Patricio O'Ward's lap at 66.7054 seconds around Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in the final round of qualifying matched IndyCar history. With that lap, O'Ward became the ninth different pole-sitter through the first nine races of the season, the first time IndyCar has had nine consecutive pole-sitters to open a season since 1961. This is O'Ward's fifth career pole position and his first since the August 2021 IMS road course race. O'Ward has started in the top five in five of the last six races. Mid-Ohio is the only track O'Ward has made multiple IndyCar starts at but has yet to have a top five finish. His best finish at the circuit is eighth. He could join Adrián Fernández as the only Mexican drivers to win at Mid-Ohio. Fernández won here in 1998.
Scott McLaughlin was 0.1328 seconds off O'Ward and completes the Chevrolet sweep of the front row for the Honda 200. It is McLaughlin's first top five start since starting fourth at Barber. Every time McLaughlin has started in the top five this season he has been the top Team Penske qualifier. However, he has not been the top Team Penske finisher since the St. Petersburg. Last year, McLaughlin started 14th and finished 12th at Mid-Ohio.
Colton Herta was the top Honda qualifier in third, 0.3208 seconds off O'Ward. Herta has completed every lap in all four of his Mid-Ohio starts. He has led a lap in the last three Mid-Ohio races, but his only top five finish was his victory in the second race of the 2020 doubleheader. This is the third consecutive year Herta has started in the top three at Mid-Ohio after starting first and second in the last two starts.
Felix Rosenqvist qualified just over a half-second off his teammate O'Ward and makes it two Arrow McLaren SP cars in the top four. Rosenqvist's finishing position has progressively gotten worse at Mid-Ohio over his four starts. He was runner-up to Scott Dixon in a side-by-side finish in the 2019 race but dropped to sixth and 22nd in the 2020 doubleheader and was 23rd last year.
Scott Dixon gets his first top five starting position on a road/street course this season. This will be Scott Dixon's 19th Mid-Ohio start, the most all-time breaking a tie with Michael Andretti and Tony Kanaan. Dixon has started in the top five for nine of those races. Dixon has not led a lap in his last three Mid-Ohio starts. He has never gone four consecutive Mid-Ohio races without a lap led. In his last 16 Mid-Ohio starts, Dixon has six victories, seven podium finishes, 11 top five finishes and 15 top ten finishes.
Simon Pagenaud rounds out the top six position. Pagenaud was 0.7145 seconds off O'Ward's pole position time. This is the second time a Meyer Shank Racing car has started in the top six for a Mid-Ohio race. Jack Harvey started fifth for the first race of the 2020 doubleheader. Pagenaud has completed all 1,030 possible laps in his 12 Mid-Ohio starts, but he has not had a top five finish at the track since 2017.
Álex Palou fell 0.0010 seconds short from advancing to the final round of qualifying and will have to start seventh instead. Fourth through seventh in the second round of qualifying was covered by 0.0019 seconds. Palou is coming off matching his second-worst career finish after ending up 27th at Road America. The only other time he finished 27th was last August in the race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course after suffering an engine failure.
David Malukas has his second top ten starting position of the season and the top qualifying rookie will roll off from eighth position. Malukas has yet to be the top Dale Coyne Racing finisher on a natural-terrain road course this season. He has been the top finisher at both ovals and on the streets of Belle Isle.
Kyle Kirkwood made it to the second round of qualifying for the third time this season and for the first time since Long Beach. Kirkwood will start a career-best ninth. He has won ten times at Mid-Ohio in Road to Indy series. Kirkwood could join Paul Tracy as the only drivers to win at Mid-Ohio in Indy Lights and IndyCar. Jack Harvey and Patricio O'Ward are the only drivers entered in this year's Mid-Ohio race who have won here in Indy Lights.
Callum Ilott is making his first Mid-Ohio start and it will come from tenth completing tic-tac-toe, three rookies in a row on the starting grid. This is the third time Ilott has made it to the second round of qualifying this season. Juncos Hollinger Racing's only previous Mid-Ohio appearance in IndyCar was in 2018 with René Binder, who finished 21st.
Rinus VeeKay starts 11th, the third consecutive Mid-Ohio race VeeKay has started in 11th position. Like Felix Rosenqvist, VeeKay's finishing position has progressively gotten worse at Mid-Ohio. VeeKay has finished eighth, 11th and 16th in his first three Mid-Ohio starts. The Dutchman has three top ten finishes in his last 16 starts. He has finished outside the top fifteen in 12 of those starts, including the last four races.
Alexander Rossi dropped to 12th in the second round of qualifying, Rossi's worse starting position at Mid-Ohio since he started 12th in his first start at the track in 2016. He has finished better than or equal to his starting position in five of seven Mid-Ohio starts, though he finished worse than his 12th starting position six years ago. He was 14th in that race. Rossi has six consecutive top ten finishes at Mid-Ohio. He has only led a lap in six of his last 45 starts.
Marcus Ericsson missed out on advancing from group one by 0.1543 seconds after Will Power was penalized for interference during the session. Ericsson has led a lap in four races this season, matching last season for his most races led in a single year. He has led a lap in the last two Mid-Ohio races, but he has led one lap and two laps in those races.
Josef Newgarden was 0.0961 seconds off advancing from group two and Newgarden will start 14th. He is aiming to become the first driver to win consecutive Mid-Ohio races for the first time since Scott Dixon did it in 2011 and 2012. This could be the eighth time a driver has won consecutive Mid-Ohio races. Bobby Rahal, Michael Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi, Al Unser, Jr., Alex Zanardi and Hélio Castroneves are the other driver to win consecutive times at Mid-Ohio.
Hélio Castroneves takes 15th on the grid, his third time starting on row eight this season. Castroneves' average finish in his last seven Mid-Ohio starts is 13.857 with no top five finishes and two top ten finishes. Each time he has started on row eight this year, Castroneves has finished outside the top twenty.
Christian Lundgaard is the best Rahal Letterman Lanigan starter in 16th. This is the seventh race RLLR does not have a top ten starter and the fourth time the team has failed to put a car in the top fifteen. Lundgaard's tenth-place finish at Road America, combined with Graham Rahal's eighth-place finish, was the first time Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing had multiple top ten finishes this season. RLLR had six races with multiple top ten finishes last year and it had all three cars finish in the top ten at Mid-Ohio last year.
Romain Grosjean starts 17th, his worst starting position of the season. Grosjean started 18th last year at Mid-Ohio, but he went on to finish seventh that day. He is looking for consecutive top five finishes for the first time in his IndyCar career. Excluding the Andros Trophy ice racing series, Grosjean has not had consecutive top five finishes since a five-race stretch during the 2013 Formula One season, when he was third at the Korean, Japanese and Indian Grand Prix, fourth at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and second in the United States Grand Prix.
Graham Rahal starts next to his best friend Romain Grosjean on row nine. This is the fourth consecutive race Rahal has started outside the top fifteen. This is the first time Rahal has not had top five finish within his first eight starts of a season. Rahal has nine consecutive top ten finishes at Mid-Ohio with five of those being top five results. This is the longest Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has gone to open a season without a top five result since 2008. RLLR's first top five finish that season was in the tenth race at Watkins Glen where Ryan Hunter-Reay won. Rahal makes his 250th IndyCar start this weekend.
Takuma Sato wound up 19th on the grid for the second consecutive race. Sato has not finished in the top five in his last 17 starts and he has only one top five finish in his last 30 starts. Dale Coyne Racing has never had a top five finish at Mid-Ohio, the location of Dale Coyne Racing's debut. Dale Coyne started the 1984 CART race and finished 14th, 17 laps down.
Devlin DeFrancesco's first Mid-Ohio start will be from 20th on the grid. DeFrancesco was fifth in both summer Indy Lights races at Mid-Ohio last year. He was eighth and fourth at the Indy Lights season finale round at Mid-Ohio last October.
Will Power's penalty for interfering Hélio Castroneves' qualifying run dropped him from top of group one to 11th in the group, 21st on the grid after Power's fastest two laps were deleted. This is the fourth consecutive race Power has started outside the top ten. It is the first time Power has started outside the top ten in four consecutive races, when he had a five-race stretch that covered Iowa, Richmond, Watkins Glen, Nashville and Mid-Ohio. Power has led 205 laps at Mid-Ohio in 14 starts. Mid-Ohio is one of ten tracks where he has led at least 200 laps.
Conor Daly qualified 22nd. Daly has started outside the top ten in eight of nine races, and this is the seventh time he has started outside the top fifteen in 2022. Daly has finished better than his starting position in his last three starts and in five of the last six races.
Dalton Kellett starts on row 12, his eighth consecutive race starting outside the top twenty. Kellett has finished 22nd, 21st and 21st in his three Mid-Ohio starts, off the lead lap in all three starts. He did pick up his first lead lap finish of the season last time out at Road America.
Jack Harvey will start 24th, his worst road/street course starting position this season. Harvey did start 32nd for the Indianapolis 500. His best Mid-Ohio finish was tenth in 2019 with Meyer Shank Racing. He has finished outside the top fifteen in two of his four starts at this track.
Simona de Silvestro returns for her second race of the season with Paretta Autosport and de Silvestro will start 25th. She was 21st at Road America last month. In her four Mid-Ohio starts, she has finishes of eighth, 12th, 23rd and 11th and she has completed 343 of a possible 345 laps. The only two laps she failed to complete were when she drove a Lotus-powered car in 2012.
Tatiana Calderón starts 26th. Calderón had an off in qualifying in turn two but did not damage the car. This is the sixth time in seven starts she is starting on row 13. She first tested for A.J. Foyt Racing last year at Mid-Ohio.
Jimmie Johnson rounds out the grid in 27th position. This is the fifth-time Johnson has started outside the top twenty-five this season. Johnson has made two NASCAR Cup Series starts on July 3 in his career. Both came at Daytona. Johnson was second in the 2004 race behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, and he was 31st after being caught in an accident in 2010.
NBC's coverage of the Honda 200 begins at noon ET with green flag scheduled for 12:30 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 80 laps.
