For the third consecutive race, Álex Palou is starting on pole position. Palou ran the fastest lap in the final round of qualifying for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix with a lap at 61.9017 seconds. It is Palou's 16th career pole position, and he has already won from pole position nine times in his career, including in this race three years ago. After winning the inaugural race on this Detroit track configuration in 2023, he has finished 16th and 25th in the last two visits to the Motor City. His 25th-place finish was the third-worst result of his IndyCar career. Palou entered this weekend with a 37-point lead in the championship. He has led the championship after 58 races in his IndyCar career, the fourth-most all-time.
Will Power was 0.2232 seconds slower than Palou in the final round of qualifying, but it did earn Power second on the grid, his best starting position of the season. Power is hoping to avoid five consecutive finishes outside the top ten for the first time since 2021. That streak encompassed the Texas doubleheader, the May races from Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the first race of the Belle Isle doubleheader. Power has not won a street race since the final race on Belle Isle in 2022.
Scott McLaughlin was 0.5542 seconds off Palou in third. This is McLaughlin's best start since he was on pole position for the St. Petersburg season opener. With a third-place finish in the Indianapolis 500, it was the fifth podium finish for McLaughlin since his most recent victory in the second Milwaukee race in 2024. It has been 25 starts since McLaughlin won that race. His best finish on the Detroit configuration is seventh.
Scott Dixon makes it an all-New Zealander row two, as Dixon was 0.7068 seconds behind his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate. However, this is Dixon's best starting position of the season, and it is his best start since he started fourth for last year's Indianapolis 500. Dixon has finished in the top ten in the eighth race of the season for ten consecutive years. This streak includes victories at Detroit in the eighth race of 2019 and at Gateway in the eighth race of 2020.
Christian Lundgaard starts fifth after being 0.8853 seconds from the top spot. After opening the season with three top ten finishes from the first four races, Lundgaard has finished outside the top fifteen in two of the last three races. He also won the Grand Prix of Indianapolis during that span. Lundgaard has not had consecutive finishes outside the top fifteen since 2023 when he was 19th in the Indianapolis 500 and 16th at Detroit.
Kyle Kirkwood had a lock up and ran wide in the hairpin to ruin his lap in the final round of qualifying, leaving Kirkwood sixth on the grid. Kirkwood has finished in the top ten in all three races on this Detroit configuration, and his average finish is 3.667 across those three races. Five of Kirkwood's six career victories have come on street courses. While he has won twice from pole position, he won from seventh at Arlington in March and from eighth in Nashville in 2023. However, all three races held on this Detroit configuration have been won from the top five.
Patricio O'Ward missed out the on the Fast Six by 0.0480 seconds, and O'Ward will start seventh. O'Ward has 11 top ten finishes in his last 16 starts. He has finished 17th or worse in those other five races. He has not finished between sixth and tenth since he was seventh at Detroit last year. The only time O'Ward has won from seventh in his career was the second race of the 2022 Iowa doubleheader.
Marcus Armstrong fell 0.1487 seconds shy of advancing to the final round, and Armstrong takes eighth on the grid. Armstrong is coming off his second top five finish of the season as he was fifth in Indianapolis. He was also fifth at Phoenix. He has never had consecutive top five finishes in his IndyCar career. The most recent race won from eighth starting spot was Álex Palou at St. Petersburg in 2025.
For only the fifth time in his IndyCar career, Christian Rasmussen will start in the top ten. Rasmussen ran the ninth-best time in the second round of qualifying. This will be his 39th career start. Rasmussen's career average finish in 11 street course start is 20.909. His 15th at Long Beach was only the third time he has finished in the top fifteen on a street course in his IndyCar career.
Marcus Ericsson rounds out the top ten on the grid. This ends a streak of three consecutive races starting outside the top ten for Ericsson. The Swede has finished outside the top ten in three consecutive races. Since joining Andretti Global in 2024, Ericsson's average finish on street courses is 10.818 with four top five finishes and six top ten finishes in 11 street races.
Louis Foster leads an all-Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing row six, as Foster wound up 11th in qualifying. This was the third time Foster made it out of the first round of qualifying this season. He had started in the top ten at St. Petersburg and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Foster started and finished 21st in the Indianapolis 500.
One week after finishing a spot ahead of Foster in the Indianapolis 500, Graham Rahal starts a position behind Foster as Rahal occupies 12th on the grid. Rahal has made it to the second round of qualifying in four consecutive road/street course races. Rahal has finished 15th or worse in his last four trips to Detroit. His most recent top five finish on a street course was fourth at Toronto in 2022.
Nolan Siegel was 0.0370 seconds off advancing to the second round of qualifying, but he does have his best starting position of the season on a road or street course in 13th. With finishes of 12th, tenth and 11th in the last three races, it is only the second time Siegel has had three consecutive top fifteen finishes in his carer. The other time was last season with finishes of ninth, 13th and 13th over Barber Motorsports Park and the two Indianapolis races.
Alexander Rossi was 0.2601 seconds off advancing from group two in the first round, and Rossi will start 14th. Through seven races, Rossi has yet to finish in the top five. The only other season where he went more than seven races before his first top five finish was 2021, where his first top five result came in the tenth race at Mid-Ohio. It was a fifth-place finish.
Dennis Hauger fell 0.0963 seconds shy of advancing to the second round, placing him 15th on the grid. Since moving to the downtown Detroit circuit in 2023, Dale Coyne Racing has not had an entry finish better than 17th. The team's most recent top ten fins in the city of Detroit was Ed Jones finishing ninth in the first race of the 2021 doubleheader. Hauger has finished tenth, 16th and 11th in the three street races this season.
Indianapolis 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist will start 16th. Rosenqvist had started in the top five in three consecutive races and in four of the last five. He started 14th last year at Detroit but ended up caught in an accident and finishing 21st. Since 2001, the average finish for the Indianapolis 500 winner in the following race is 10.1304. In the last three years, the Indianapolis 500 winner has finished tenth, 26th and 25th, all of which were at Detroit.
Kyffin Simpson has the inside of row nine covered. Last year, Simpson picked up his first career top five finish when he was fifth at Detroit, and he started 19th in that race. He was tenth in the most recent street race at Long Beach. Simpson is one of six drivers to complete every lap this season. Of those six drivers, Simpson is the only one without a top five finish.
Rinus VeeKay has the outside of row nine covered. VeeKay is coming off his best finish of the season as he was sixth in the Indianapolis 500. In six Detroit starts between Belle Isle and the downtown course, VeeKay has an average finish of 15.833. He was second in his first Belle Isle race. Since then, his best finish was 14th.
Caio Collet will make his first Detroit Grand Prix start in 19th. This is the seventh time in eight races this season Collet is starting outside the top fifteen. He has finished better than his starting position in four of seven races this season. His accident in the Indianapolis 500 was Collet's first retirement of the season. Collet was runner-up in both of his Indy Lights starts at Detroit.
Romain Grosjean will take 20th on the grid. In two starts on this Detroit circuit, Grosjean has finishes of 24th and 23rd. Expanding to include his three Belle Isle starts, Grosjean's best finish in the Motor City is 17th, and his average finish in five races is 22.2. In each of his IndyCar seasons, Grosjean has had consecutive top ten finishes on at least one occasion. Grosjean was ninth last week in the Indianapolis 500.
Josef Newgarden finds himself starting 21st as this has been a difficult weekend for the two-time champion. Newgarden has been on crutches due the injury he sustained in his accident at the Indianapolis 500. He has not been ranked in the top twenty in any sessions. While he has two top ten finishes on this circuit, his best finish here is ninth, which occurred last year.
Santino Ferrucci matches his worst starting position of the season in 22nd. Last year, Ferrucci scored his career-best finish in this race when he was second, and he started 21st in that race. However, the team was docked 26 points due to incorrect driver equivalency weight on the car. Ferrucci matched his best finish of the season at the Indianapolis 500 when he was eighth. He was eighth in the most recent street race at Long Beach.
Mick Schumacher lost his fastest two laps after he hit the wall in turn seven and brought out a red flag in the first round of qualifying. This relegates Schumacher to 23rd on the grid. At the Indianapolis 500, Schumacher was the top finishing rookie for the first time this season in 18th. His best finish this season was in the most recent street race, 17th at Long Beach.
Sting Ray Robb will start 24th, his fourth time starting on row 12 this season. Since finishing ninth at Long Beach last year, Robb's average finish in the last five street races is 19.4. He has not finished on the lead lap in five of seven races this season. The exceptions are Long Beach ad the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
David Malukas hit the barrier entering turn seven and it ricocheted Malukas into the outside barrier as he was about to complete his final lap during the group two session. This accident knocked Malukas down to 25th on the grid, and he was in position to possibly advance to round two. Malukas has finished second in the last two races. Since 1946, there have been 13th instances of drivers having three consecutive runner-up finishes. The most recent was in 2008 when Hélio Castroneves was second at Mid-Ohio, Edmonton and Kentucky.
Fox's coverage of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix begins at 12:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 12:52 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 100 laps.
