For the first time in 29 races, Will Power has won pole position for an IndyCar event. With a two lap average at 180.329 mph, Power will lead the field to the green flag for the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 from Gateway Motorsports Park. It is his 71st career pole position, and this was the 700th pole position for Team Penske across all competitions. This is Power's fifth pole position at Gateway, and this is the sixth circuit where he has won at least five pole positions. While this pole position lowers Power's average starting position at Gateway to 2.7, his average finish is 11th. Power has one podium finish through the first seven races, his fewest since 2021.
Scott McLaughlin makes it an all-Team Penske front row with a two-lap average of 179.783 mph. This is McLaughlin's second consecutive front row start at Gateway. McLaughlin has finished in the top ten in 11 consecutive races on ovals shorter than 1.5 miles in length. Ten of those results have been top five finishes. His last finish outside the top ten on an oval shorter than 1.5 miles was 22nd at Iowa in 2022. In four Gateway starts, he has finished fourth, third, fifth and second.
Patricio O'Ward takes third on the grid after running two laps at an average of 179.190 mph. O'Ward has never started worse than eighth at Gateway. Over his last 13 oval starts, O'Ward has finished on the podium eight times and outside the top twenty in three races with a finish of sixth and tenth mixed in. Last year, a mechanical issue ended his Gateway race after 42 laps. He had finished in the top five in his first five visits to the 1.25-mile oval.
David Malukas will be on the outside of the second row with a two-lap average of 179.079 mph. This is Malukas' third consecutive race starting in the top ten and his second consecutive top five starting position. The only other time he started in the top five in consecutive races was at Iowa and Nashville in 2023. Gateway is the only track where Malukas has multiple top five finishes. A.J. Foyt Racing has had a top five finisher in the last two races. The team hasn't had three consecutive top five results since Eliseo Salazar had a three-race streak spanning the 2001 season finale and the first two races of 2002.
Josef Newgarden rounds out the top five on the grid with an average at 178.910 mph. He has never started worse than sixth at Gateway. Newgarden could join A.J. Foyt as the only drivers with at least six victories at multiple tracks if Newgarden wins at Gateway. Newgarden also has six victories at Iowa. Foyt won 12 times at Trenton and six times at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.
The top Honda starter is Marcus Armstrong in sixth. Armstrong qualified at 178.754 mph, and it is his fifth time starting in the top ten this season. The only time he has started better on an oval was when he started third at Milwaukee last year. While Armstrong had three top ten finishes on ovals last year, he is still looking for his first top five finish on an oval.
Felix Rosenqvist was 0.0164 second off his Meyer Shank Racing teammate Armstrong and this will place Rosenqvist seventh in the starting lineup. Rosenqvist has finished in the top ten of his last two Gateway starts and he has four top ten finishes in seven starts at the circuit. His sixth at Gateway last year was his only top ten finish in the final 11 races of 2024.
Colton Herta will be to Rosenqvist's outside on row four. Herta has finished in the top five of the eighth race of the season in five consecutive seasons. He was fourth at Gateway in 2020, fourth at Belle Isle in 2021, fifth at Road America in 2022 and 2023 and second at Laguna Seca last year. He has finished in the top ten the last two years at Gateway, and he was third in the last race at Detroit. The last time Herta finished third was at Milwaikee, and then he went on to win the following race at Nashville.
Álex Palou has his worst starting position of the season in ninth. Palou was 25th at Detroit two weeks ago, his worst finish since he was 27th at Road America in 2022. Palou followed up that Road America result with a second at Mid-Ohio. The only other time in the last three seasons where Palou finished outside the top twenty was 23rd in the first Iowa race last year. He followed that Iowa race with a runner-up finish in the second race of the doubleheader.
Kyle Kirkwood rounds out the top ten. Kirkwood could become the first Andretti Global driver to win consecutive races since Colton Herta won the final two races of 2021 at Laguna Seca and Long Beach. This could be the first time an Andretti driver has won consecutive races with one of them being an oval race since Alexander Rossi won consecutive at Mid-Ohio and Pocono in 2018. Kirkwood won at Gateway in 2019 in Indy Pro 2000.
Scott Dixon makes it six consecutive Hondas on the grid as Dixon occupies 11th starting position. Dixon has started in the top ten only twice this season and in the top five only once. Dixon enters Gateway off finishes of 20th at the Indianapolis 500 and 11th at Detroit. He has not had three consecutive finishes outside the top ten since 2014 when he went 15th, 29th and 11th over the two Indianapolis rounds and the first Belle Isle race.
Alexander Rossi breaks the string of Hondas with the #20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet in 12th starting position. Though Rossi has four top ten finishes from the first seven races, he has yet to finish in the top five. This is the second time in his career he has not had a top five in the first seven races. The other time was 2021, where he did not get a top five until the tenth race at Mid-Ohio.
Marcus Ericsson will be starting 13th. Ericsson has finished outside the top ten in the last six races. The good news is Ericsson has finished in the top ten of the eighth race of the season in all six seasons of his IndyCar career. Only once has Ericsson finished better than his starting position at Gateway. That was 2023 when he went from 15th to tenth.
Christian Lundgaard has his best Gateway starting position in 14th. Lundgaard has never finished on the lead lap at Gateway, finishing two laps down in 2022, one lap down in 2023 and three laps down in 2024. Lundgaard is one of three drivers to have completed every lap this season along with Patricio O'Ward and Kyle Kirkwood.
Conor Daly will be starting 15th. Daly was 0.9942 seconds slower than Power's pole-winning time. After finishing in the top ten in his first four Gateway stats, Daly has an average finish of 15.75 in his last four Gateway starts with his best finish being 11th. Last year, he fell from ninth to 13th while driving for Juncos Hollinger Racing.
Callum Ilott matches his best starting position of the season in 16th. Ilott started 16th at Barber Motorsports Park, but he dropped to 23rd in that race. In two Gateway starts, Ilott has finished 21st and 27th. He has finished outside the top ten in six consecutive oval starts and in nine consecutive starts total dating back to last season.
Devlin DeFrancesco was the top Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing qualifier but DeFrancesco is starting 17th. This is the sixth time this season the Canadian is starting outside the top fifteen. DeFrancesco won at Gateway in 2020 in the Indy Pro 2000. It was his first of two victories in the series.
Rinus VeeKay has the #18 Honda in the 18th spot on the grid. VeeKay has finished 27th in his last two starts. The only time VeeKay has had three consecutive results outside the top twenty was in 2021 when he was 24th, 24th and 21st over the races at Nashville, Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and Gateway.
Santino Ferrucci will start 19th, his fifth consecutive Gateway start outside the top fifteen. This will be Ferrucci's 85th career start and he is still looking for his first career victory. He could become the first driver to have his first career victory come in the start following a second-place finish since Robert Doornbos was second at Cleveland in 2007 before winning at at Mont-Tremblant the following week.
Nolan Siegel rounds out the top twenty. This is Siegel's fourth consecutive race starting outside the top fifteen and it is his seventh time in eight races starting outside the top ten. Siegel scored his career-best finish of seventh last year at Gateway. His average finish in his 11 starts since is 18.0909.
Louis Foster will start in 21st in his first IndyCar race at Gateway Motorsports Park. In three Road to Indy starts at Gateway, Foster had a victory, a second and his worst finish was fourth. No driver has ever won at Gateway in IndyCar and Indy Lights. The only other past Gateway Indy Lights winner in this field are David Malukas and Christian Rasmussen.
Graham Rahal completes an all-RLLR row 11 in the 22nd position. This is his seventh time starting outside the top fifteen at Gateway. Rahal has finished outside the top fifteen in six of nine Gateway starts. His best finish at the circuit in tenth in 2018 and 2022. This will be Rahal's 300th start in IndyCar, and he is the 11th driver to reach this milestone.
Sting Ray Robb has his best starting position at Gateway in 23rd. He had started 24th in his first two visits to the track. Last year, Robb scored his first career top ten finish in IndyCar when he was ninth at Gateway. He has since matched his career-best finish with a ninth at Long Beach earlier this season.
Robert Shwartzman's second career oval start will be from 24th starting position, 23 spots worse than his first career oval start. After starting on pole position for the Indianapolis 500, Shwartzman is coming off his best finish of the season when he was 16th at Detroit. Detroit was his fourth time finishing on the leap lap, but he has yet to finish on the lead lap in consecutive races.
Christian Rasmussen matches his career worst starting position of 25th. He started 25th at Nashville last year. His worst starting position of the season comes off the heels of Rasmussen's worst finish of the season. He was 24th at Detroit after an engine failure. This will be Rasmussen's first IndyCar start at Gateway. He won the 2023 Indy Lights race from the circuit with Louis Foster finishing second.
Kyffin Simpson will start 26th, his worst starting position of the season and his fifth time starting outside the top 25 in his career. In the last race, Simpson was fifth at Detroit, his best career-best finish, and he picked up his second fastest lap of the season. He also had fastest lap at Long Beach when he finished tenth.
Jacob Abel rounds out the grid in 27th, his worst starting position of the season. Abel was 2.5926 seconds This will be Abel's oval debut in IndyCar. He was runner-up in the Indy Lights races at Gateway and Milwaukee last season.
Fox's coverage of the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 from Gateway Motorsports Park begins at 8:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 8:20 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 260 laps.