Álex Palou will lead the field to the green flag for the second race of IndyCar’s doubleheader weekend from Iowa Speedway. Palou took the top spot with a lap at 17.4900 seconds in qualifying. This is Palou’s fourth pole position of the season and second in three races. In nine career pole positions, Palou has won six times. He has never finished worse than fourth when starting on pole.
Felix Rosenqvist is a surprise second on the grid as the Meyer Shank Racing driver was 0.0037 seconds off Palou. This is Rosenqvist’s best starting position of the season, and his first front row start since he was on pole position for last year’s Long Beach race. After starting third yesterday, his best two Iowa starts have come this weekend.
David Malukas will start third as the Illinoian was 0.0615 seconds slower than Palou. This is Malukas’ sixth time starting in the top ten in the last seven races. He has finished in the top ten in only two of those previous five top ten starts. Malukas started third in the second Iowa race in 2023 before finishing eighth.
Josef Newgarden’s quest for a seventh Iowa victory will resume from fourth on the grid for the second race of the weekend. Newgarden was 0.0666 seconds off Palou. With 232 laps led yesterday, Newgarden has now led 2,079 laps in his career at Iowa. Prior to yesterday, Newgarden had only led 25 laps this season.
Nolan Siegel takes fifth on the grid, his second top five starting position in three races. Siegel fell 0.0783 seconds off pole position. This will be the first time Siegel is starting in the top ten on an oval. After his accident yesterday, Siegel has failed to finish on the lead lap in four of the last six races.
Will Power was 0.0900 seconds behind Palou, and Power takes sixth on the grid. Power has finished in the top five in seven of his last eight Iowa starts, including his third-place finish yesterday. It was Power’s second podium finish of the season.
Conor Daly finished seventh yesterday and Daly will start seventh for race two from Iowa. This is the first time Daly has started in the top ten in consecutive races since he started third in both Iowa races in 2022. Daly has finished in the top ten in three consecutive oval races.
Scott Dixon will be beside Daly on row four. After finishing tenth yesterday, Dixon has four consecutive top ten finishes, his best run of form since he had a 16-race streak that started at Barber Motorsports Park in April 2023 and ended with his Long Beach victory in April 2024.
Patricio O'Ward will have a little extra work to do if he hopes to win in his 101st start. O’Ward will start ninth. Only once has he won from ninth or worse. He won from 16th at Belle Isle in 2021. After his victory yesterday, five of O’Ward eight career victories have come on doubleheader weekends.
Graham Rahal rounds out the top ten on the grid, and this is Rahal’s first top ten start on an oval since he started eighth for the second Iowa race last year. He went on to finish eighth in that race, his most recent top ten result on an oval.
Robert Shwartzman has his second-best starting position of the season in 11th. It is only the second time Shwartzman has started in the top fifteen. The other time was pole position at the Indianapolis 500. He has finished 20th or worst in his last three starts.
Marcus Armstrong will have a reunion of sorts with his old Prema teammate Shwartzman on row six. Armstrong has five consecutive top ten finishes, the best streak in his IndyCar career. He has seven top ten finishes this season, and he had nine top ten finishes all of last season.
Callum Ilott will start directly behind his Prema teammate Shwartzman in 13th. This is Ilott’s second-best start of the season. He started ninth at Road America. This will be Ilott's 50th career start. Only one driver has had a first career victory come in a 50th career start. That was Danica Patrick at Motegi in 2008.
Marcus Ericsson is the top Andretti Global starter in 14th. Ericsson has finished 12th in the last two races and he finished 13th in two of the three races prior to that. After finishing 23rd in the second Iowa race last year, this is the first time the Swede has failed to score a top ten result in consecutive Iowa races.
Alexander Rossi starts 15th. This is the seventh consecutive race Rossi is starting outside the top ten. He has finished outside the top ten in five of those races. Yesterday was only the second time Rossi has retired from a race this season. The other was the Indianapolis 500. Both retirements have been due to mechanical issues.
Louis Foster takes the outside of row eight. Foster dropped from 12th to 14th in yesterday’s race. It was the fifth consecutive race Foster has finished worse than his starting position. It was also the second consecutive race he has finished 14th.
Christian Rasmussen will look to continue his strong oval form from 17th on the grid. Rasmussen has three consecutive top ten finishes on ovals. The last time an Ed Carpenter Racing driver had four consecutive top ten finishes on ovals was Josef Newgarden in 2016. That streak included a victory at Iowa.
Kyffin Simpson begins race two where race one left off, in 18th position. Yesterday was Simpson’s worst result since he was collected in an accident when Kyle Larson spun at the Indianapolis 500. Simpson has finished outside the top fifteen in eight of ten career oval starts.
Colton Herta will take 19th on the grid, his second-worst starting position ever at Iowa. Herta’s worst came yesterday when he started 23rd. Yesterday’s race when Herta went from 23rd to 13th was the first time he has ever finished better than his starting position in an Iowa race.
Santino Ferrucci rounds out the top twenty on the grid. This is Ferrucci’s worst starting position on an oval since he started 26th at Gateway in 2023. Yesterday’s seventh- place finish for Ferrucci was only his second top ten finish at Iowa.
Kyle Kirkwood’s rough weekend will begin its final leg from 21st on the grid. Kirkwood had an accident in practice yesterday and in the race. His 26th-place result yesterday was his worst result since he was 28th in the 2023 Indianapolis 500. Kirkwood has fallen to third in the championship, 140 points behind Álex Palou.
Christian Lundgaard will start 22nd. After Lundgaard finished a lap down yesterday in 22nd, combined with Kirkwood’s accident, that leaves only one driver who has completed every lap this season. That is Patricio O’Ward. Lundgaard has finished outside the top ten in three of the last four races.
Devlin DeFrancesco will start 23rd for the second time in three races. DeFrancesco has three consecutive top twenty finishes, a first for him since the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, Gatewat and Portland rounds toward the end of the 2023 season.
Sting Ray Robb is starting 24th. Robb went from 24th to 22nd in race one from Iowa. He has finished off the lead lap in seven of 11 races in 2025. Only twice has Robb finished on the lead lap on an oval. That would be in last year’s Indianapolis 500 and the first race of last year’s Iowa doubleheader.
Jacob Abel is the top Dale Coyne Racing starter for the second time in three races. However, this is the fifth consecutive race Abel is not starting better than 25th. His retirement yesterday was only the second time Abel has failed to finish a race this season. A mechanical issue took him out of the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
Rinus VeeKay will be to Abel’s outside on row 13. VeeKay has finished at least nine spots better than his grid position in four consecutive races. He has finished better than his starting spot in nine of 11 races in 2025. He was 16th yesterday. It was the sixth time in nine Iowa starts he has finished outside the top fifteen.
Scott McLaughlin went from 27th to fourth yesterday, and McLaughlin starts 27th again for race two after he had an accident on his qualifying run. Only four races in IndyCar history have been won from 27th starting position or worse. Fred Frame won the 1932 Indianapolis 500 from 27th. Three races have been won from 28th. Ray Harroun was the first to do it in the first Indianapolis 500. Louis Meyer won from 28th at Indianapolis 25 years later. Hélio Castroneves won the 2008 season finale from Chicagoland Speedway from 28th.
Fox's coverage of the Farm to Finish 275 Powered by Sukup begins at 1:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 1:22 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 275 laps.
