Álex Palou won his third pole position of the season after a lap of 65.0215 seconds around Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in the final round of qualifying, and Palou will lead the field to the green flag for the Honda 200. It is Palou's ninth career pole position. He has already won six times from pole position in his IndyCar career, the third-most among active drivers. Palou is attempting to win consecutive races for the third time this season. He won the first two races at St. Petersburg and Thermal before he swept the three races during the month of May between Barber Motorsports Park and the two at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The last driver to have three instances of consecutive victories in a season was Sébastien Bourdais in 2007.
Christian Lundgaard was 0.1911 seconds off Palou's top time, and Lundgaard has his second front row start of the season. The Dane started second at Thermal Club. Lundgaard is looking to avoid three consecutive finishes outside the top ten. He was 14th and 24th in the last two races. Last year, he had a four-race top ten finish drought from the Indianapolis 500 through Laguna Seca. The only other time he has gone at least three races without a top ten result were the first five races of his IndyCar career.
Kyffin Simpson made the Fast Six for the first time in his IndyCar career, and he will start a career-best third at the Honda 200 as Simpson was 0.7340 seconds off his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Palou. Simpson's previous best starting position was tenth. Simpson is coming off his third top ten finish of the season as he was sixth at Road America. Simpson has also finished outside the top twenty in three races this season.
Nolan Siegel made the Fast Six for the second time this season, and Siegel will start fourth, the best starting spot of his IndyCar career. Siegel was eighth in the last race at Road America, the first time he has been the best Arrow McLaren finisher this season. Siegel was 20th last year at Mid-Ohio, and in 16 Road to Indy races at the circuit, he never won a race with only four podium results. The Californian is looking for his first career top five finish in IndyCar.
Colton Herta rounds out the top five on the grid. This is the fifth consecutive Mid-Ohio race Herta is starting in the top five. Since his first Mid-Ohio start in 2019, Herta has led the second-most laps at Mid-Ohio. He has led 99 laps in seven starts. Only Álex Palou has led more laps at Mid-Ohio during this time. Palou has led 101 laps. Herta has never won from fifth position in his career. He has won from pole position five times, fourth on one occasion, ninth on one occasion and twice from 14th.
Louis Foster takes sixth on the grid. This was the third time this season Foster has made the Fast Six. Foster matched his career-best IndyCar finish of 11th at Road America and that came after he started on pole position. Each time Foster has made the Fast Six, he has finished 11th in the race. In four Road to Indy starts at Mid-Ohio, Foster never finished worse than second.
Kyle Kirkwood ended up 0.0361 seconds short of advancing to the final round of qualifying, and this will place Kirkwood seventh on the grid. Kirkwood is going for his fourth consecutive top five finish, which would be the longest streak of his career. This is his second consecutive season with a three-race top five finish streak.
Marcus Armstrong will start to Kirkwood's outside on row four. This is the sixth time in ten races Armstrong has started in the top ten. Armstrong is coming off his first top five finish of the season, and he is looking for his fourth consecutive top ten result. Armstrong has yet to have four consecutive top ten results in his IndyCar career.
Scott Dixon has the #9 PNC Bank Honda starting ninth at Mid-Ohio. This is only the third time Dixon has started in the top ten this season. After the car suffered a hybrid issue last year on the pace laps, Dixon suffered his worst Mid-Ohio finish, placing in 27th. He had seven consecutive top ten finishes prior to last year's Mid-Ohio race and he had 18 top ten finishes in his first 20 Mid-Ohio starts.
Marcus Ericsson moves up to tenth on the grid after Christian Rasmussen's six-spot penalty for taking on his fifth engine. Ericsson's first top ten start since he started ninth for the Indianapolis 500. Ericsson has matched his worst top ten slump of his career at eight consecutive races. He has finished in the top ten in four of his last five Mid-Ohio starts. Only twice has Ericsson finished better than his starting spot this season. He went from seventh to sixth at St. Petersburg and from 23rd to 20th at Barber.
Alexander Rossi starts 11th, his best starting position since he started ninth for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. This will be the 12th consecutive race Rossi has not started in the top five. Rossi's average finish in his last three Mid-Ohio races is 11.667. Prior to that, he had five consecutive top five finishes at the circuit with an average finish of 3.2.
Conor Daly scored his best starting position on a road or street course this season, but Daly was 0.0388 seconds from advancing from the first round of qualifying. Thanks to the Rasmussen's penalty, Daly takes 12th on the grid. Daly had top ten finishes in his first two Mid-Ohio starts in 2016 and 2017. In his six Mid-Ohio starts since, his best result is 13th with an average finish of 16.5.
David Malukas was 0.0117 seconds from making it from group two to the second round of qualifying. This will have Malukas starting 13th. Malukas had started no worse than seventh in the last four races. In three career Mid-Ohio starts, Malukas' average finish is ninth, his best average finish among circuits where he has made at least three starts.
Patricio O'Ward fell 0.0541 seconds from advancing to the second round of qualifying, and this places O'Ward 14th on the grid. This will be the third time in four races O'Ward is starting outside the top ten. Seven times has a driver won consecutive Mid-Ohio races. O'Ward is attempting to become the eighth driver. No one has done it since Scott Dixon in 2011 and 2012. Only once has a driver won from 14th or worse at Mid-Ohio. Scott Dixon won from 22nd in 2014.
Felix Rosenqvist was 0.0125 seconds shy of making it to the second round, and this places the Swede 15th on the grid. Rosenqvist was second in the most recent race from Road America. He has had at least one podium finish in six of his seven seasons. He has never had consecutive podium finishes in his career. Only once has he followed a podium result with a top five finish. That was in the final two races of his rookie year when Rosenqvist was second at Portland and fifth at Laguna Seca.
Christian Rasmussen ended up tenth after the second round of qualifying, but Rasmussen's six-spot grid penalty for taking on his fifth engine of the season drops him down to 16th on the grid. This was set to match his best starting position of the season. He had started tenth at Detroit last month. The Dane scored his first career top ten finish last year at Mid-Ohio when he finished ninth.
Santino Ferrucci finds himself starting 17th. Ferrucci has yet to start in the top ten this season, but Ferrucci has four consecutive top five finishes and his best start in that stretch is 15th. No A.J. Foyt Racing has had five consecutive top five finishes since A.J. Foyt had a nine-race top five finish streak spanning the final three races of the 1978 USAC season and the first six races of the 1979 season.
Josef Newgarden is the top Team Penske starter, but the bad news is Newgarden is starting 18th. Newgarden has finished 25th in the last two races. He is looking to avoid three consecutive results outside the top twenty since the third, fourth and fifth starts of his IndyCar career. He went 26th, 23rd and 23rd over the Long Beach, São Paulo and Indianapolis 500 in 2012.
Sting Ray Robb takes 19th on the grid, his best starting position since he started 17th for the Indianapolis 500. Robb went from 19th to ninth at the Grand Prix of Long Beach earlier this season. Robb was 16th last year at Mid-Ohio, a six-spot improvement from his first Mid-Ohio start in 2023.
Graham Rahal is going to start 20th, his worst starting position at Mid-Ohio since he was 22nd in 2013. Rahal has ten top ten finishes in his last 12 Mid-Ohio starts. However, he has not finished on the podium at the circuit since he was third in 2017. In only two of those 12 races did he finish worse than his starting position.
Scott McLaughlin was over a tenth of a second from advancing from the first qualifying group, and this has McLaughlin in 21st starting position. This is the second time McLaughlin has started outside the top twenty this season. He rolled off from 25th spot at Thermal Club. He has started in the top ten of every other race this season. McLaughlin's current top ten finish drought of four races is his longest since a seven-race slump during his rookie season.
Will Power has his worst starting position ever at Mid-Ohio as he will start 22nd. Power did go from 21st to third in the 2022 Mid-Ohio race. Power has finished outside the top ten in the last two races. He has finished outside the top ten in the tenth race of the season in four consecutive seasons. His most recent top ten result in the tenth race of a season was his Mid-Ohio victory in 2020.
Devlin DeFrancesco is starting 23rd for the third time this season. He started 23rd at Long Beach before finishing 24th. He started and finished 23rd at Detroit. DeFrancesco has made 43 starts without a top ten finish, tied with Milka Duno for most starts without a top ten finish. The previous most starts before a first career top ten finish is Marco Greco on 42 starts.
Callum Ilott starts 24th, his worst starting position since he started 27th, last place at the St. Petersburg season opener. Ilott has scored his best finish of the season in the last two races. He was 18th at Gateway and 15th at Road America. Ilott has finished worse than his starting position in the last four races.
For the first time this season, Jacob Abel is the top qualifier for Dale Coyne Racing. Abel will start 25th for the fourth time this season. He started 25th at St. Petersburg, Barber and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. In 16 Road to Indy starts at Mid-Ohio, Abel's best finish was third on three occasions, including last year in Indy Lights.
Rinus VeeKay has his worst starting position on a road or street course this season, with the Dutchman taking the outside of the 13th row next to his Coyne teammate Abel. VeeKay did cause a local yellow, which cost him his fastest lap. This is his worst starting position on a road or street course since he started 27th at Barber in April 2024. While VeeKay's best Mid-Ohio finish is fourth, his average finish at Mid-Ohio is 12.1667.
Robert Shwartzman will start last in 27th. This matches his worst starting position. He started 27th at Thermal Club and at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Shwartzman suffered his worst finish of the season at Road America when he had an accident at Canada Corner to finish 27th. It is only the second time he has retired from a race this season. The other was the Indianapolis 500.
Fox's coverage of the Honda 200 from Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course begins at 1:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 1:22 p.m. The race is scheduled for 90 laps.
