For the second consecutive race, Will Power starts from pole position as Power's second lap in Saturday qualifying of 17.7246 seconds took the top spot for the Sunday race from Iowa Speedway. By sweeping pole positions, Power earned his 69th and 70th pole positions, extending his lead in the record book. Prior to this weekend, Power had not started in the top five this season, let alone started on pole position. This is the 14th season he has won multiple pole positions out of 19 seasons in IndyCar. He has won four consecutive Iowa pole positions and seven total. However, Power is still looking for his first career victory at the track in Newton, Iowa.
Like Saturday, Sunday's front row features Scott McLaughlin to Power's outside, a front row sweep for Team Penske. The two Iowa races are Team Penske's first front row sweeps of the season as the team had not won a pole position prior to this weekend. McLaughlin 0.1917 seconds off Power's pole position lap for Sunday's race. This is the third consecutive race McLaughlin has started from second position and his forth time starting second this season.
David Malukas qualified third, Malukas' best career starting position in IndyCar. The Illinoian driver was 0.2945 seconds off Power's top time. Malukas' previous best qualifying effort was fifth at Toronto last year. His previous best start on an oval was sixth in the first Iowa race last year. All three of his top ten starts this season have come on oval. Both prior times he started ninth, first at Texas in April and then yesterday at Iowa.
Ed Carpenter is set to make his 200th IndyCar start in this Iowa race, and Carpenter will do it from fourth on the grid. Carpenter made his IndyCar debut on September 27, 2003 at Chicagoland Speedway. He started 16th in the #18 Dallara-Chevrolet for PDM Racing. He completed all 200 laps and finished 13th. This is the 21st IndyCar season Carpenter has participated. He has contested only oval races since 2014. During that span, Carpenter has not run 107 road/street course races.
Colton Herta takes fifth on the grid, only the fourth time Herta has started in the top five this season. He has finished 20th, fifth and 11th in his other three top five starts. He had started outside the top ten in five of the previous seven races entering this weekend. Herta is coming off finishing outside the top fifteen for the fifth time in six Iowa starts after he was classified in 19th yesterday.
Three weeks after they shared the front row at Mid-Ohio, Graham Rahal and Herta share row three at Iowa. This is Rahal's first top ten start on an oval since was ninth at Gateway in 2021, eight oval races ago. Rahal has not had a top five finish on an oval since he was third in the second Texas race in 2021. His 28th-place finish yesterday was his worst result since Rahal was 31st in the 2021 Indianapolis 500.
Josef Newgarden managed seventh on the grid for the second Iowa race with a lap 0.3702 seconds slower than his Penske teammate Power. This is Newgarden's worst start at Iowa since he started 16th in the 2017. He has won five times from the seventh starting position, including three times on an oval, first at Phoenix in 2018 and then at Texas in 2019 and 2022. Newgarden has won consecutive races twice in his career, Toronto-Mid-Ohio 2017 and Texas-Long Beach 2023.
Hélio Castroneves qualified eighth, his best starting position of the season, and Castroneves' first top ten starting position since he started fourth at Belle Isle last year, 21 races ago. This matches Meyer Shank Racing's best starting position of the season. Castroneves has gone nine starts without a top ten finish, currently tied for the longest drought in his career.
Scott Dixon leads an all-Chip Ganassi Racing row five. Dixon was 0.3883 seconds off pole position for Sunday's race. The driver of the #9 PNC Bank Honda is looking for his ninth consecutive top ten finish. This is the 11th race of the season and the latest Dixon has gone without a victory to start a season since 2014 when he did not win until the 15th race at Mid-Ohio.
Marcus Ericsson rounds out the top ten. Ericsson was only 0.0005 seconds slower than his teammate Dixon. Ericsson's fourth-place finish yesterday was his best finish at Iowa. He has five consecutive top ten finishes at the 7/8-mile oval. The Swede has not had consecutive top five finishes since last season when he was fourth in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and then won the Indianapolis 500.
Patricio O'Ward will start outside the top ten for only the second time this season, as O'Ward takes 11th on the grid. It is the first time O'Ward has started outside the top ten on an oval since he was 12th on the grid for the 2021 Indianapolis 500, nine oval races ago. With his third-place finish yesterday, O'Ward has yet to go three consecutive races without a podium result this season.
Takuma Sato makes it four Ganassi cars within five positions of one another on the grid as Sato starts 13th. This is the 11th time Sato has started 13th in his career. His best finish from 13th on the grid was seventh in the 2022 Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Sato was ninth yesterday, and he is looking three consecutive top ten finishes since 2020 when he won the Indianapolis 500 and then was second and ninth at the Gateway doubleheader.
Rinus VeeKay starts 14th. Yesterday was the second consecutive Iowa race Ed Carpenter Racing failed to have a top fifteen finisher. ECR has failed to have a top fifteen finisher in three of the last four Iowa races.
Conor Daly ended up 15th on the grid, eight spots better than where he started for the Saturday Iowa race. Daly only gained one spot from his starting position in race one, finishing 21st from 22nd starting spot. It matched his worst Iowa finish, which came in his first Iowa start in 2016.
Felix Rosenqvist matches his worst starting position of the season in 16th position. Rosenqvist went from 16th down to 20th at Road America last month. The Swede has finished outside the top ten in five of six Iowa starts.
Kyle Kirkwood rolls off from the inside of row nine. Kirkwood had started 20th and 15th in the first two oval races this season. The Floridan picked up his first top ten oval finish in his IndyCar career yesterday. It was also the fourth time Kirkwood has been the best Andretti finisher this season, but the first time it was not on a street course.
Alexander Rossi has his third worst starting position of the season in 18th, one day after his second worst starting position in 21st and one week after his worst starting position of the season, 26th in Toronto. Rossi has finished better than his starting position in six of nine Iowa starts, and he has finished equal to his starting position once. In the two races he finished worse than his starting spot, Rossi went from fifth to ninth and from fifth to sixth.
Row ten is the first of three consecutive rows and four in the final five rows that teammates share. In this case, Devlin DeFrancesco leads an all-Andretti Autosport row ten. DeFrancesco's 22nd-place finish yesterday was his second consecutive finish outside the top twenty. He had finished in the top twenty in four of the five races prior to Toronto.
Romain Grosjean starts next to his Canadian teammate in 20th. Grosjean has not had a top ten finish in the last seven races, and his 11th place finish in race one was only his third top fifteen result in the last seven events. Grosjean's median finish in the month of April was second. His median finish in all the races outside the month of April is 18th.
Christian Lundgaard has his best starting position on an oval this season. Unfortunately for Lundgaard, it is 21st. The Dane started 27th at Texas and 30th at the Indianapolis 500. His 20th place finish yesterday is his worst finish of the season and only the third worst finish in his IndyCar career. Lundgaard was 26th in the second Iowa race last year and 21st at Portland.
Jack Harvey rounds out the all-Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing row 11. Yesterday was the third time Harvey has been the best RLLR finisher in a race this season. All three have come on ovals. Harvey has been the worst finishing RLLR driver in six of 11 races this season. Graham Rahal has been the worst RLLR driver three times while the other time was Katherine Legge finishing 33rd in the Indianapolis 500. Harvey's only top fifteen finish this season was 13th at Long Beach.
Agustín Canapino took 23rd on the grid, and that is the leading position for an all-Juncos Hollinger Racing row 12. Canapino was 0.0012 seconds faster than Callum Ilott on their respective second qualifying laps. Canapino is attempting to score three consecutive top twenty finishes for the first time in his IndyCar career.
Callum Ilott was out-qualified within the JHR battle for the third time this season, and second time on an oval. The other two races were St. Petersburg and the Indianapolis 500. In each case, Canapino only qualified one spot ahead of Ilott. Ilott has been the top JHR finisher in nine of 11 races this season.
Ryan Hunter-Reay finds himself 25th on the grid, Hunter-Reay's worst starting position in 16 Iowa appearances. His previous worst was 20th in 2016. He has finished outside the top twenty in his last two starts, the first time he has two consecutive results outside the top twenty since the Indianapolis 500 and Belle Isle in 2021. Hunter-Reay has never had three consecutive results outside the top twenty in his IndyCar career.
Sting Ray Robb starts 26th for the Sunday race, one spot better than where Robb started yesterday, but one spot worse than where he finished in race one. This is the fourth time this season Robb has started outside the top 25. In three oval starts, he has finished 25th, 31st and 25th.
Santino Ferrucci ran a 18.6701-second lap on his qualifying run, 0.9455 seconds off Power's pole position time, slotting Ferrucci in 27th on the grid. This matches Ferrucci's worst starting position in his IndyCar career. He did start 27th in the 2022 Texas race when Jack Harvey was not cleared to drive for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Ferrucci ended up ninth in that race.
Benjamin Pedersen failed to clear technical inspection ahead of qualifying on Saturday, and Pedersen was barred from participating in the session. Since he was unable to turn a lap, Pedersen was placed 28th on the grid for each Iowa race, and he is rounding out row 14 for A.J. Foyt Racing on Sunday.
NBC's coverage of the Hy-Vee One Step 250 begins at 2:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 250 laps.
