For the second consecutive race, Álex Palou will lead the field to the green flag, as Palou won pole position for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. The Spaniard had a lap of 61.8592 seconds in the final round of qualifying. This is Palou's third career pole position and he is the first driver with consecutive pole positions since Will Power swept the pole positions for the Iowa doubleheader last year. Palou is the first driver with consecutive pole positions on consecutive race weekends since Josef Newgarden won three consecutive in 2021 at Belle Isle, Road America and Mid-Ohio. This is the fifth consecutive race Palou has started in the top five and he has the best average starting position in IndyCar at 3.5714. Palou has five consecutive top five finishes, the longest top five finish streak of his career. His seven-race top ten finish streak is currently tied for the longest of his career. He has finished in the top ten in ten consecutive street course events.
Scott McLaughlin starts second after falling 0.3000 seconds off Palou's fastest time. This is McLaughlin's best starting position of the season. This is the third time McLaughlin has started second in his career. He has finished second and first in his first two races starting second. His best finish at Belle Isle was 19th. In his prior two seasons in IndyCar, McLaughlin has one top ten finishes in races taking place during the month of June. He was seventh last year at Road America.
Romain Grosjean ended up third in qualifying, 0.4304 seconds behind Palou. Grosjean has started in the top three of all three street course races this season. Grosjean's best finish at Belle Isle was 17th. While he has two runner-up finishes this season, Grosjean's average finish in the other four races is 18.25. Between the original downtown street course and Belle Isle, three times has a driver had their first career victory come in Detroit, most recently was Marcus Ericsson in 2021.
Scott Dixon was 0.5680 seconds off Palou in qualifying and Dixon starts fourth. Dixon has only led eight laps this season, his fewest laps led through six races since 2018 when he led zero laps in the first six races. In the seventh race, he led 39 laps and won the first race of the Belle Isle doubleheader. Dixon would go on to win the championship that season. Dixon has won six times from fourth starting position, but not since Mid-Ohio in 2012.
The 2023 Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden qualified fifth, 0.6631 seconds behind Palou. This is only Newgarden's second top five start of the season, and it is the first time he has made the Fast Six in 2023. Newgarden is looking to become the first Indianapolis 500 winner to win the race following since Juan Pablo Montoya won at Milwaukee in 2000. Of the 22 Indianapolis 500 winners since Montoya, the next victory for those drivers came on average 10.222 starts after Indianapolis.
Marcus Ericsson rounds out the top six and he makes it three Chip Ganassi Racing drivers in the first three rows. Ericsson was 0.7592 seconds off his teammate Palou. Ericsson has three podium finishes in the first six races this season. Ericsson had three podium finishes in each of the las two seasons. Last year, he did not have a podium result in any of the final nine races.
Will Power missed out on the final round of qualifying by 0.1209 seconds and Power will start seventh. This is actually Power's best starting position of the season. He has not won in his last 16 starts, his longest victory drought since a 17-race stretch from May 2015 to June 2016. That winless streak ended at Belle Isle. The longest winless streak of Power's career is 18 starts from Kansas 2008 through Toronto 2009 when he was part-time for Team Penske.
Simon Pagenaud qualified eighth, his best starting position of the season and his best starting position since he started sixth at Mid-Ohio last July. Pagenaud has not had a top ten finish since he was ninth at Nashville last year, nine races ago. Pagenaud has failed to finish the last two races. It is the first time Pagenaud has failed to finish consecutive races in his IndyCar career. Pagenaud has made 205 starts.
Felix Rosenqvist leads an all-Arrow McLaren row five. Rosenqvist has four top ten finishes in the last five street course races, including a third at Toronto last year. The Swede had a top ten finish streak snapped at three races after he finished 27th in the Indianapolis 500. After finishing 27th in the 2021 Indianapolis 500, Rosenqvist had an accident in the next race at Belle Isle and was forced to miss the second race of that doubleheader as well as Road America.
Patricio O'Ward starts on the outside of the top ten. O'Ward is one of four drivers to start in the top ten of every race this season along with Rosenqvist and the Ganassi drivers of Palou and Dixon. O'Ward is coming off a 24th-place finish at Indianapolis. O'Ward had finished in the top five in five consecutive oval races prior to that result. He has finished outside the top ten in three of the last four street course races.
Marcus Armstrong qualified 11th, the worst Ganassi starter, but Ganassi was the only team to have four drivers make it out of the first round of qualifying. Armstrong has made the second round of qualifying in three of the last four road/street course races. Armstrong has been the worst Chip Ganassi Racing finisher in three of his four starts this season, but he has finished in the top fifteen in every one of his starts.
Kyle Kirkwood rounds out the second round qualifiers in 12th. Kirkwood has made it to the second round of qualifying at every road/street course round this season. Prior to Kirkwood's victory at Long Beach, his average finish on street courses was 18th. He has finished outside the top ten in the last three races and was caught in an accident last week at Indianapolis with Felix Rosenqvist.
Alexander Rossi missed out on the second round of qualifying by 0.0373 seconds and Rossi will start 13th. Rossi has been the worst McLaren qualifier in four of six races and he has been the bottom of the three full-time McLaren drivers in five races. He was third and fifth in the last two races. Rossi is looking for three consecutive top five finishes for the first time since last season when he went fifth, second and third at Indianapolis, Belle Isle and Road America respectively.
Rinus VeeKay joins Rossi on row seven after being 0.0011 seconds off advancing from group two in round one. VeeKay ended a nine-race top ten finish drought when he finished tenth at Indianapolis last week. Veekay has not had consecutive top ten results since the first two races of the 2022 season. His most recent street course top ten finish was sixth in the 2022 St. Petersburg season opener.
Conor Daly will start 15th, the second consecutive race he has reset his best starting position of the season. Daly was eighth in the Indianapolis 500. Daly's last three top ten finishes have all been in the state of Indiana. His last top ten finish somewhere else was August 27, 2020 when he as eighth in the second race of the Gateway doubleheader. He has not had a top ten result on a street course since he was sixth in the second race of the 2016 Belle Isle doubleheader.
Callum Ilott joins Daly on row eight. Ilott was only 0.0744 seconds off making it out of group two. This is only the third time he has started in the top twenty this season. The Juncos Hollinger Racing driver will be making his first start in Detroit, Michigan this weekend. Ilott missed last year's Belle Isle race due to a broken wrist suffered in the Indianapolis 500.
Devlin DeFrancesco qualified 17th. DeFrancesco suffered an accident in the second practice session, but was able to get his best street course starting position this season. After retiring from the first two races, DeFrancesco has completed 459 of 460 laps over the last four races. He was 13th and on the lead lap in the Indianapolis 500.
Christian Lundgaard starts 18th, one spot better than where he finished last Sunday at Indianapolis. Lundgaard has top ten finishes in three of the last four street course events, but he made it to the second round of qualifying in each of those three races. The worst starting position Lundgaard has finished in the top ten from was 16th in last year's season finale at Laguna Seca. He was fifth in that race.
Benjamin Pedersen takes 19th on the grid, his best starting position on a road/street course. Pedersen had not started better than 23rd on a road/street course prior to Detroit. The Dane has started no worse than 13th on an oval in his brief IndyCar career. Pedersen has finished worse than or equal to his starting position in five of six races this season.
Agustín Canapino rounds out the top twenty on the grid, his best road/street course starting position. Canapino's previous best was 21st in the St. Petersburg season opener. The Argentine has finished worse than his starting position in only one race this season. He fell from 22nd to 26th at Barber Motorsports Park.
David Malukas will start 21st, his third time starting outside the top twenty this season. Malukas started outside the top twenty in only two races through the entire 2022 season. Malukas had fastest lap in the Indianapolis 500 last week. It was the third fastest lap in Malukas' IndyCar career. His first came last year at Belle Isle. His other was at Toronto last year.
Santino Ferrucci joins Malukas for an all-American row 11. This is the third time in the last four races Ferrucci has qualified outside the top twenty. The Nutmegger is coming off his first career podium finish at Indianapolis. It came in Ferrucci's 49th start, tied for the 15th most starts before a first career podium finish with Dominic Dobson.
Hélio Castroneves will start 23rd, the third time in the last four races Castroneves has started outside the top twenty. Castroneves' average finish in the last five street course races is 19.8. His most recent top ten finish was eighth at Mid-Ohio last July and his most recent top ten on a street course was ninth at Long Beach in April 2022.
Colton Herta ended up 24th on the grid, the worst starting position on a road/street course in Herta's IndyCar career. This is only the fourth time he has started outside the top twenty in his career, but it is Herta's second consecutive race starting outside the top twenty. He went from 23rd to fifth last year at Nashville. Herta was ninth in the previous two races. Herta has not had three consecutive top ten results since a four-race stretch that covered the final three races of the 2021 season and the 2022 season opener at St. Petersburg.
Jack Harvey ended up 25th. It is Harvey's worst starting position on a road/street course this season. He has started worse in both oval races this season. This is the ninth consecutive street race Harvey has started outside the top ten. His most recent top ten finish was on a street course, tenth at Nashville last year. He was 13th at Long Beach back in April.
Sting Ray Robb rounds out row 13. Robb has the worst average starting position in IndyCar at 24.143. He has started outside the top twenty in every race this season. Robb has failed to finish the last three races and over those events he has an average finish of 28.333.
Graham Rahal starts 27th, last place for the second consecutive race. It has been exactly six years since Rahal's most recent victory. A victory today would give him the third longest winless drought snapped in IndyCar history at 96 races, one shy of Johnny Rutherford in second on 97. Rahal holds the all-time record of 124 races.
NBC's coverage of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix begins at 3:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 100 laps.
