Colton Herta won pole position for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix with a lap at 60.5475 seconds in the final round of qualifying. It is the 12th pole position of Herta's career and his first since Mid-Ohio last year. He is fifth among active IndyCar drivers in pole positions, and Herta is tied for 29th all-time with Parnelli Jones. The Californian had not started better than fourth this season entering Detroit. He is the fifth different pole-sitter through six races this season. Herta's last four podium finishes have all come on street courses, and five of his last six podium finishes have been on street courses. It has been 34 races since Herta's most recent victory in the 2022 Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
Álex Palou was 0.1520 seconds off Herta's top time and Palou will start second. This is Palou's tenth front row start in 70 IndyCar appearances. Only three of Palou's ten career victories have come from the front row. The Catalan driver has seven consecutive top five finishes dating back to last season. In 55 starts with Chip Ganassi Racing, Palou has 33 top five finishes.
After winning from third in the Indianapolis 500 last week, Josef Newgarden starts in third position for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. Newgarden is attempting to become the first driver to win the Indianapolis 500 and the race following since Juan Pablo Montoya in 2000. After the St. Petersburg penalty, Newgarden has not finished on the podium in a street race since his 2022 Long Beach victory, ten street races ago.
Scott McLaughlin makes it an all-Team Penske row two. This is McLaughlin's ninth top five start in the last 14 races. The New Zealander has led the most laps this season with 126 laps led. McLaughlin is one of four drivers to lead in at least three races this season. Prior to the first two street course races this season, he had four consecutive top ten finishes on street courses.
Scott Dixon will start fifth. Dixon has won 12 times in the month of June, the most IndyCar victories in the month. However, Dixon has not won in June since the 2020 Texas race, the first race of that season after a significant delay due to the pandemic. Four times has Dixon won from fifth on the grid, most recently was Road America on June 25, 2017.
Kyle Kirkwood caused a red flag in the final round of qualifying, and it cost Kirkwood his fastest two laps. Instead of starting third, Kirkwood will start sixth. He has finished better than his starting position in four of five races this season with the exception being Kirkwood finishing tenth at Barber Motorsports Park after starting ninth.
Théo Pourchaire is back in the #6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, and Pourchaire qualified a career-best seventh, 0.0287 from making the Fast Six. Pourchaire will drive this car for the remainder of the season. The #6 Chevrolet is 17th in the entrants' championship on 77 points, two points behind the #77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet and four points ahead of the #8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. The #6 McLaren has yet to finish in the top ten this season.
Will Power ended up eighth on the grid, 0.0557 seconds from making the final round of qualifying. Power had started in the top five in the previous four races. The Australian has finished on the podium in the last two visits to Detroit. In each of the previous two years, Power has not finished in the top ten of the Indianapolis 500 the week prior either. He was 24th last week in the "500."
Marcus Ericsson will start ninth in Detroit after starting 18th or worse in the previous three races. Ericsson enters Detroit with three consecutive finishes outside the top fifteen. This is only the second time in Ericsson's IndyCar career he has failed to finish in the top fifteen in three consecutive races. The other time was the fourth, fifth and sixth races of his career, Long Beach, the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis 500 in 2019.
Santino Ferrucci find himself tenth on the grid, the second consecutive race Ferrucci has started in the top ten. It is the first time he has started in the top ten in consecutive races in his IndyCar career. Ferrucci has three top ten finishes through the first five races. Ferrucci is the first A.J. Foyt Racing driver with three top ten finishes through the first five races of the season since Takuma Sato in 2013.
Christian Lundgaard wound up 11th. Lundgaard has yet to finish in the top ten in his prior two visits to Detroit, whether it be Belle Isle or the downtown circuit. Lundgaard has finished 18th and 23rd in the two street course races this season. Last year, his average finish in street races was 9.8, which included a victory at Toronto and three total top ten finishes.
Patricio O'Ward brought out the red flag in the second round of qualifying after stalling in turn five. This caused O'Ward to lose his fastest two laps and relegated the Mexican to 12th starting position. This is only the fourth time in the last 30 races he is starting outside the top ten. O'Ward is coming off the 11th runner-up finish in his career in 77 starts as he was second in the Indianapolis 500.
Christian Rasmussen missed out on the second round of qualifying by 0.1024 seconds, but 13th will still be the best starting position of Rasmussen's IndyCar career. His 12th place finish at the Indianapolis 500 last year was his best finish of the season. The Dane was ninth and second in the two Indy Lights races held on this Detroit street course last year.
Romain Grosjean takes 14th on the grid. This is the fourth consecutive race where Grosjean has started outside the top ten. Prior to this stretch, only once had the Frenchman gone three consecutive races without starting in the top ten. Grosjean has not finished in the top five in his last 18 starts.
Felix Rosenqvist missed out on the second round of qualifying for the first time this season, and Rosenqvist will start 15th. The Swede is coming off finishing 27th at the Indianapolis 500 after suffering an engine failure during the race. It was the fifth time Rosenqvist has finished 27th in his career. Four of those results have come at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, three in the Indianapolis 500 and one on the IMS road course.
Alexander Rossi fell to 16th starting position, matching Rossi's worst starting position of the season. The American is coming off finishing fourth in the Indianapolis 500. Rossi has not had a podium finish on a street course since he was runner-up to Will Power in the final Belle Isle race in 2022.
Pietro Fittipaldi occupies 17th on the grid, his fifth time starting outside the top fifteen this season. Fittipaldi has finished outside the top twenty in three of five races this season after he was 32nd in the Indianapolis 500. Fittipaldi has finished outside the top twenty in eight of 14 career starts.
Rinus VeeKay will be on the outside of row nine. VeeKay was ninth in the Indianapolis 500. VeeKay has not had consecutive top ten finishes since the first two races of the 2022 season. VeeKay's only top five finish on a street course was second in the first Belle Isle race in 2021.
Agustín Canapino takes 19th, his third time starting on the tenth row this season. Canapino enters the sixth race of the season 20th in the championship on 56 points with his best finish being 15th at Long Beach. Last year, Canapino entered the sixth race of the season 18th in the championship on 56 points having finished 12th in the first two races of the season.
Graham Rahal missed out on advancing from group two by 0.0614 seconds, but Rahal has a six-spot grid penalty after changing to his fifth engine this season through the seventh event, when including the non-championship Thermal Challenge. This drops to Rahal to 20th on the grid from 14th. He has finished outside the top ten in five of his last six street course starts. The exception was Rahal finishing ninth at Toronto last year. Rahal
Linus Lundqvist leads an all-Chip Ganassi Racing row 11. This is the second consecutive race where Lundqvist has qualified outside the top twenty, and he has not started better than 17th this season. Lundqvist won twice at Belle Isle in Indy Lights in 2022. Lundqvist was also second in both Belle Isle Indy Lights races in 2021.
Marcus Armstrong starts next to Lundqvist in 22nd.This is Armstrong's worst starting position since he started 26th at Barber Motorsports Park in 2023. Armstrong lost an engine after six laps in the Indianapolis 500, pretty much all of which were under caution. It was Armstrong's second retirement of the season. The New Zealander was running at the finish in all 12 starts in 2023.
Sting Ray Robb will start 23rd for the second consecutive race. This is Robb's 23rd consecutive race starting outside the top twenty. Robb matched the second-best career finish with 16th in the Indianapolis 500 last week. Robb had finished 16th at St. Petersburg on debut in 2023. Robb led 23 laps in the Indianapolis 500, the third-most in the race behind only Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden.
Tristan Vautier makes his first IndyCar start since June 10, 2017 at Texas Motor Speedway, and Vautier will do it from 24th on the grid. His most recent street course start was June 14, 2015 at Toronto. Vautier's only top five finish in IndyCar was nine years and two days ago, a fourth at Belle Isle.
Hélio Castroneves is in the #66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda in place of Tom Blomqvist for Detroit and Road America, and Castroneves will start 25th. Blomqvist's worst starting positions this season were 26th in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and 25th in the Indianapolis 500. Last season, Castroneves had an average finish of 17.294. His average finish in five street course races was 19th.
Jack Harvey takes 26th on the grid. Harvey had an accident in the opening practice on Friday. Between Belle Isle and this downtown Detroit circuit, Harvey has an average finish of 16.75 in the Motor City with his best result being 15th at Belle Isle in 2022.
Kyffin Simpson has a six-spot grid penalty as Simpson is using his fifth engine of the season. Simpson will drop to 27th on the grid after the penalty after he was to start 23rd from being 12th best in the first qualifying group. Last week's Indianapolis 500 was the first time Simpson did not finish better than his starting position.
USA's coverage of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix begins at noon Eastern with green flag scheduled for 12:45 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 100 laps.
