from 18th on the grid. The first time was the second race of the 2011 Texas doubleheader, where a draw determined starting positions, and the other was the 2018 Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
Ed Carpenter starts 19th, Carpenter's fifth consecutive Iowa race starting outside the top ten. He has finished outside the top ten in six of the last seven Iowa races and he has retired from three of the last four Iowa races.
Kyle Kirkwood rounds out the top twenty starting positions. Kirkwood gained nine spots from his starting position yesterday to finish 15th. He was one of four drivers to make up at least nine positions in yesterday's race. The only drivers with more spots made up were fellow rookies Christian Lundgaard and Callum Ilott, who each made up ten spots.
Alexander Rossi has his worst starting position of the season in 21st. This is the first time Rossi is starting outside the top twenty since he started 21st for the second Iowa race in 2021. That day he finished eighth, but he had started fifth in the first Iowa race and finished sixth. This is only the third time in 108 IndyCar appearance Rossi has started outside the top twenty.
Callum Ilott joins Rossi on row 11. Ilott's 12th place finish in Saturday's race was his best oval finish in his brief IndyCar career. Yesterday was only the third time Ilott has finished better than his starting position this season and it was the first time he finished at least five positions better than his starting spot, as he gained ten spots.
Graham Rahal finds himself 23rd on the grid, the eighth consecutive race he has started outside the top ten. This is the fourth time in seven races he has started outside the top twenty. He does have three top ten finishes in the last four races. Rahal has five top ten finishes in the last six Iowa races and 11 top ten finishes in 15 Iowa starts.
Hélio Castroneves was 24th in qualifying, the second consecutive race Castroneves is starting outside the top ten. Prior to this weekend, his worst starting position in 11 Iowa starts was 13th. He has won three races from outside a top ten starting position in his career, but he has not done it since the 2008 season finale at Chicagoland where he won from 28th.
Devlin DeFrancesco leads an all-Canadian row 13. Yesterday, DeFrancesco finished 17th, matching his career-best IndyCar finish for the third time this season. He has finished 18th or 17th in five consecutive races.
Dalton Kellett rounds out the grid in 26th position. Kellett qualified 0.5653 seconds off Power. This is the 11th consecutive race Kellett has started outside the top ten. He has finished off the lead lap in ten of 11 races this season.
NBC's coverage of the HyVee Salute to Farmers 300 presented by Google begins at 3:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:20 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 300 laps.
