For the second consecutive year, Felix Rosenqvist won pole position at Texas Motor Speedway. It is Rosenqvist's fourth career pole position. He had a two lap average at 220.264 mph, the only driver to get into the 220 mph bracket. The Swede's qualifying time was 0.1802 seconds slower than his pole position last season. Rosenqvist becomes the ninth driver with multiple pole positions at Texas and the fifth driver to win consecutive pole positions at the track joining Tony Stewart, Tomas Scheckter, Alex Tagliani and Will Power. Rosenqvist has never finished in the top ten in the second race of the season. Rosenqvist's average finish in five Texas starts is 16.4.
Scott Dixon was 0.0624 seconds slower than Rosenqvist, and Dixon will start second. This is Dixon's ninth front row start in 25 Texas appearances. His average finish when starting on the front row at Texas is fifth. Dixon opened the season with a third-place finish at St. Petersburg. That tied Dixon with Mario Andretti for most top five finishes in IndyCar history. The two drivers have 193 top five finishes. Only three times in his career has Dixon opened the season with consecutive podium finishes. He did it in 2007, 2012 and 2020. The only of those three seasons he won the championship was 2020.
Alexander Rossi qualified third, 0.065 seconds off his McLaren teammate Rosenqvist' pole-winning time. This is Rossi's best start on an oval since he started second at Pocono in 2019, but qualifying was rained out for that Pocono race. This is his best qualifying run on an oval since he started third at Pocono in 2018, Rossi's most recent oval victory. He has finished outside the top twenty in the second race of the season the last three years. Rossi is looking for his fourth consecutive top ten finish. It would be his longest streak since he had four consecutive podium finishes in 2020.
Josef Newgarden will start on the outside of row two. Newgarden was 0.0992 seconds off Rosenqvist. This is only the fifth time Newgarden will start in the top five at Texas. In three of those previous four occasions Newgarden has finished outside the top ten. The two-time Texas winner has finished on the podium in the second race of the season in five of the last six seasons, including two victories, both of which were on ovals. Newgarden has never won from fourth starting position in his IndyCar career.
Patricio O'Ward makes it three McLaren cars in the top five, as O'Ward was 0.1382 seconds slower than his Swedish teammate. This is the sixth time in the last seven races O'Ward has started in the top five and the 15th time in the last 16 races he has started in the top ten. O'Ward was second at the St. Petersburg season opener. Three of O'Ward's four career victories have come after finishing on the podium in the previous race. All four of his victories have come in races following a top five finish.
Takuma Sato makes his first start of 2023 and it will come from sixth on the grid. Sato's only top five finish at Texas was fifth in the first race of the 2011 doubleheader. Sato has four top ten finishes at Texas and five finishes outside the top fifteen in 14 Texas starts. He has finished worse than his starting position in 11 Texas races. Sato could become the fourth driver to win on his Chip Ganassi Racing debut oning Michael Andretti, Dan Wheldon and Álex Palou. Speaking of Álex Palou...
Álex Palou qualified seventh, only 0.0061 seconds off his new Ganassi teammate Sato. This is Palou's third top ten start in five Texas races. He has three consecutive top ten finishes at Texas. The Spaniard had four top ten finishes in five oval races last season. He has seven top ten finishes in nine oval starts with Chip Ganassi Racing. He is still looking for his first oval victory in IndyCar.
Will Power wound up eighth on the grid. Only twice has Power won from eighth starting position in his career, and both times came in 2016 when he won the second Belle Isle race and at Pocono. Power was seventh in St. Petersburg. Only once before has Power finished seventh in the season opener. He was seventh in the 2012 season opener at St. Petersburg. Power won the second race that season at Barber.
David Malukas ended up ninth in qualifying. Dating back to last season, this is the third time in the last four races and fourth time in the last six events that Malukas has started in the top ten. He had top ten finishes in his last two oval starts, including a runner-up at Gateway last August. His worst oval finish was 16th at Indianapolis and he completed 1,257 of 1,258 oval laps contested in 2022.
Colton Herta rounds out the top ten in the grid, and he leads three consecutive Andretti entries in the starting lineup. Herta was 0.2319 seconds off the pole position time. This is the fifth time in six Texas appearances the Californian has qualified in the top ten. He has won the second round of the season in each of his two odd-numbered season, one of which was his first career victory at Austin in 2019.
Romain Grosjean leads an all-Andretti row six. Grosjean is making his 32nd career start. Five drivers have had their first career victory come in their 32nd career start. The most recent was James Hinchcliffe at St. Petersburg in 2013. The 11th-place starter has only won once at Texas, and it was the inaugural race when Arie Luyendyk won, though after a scoring error was found and the results amended.
Devlin DeFrancesco starts 12th, his second best starting position on an oval in his IndyCar career. DeFrancesco could become the second Canadian to win at Texas Motor Speedway. Scott Goodyear won at Texas in June 1999 and October 2000. Nine different nationalities have won in the 35 Texas races. Only four of them have had multiple winners (United States, Brazil, Australia and the United Kingdom).
Benjamin Pedersen makes his IndyCar oval debut from 13th starting position, and the Dane is leading an all-A.J. Foyt Racing row seven. Pedersen is still looking to complete his first race lap in IndyCar competition after being caught in the opening lap incident at St. Petersburg. In four oval starts in Indy Lights, Pedersen was the third-place finisher three times, all of those coming at Gateway.
Santino Ferrucci will start 14th. Despite his oval results, this will be Ferrucci's best starting position at Texas. His previous best was 18th. Ferrucci's worst oval finish came at Texas in 2020. Ferrucci was 21st after a pit lane issue. Along with 21st-place finish at Belle Isle last year, he has finished outside the top twenty in two consecutive starts. Ferrucci has never finished outside the top twenty in three consecutive starts.
Scott McLaughlin topped the opening practice, but McLaughlin ended up 15th in qualifying, 0.3225 seconds slower than Rosenqvist. McLaughlin started 15th in his first Texas race, which was also his first oval race ever, and he ended up finishing second. McLaughlin could become the seventh Team Penske driver to win at Texas Motor Speedway. Team Penske leads all organizations with ten victories at the track.
Two of the three Texas podium finishers last year will start on row eight, as Marcus Ericsson will start to McLaughlin's outside. This is the fifth time in six Texas appearances Ericsson will start outside the top ten. Ericsson's eight career podium finishes have come at seven different circuits, including his third at Texas last year. The only track where Ericsson has multiple podium finishes is Belle Isle.
Callum Ilott returns to Texas for the second time and will start 17th. Ilott is coming off his first career top five finish in his 19th career start. Six drivers have had their first career podium finish come in their 20th career start. The most recent driver to do it was Justin Wilson, whose first career podium finish was his first career victory at Toronto in 2005. The worst starting position for a Texas winner is 17th when Justin Wilson won in 2012.
Ed Carpenter will be on the outside of row nine. This will be the tenth consecutive Texas race Carpenter has started outside the top ten. The last time Carpenter started in the top ten was 2014 when he won from fifth on the grid. In the last nine Texas races, Carpenter has led a combined six laps and his average finish is 14.444. His only top ten finish in that stretch was fifth in the 2020 race.
Agustín Canapino will be making his oval debut this weekend and he will start 19th, qualifying 0.4089 seconds off Rosenqvist's pole time. Canapino was 24th and 15th in the two practice sessions with a combined 89 laps completed over the two sessions. His only other time on an oval was at Texas last month for his oval test.
Kyle Kirkwood qualified 20th, three spots better than his starting position last year. This is the third time Kirkwood has started 20th in his career on an oval. He has never started better than 20th in six oval appearances and his average oval starting position is 22.5. Kirkwood has not had a top ten finish in his last 15 starts. Kirkwood has finished outside the top twenty in eight of those 15 races.
Hélio Castroneves leads an all-Meyer Shank Racing row 11, as neither car could crack the top twenty. This is the second time since expanding to two cars that MSR has failed to qualify a car in the top twenty. The other time was the first Iowa race last year. This is Castroneves' worst starting position at Texas. His previous worst was 15th in 2012. The Brazilian has not had a top ten finish in his last nine starts. This is Castroneves' longest top ten drought in his career. His previous worst stretch was seven races, which occurred in his rookie season in 1998.
Simon Pagenaud's 22nd starting position is the second worst at Texas. Pagenaud started 23rd in 2013 and ended up finishing 13th. The Frenchman failed to complete a lap in St. Petersburg. It was only the second time in Pagenaud's career he has not completed a lap in a race. The other was at Long Beach in 2018. His 26th-place result at St. Petersburg was the worst result of his IndyCar career, and it came in his 200th start.
Sting Ray Robb makes his IndyCar oval debut from 23rd position. It is the second consecutive race Robb has started 23rd. Robb never won an oval race in Road to Indy competition. Robb made 11 oval starts between Indy Pro 2000 and Indy Lights. His best oval result was second at Indianapolis Raceway Park in the 2019 Indy Pro 2000 race.
Graham Rahal was the top Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing qualifier in 24th. This is the second consecutive year RLLR's best Texas qualifier was in 24th position. Rahal started 27th in this race last year. Last season, Graham Rahal's best finish on an oval was ninth in the first Iowa race. It was only the third time in the ten seasons he did not have a top five result on an oval. This is the first time Graham Rahal is the top RLLR starter since last year's Indianapolis 500.
Conor Daly qualified 25th, his worst start at Texas, but only his second worst starting position of the season. Daly started 26th at St. Petersburg last month. Daly has finished outside the top fifteen in his last three Texas starts and in four of seven races at the 1.5-mile oval. Daly has not had a top ten finish in his last 12 races.
Rinus VeeKay makes it an all-Ed Carpenter Racing row 13. This 26th starting position is the worst starting position of VeeKay's IndyCar career. He has finished in the top ten of the second race of the season in each of his first three seasons in IndyCar. VeeKay has finished in the top ten in his last two Texas starts with an average finish of 9.5 after having an average finish of 21st in his first two Texas starts.
Christian Lundgaard leads an all-RLLR row 14. This is the second consecutive season RLLR has taken the final two starting positions at Texas. Lundgaard has finished in the top ten in his last two starts. Lundgaard has yet to have three consecutive top ten finishes in his IndyCar career, and his best oval finish was tenth in the first Iowa race last year.
Jack Harvey rounds out the field in 28th position. Harvey was 0.9063 seconds of Felix Rosenqvist. Harvey's average finish in four oval starts last season was 21.5 with his best finish being 18th in the first Iowa race. The worst starting position for a winner in IndyCar history is 28th. Ray Harroun won the first Indianapolis 500 from 28th, Louis Meyer won the 1936 Indianapolis 500 from 28th and Hélio Castroneves won the 2008 Chicagoland race from 28th.
NBC's coverage of the PPG 375 begins at noon Eastern with green flag schedule for 12:10 ET. The race is scheduled for 250 laps.
