For the fifth consecutive race, Álex Palou is starting on pole position. With a lap at 103.6615 seconds, Palou took pole position for the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America. It is Palou’s 17th career pole position, but it is his first at Road America, the 11th different circuit where he has been the top qualifier. He is the first driver to win five consecutive pole positions since Alex Zanardi did it spanning the 1996 and 1997 CART seasons. It is the sixth time since 1946 a driver has won at least five consecutive pole positions. Ten times has Palou won from pole position, including at Barber Motorsports Park and Detroit earlier this season. Pit strategy backfiring on Palou at Gateway left him with a 17th-place finish. Palou has not had consecutive results outside the top ten since the final two races of the 2024 season at Milwaukee and Nashville.
For the second consecutive race, David Malukas is starting to Álex Palou’s outside. Malukas was 0.2927 seconds off Palou in the final round of qualifying. This is the eighth time this season Malukas is starting in the top five. It is his fifth front row start of 2026. This is the tenth race of the season. Malukas has never finished better than 12th in the tenth race of the season. He has seven top ten finishes from the first nine races of the season. Road America has produced eight first-time winners, most recent was Felix Rosenqvist in the second race of the 2020 doubleheader.
Another driver looking for a first career victory is Marcus Armstrong in third. Armstrong matched his best Road America qualifying effort though the New Zealander was 0.3610 seconds slower than Palou in the final round of qualifying. When Armstrong started third two years ago, he hit pole-sitter Linus Lundqvist at the start and spun. Armstrong would later retire due to a mechanical problem. In six of nine races this season has Armstrong finished worse than his starting position. In the three races in which Armstrong has finished better than his grid spot, he has gained at least eight spots.
Felix Rosenqvist makes it an all-Meyer Shank Racing row two, as Rosenqvist was 0.027 seconds off his teammate Armstrong. This is the second consecutive race Rosenqvist is starting fourth and it is his sixth top five start of the season. Surprisingly, this is his best starting position ever at Road America. His previous best was seventh on two occasions. Last year, Rosenqvist was second at Road America. It was his first top five finish at the circuit since he won the second race of the 2020 doubleheader, where he started seventh.
Marcus Ericsson starts in the top five for the first time since he was on pole position at Arlington in March, as the Swede rolls off from fifth. It is Ericsson’s second time starting in the top five at Road America. Ericsson's runner-up finish at Gateway was the sixth of his career. The only time he has had consecutive podium finishes was in 2021 when he was second at Mid-Ohio and then won on the streets of Nashville. The last time he had consecutive top five finishes was in 2022 with a fourth in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and first in the Indianapolis 500.
Scott McLaughlin rounds out the top six. It is the seventh time McLaughlin has started in the top ten this season. This is the fifth time McLaughlin has started sixth in his career. The only time he finished better than sixth from sixth was at Mid-Ohio in 2024 when he finished third. The most recent race won from the sixth grid spot was last year’s season finale with Josef Newgarden going sixth to first at Nashville. In five Road America starts, McLaughlin has completed every lap, all 275 laps.
Nolan Siegel will have the third-best starting position of his career as Siegel will roll off from seventh. He was 0.0997 seconds from making the Fast Six. The last time Siegel started this well was last year at Mid-Ohio, when he started a career-best fourth. While Siegel was 24th at Gateway, he has never had consecutive finishes outside the top twenty in his IndyCar career.
Caio Collet has a career-best starting position of eighth. This was only the second time Collet made it out of the first round of qualifying on a street or road course. The other was the Grand Prix of Indianapolis in May. Collet's streak of finishes outside the top fifteen is now up to six consecutive races after the Brazilian suffered an engine failure at Gateway. Collet won last year at Road America in Indy Lights.
Patricio O'Ward will start ninth. O’Ward has started no worse than 12th this season. O’Ward had started 11th in his last two visits to Elkhart Lake. After finishing 11th at Gateway, O'Ward is looking to avoid consecutive finishes outside the top ten for the first time since 2024 when he had a three-race slump over the Toronto, Gateway and Portland races.
Will Power takes the outside of row five. This is only the fourth time this season Power is starting inside the top ten. Power has not finished in the top ten in the tenth race of the season since he won the first race of the Mid-Ohio doubleheader in 2020. In three of the last four Road America races, and in four of the last six, Power has finished outside the top ten.
Scott Dixon will start 11th and this will be the tenth consecutive Road America race Dixon is starting outside the top five. He has finished in the top five in five of the previous nine Road America races. In two of the last three years, Dixon started outside the top twenty and finished in the top ten. He led 27 laps last year despite starting 25th.
Christian Lundgaard missed out on making the second round of qualifying by a little over a tenth of a second, but a grid penalty lifts Lundgaard to 12th starting spot. This is the seventh time in ten races Lundgaard is starting outside the top ten. Having led a lap in five races this season, Lundgaard has led the second-most races, trailing only Álex Palou, who has led in eight of the first nine races.
Though falling 0.0241 seconds shy of making the Fast Six, a six-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change dropped Santino Ferrucci to 13th starting position. Last season, Ferrucci improved at least ten spots from his grid position in five of the first nine races. This season, he has improved at least ten spots from his starting spot only once, 21st to 11th at Phoenix, and the only other time he has improved by more than two spots was going from 22nd to 18th at Long Beach.
Romain Grosjean fell 0.0060 seconds shy of making it out of the second qualifying group. Instead, Grosjean will start 14th. This is his best starting position since the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, as Grosjean started 20th or worse in the last three events. In four Road America starts, Grosjean has three top ten finishes with a pair of top five results.
Josef Newgarden starts 15th as this will be the third consecutive race Newgarden is competing with a leg injury. Newgarden has a chance to pick up his third victory of the season. He has not won three races in a season since he won four times in 2023. Newgarden has not won on a permanent road course since his 2022 Road America victory.
Christian Rasmussen will occupy the outside of row eight but he was 0.0086 seconds from advancing to round two. This is the second time in three Road America visits Rasmussen will start 16th. This is the sixth time the Dane has started outside the top fifteen this season. Two weeks ago, at Gateway, he went from 19th to third. In his first two Road America starts, Rasmussen has finished 20th and 18th.
Dennis Hauger makes his Road America debut from 17th on the grid. This is the eighth time in ten races Hauger has qualified outside the top fifteen. In the first six road and street course races of the season, Hauger has finished in the top fifteen in four of them. He was eighth in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis last month. At Gateway, mechanical issues prevented Hauger from getting off the grid and he did not take the green flag.
After making the Fast Six the previous three years at Road America, Kyle Kirkwood will start this year in 18th. This is Kirkwood’s worst starting position on a road or street course this season. He did start 25th at the Indianapolis 500 last month. Kirkwood enters Road America having finished in the top ten in three consecutive races at the circuit. His finishing position has improved every year he has raced at Road America, and he was fourth last year.
Kyffin Simpson takes the inside of row ten. This will be the third time Simpson will start 19th this season. He started in this grid spot at Phoenix and Barber Motorsports Park. He was tenth at Phoenix but 20th at Barber. Simpson went from 23rd to sixth in last year's Road America race. That 17-place improvement is the greatest in Simpson's career.
Graham Rahal is the top Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing starter in 20th. Gateway was the second time this season Rahal finished worse than his starting position this season, falling out of the race due to an accident after starting 11th. He dropped from third to ninth at Phoenix. At every road and street course race, Rahal has at least finished where he started or improved.
Rinus VeeKay continues his streak of never starting in the top ten at Road America. This year, VeeKay will start 21st, a position better than last year in this race. It is the third time the Dutchman has started 21st this season. The other two were Arlington and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. After finishing fourth at Gateway, VeeKay is looking for consecutive top five finishes for the first time in his IndyCar career. Last year, he picked up his best Road America result with a finish of tenth.
Mick Schumacher is starting directly behind his RLLR teammate Rahal in 22nd. This is the ninth time in ten races Schumacher has qualified outside the top fifteen. After not improving from his grid position in the first four races of the season, Schumacher has finished better than his starting spot in four of the last five races. His most spots gained was nine at the Indianapolis 500 from 27th to 18th.
After starting on pole position last year at Road America, Louis Foster will start 23rd this year. This is Foster’s worst starting position of the season. His previous worst was 22nd at Barber. From first on the grid, Foster spent only 18 laps in the top ten in last year’s race before finishing 11th. He did lead three laps before dropping down the order.
Sting Ray Robb starts outside the top twenty for the seventh time this season, however, 24th will be Robb’s best starting spot for a Road America race. Robb started 24th at Detroit two races ago and he wound up picking up his best finish of the season in 14th. Detroit was the third of three times Robb has finished on the lead lap this season. In three Road America starts, he has finishes of 22nd, 17th and 26th. Last year, his race lasted only nine laps before suffering an accident.
An unapproved engine change will drop Alexander Rossi from 21st to last on the grid, giving him a little extra work to crack the top fifteen. Rossi's slump is up to four consecutive races without a top fifteen finish, the longest of his IndyCar career. This matches Rossi’s worst starting position of the season. He started 25th at St. Petersburg and he was 16th at the conclusion of that race.
Fox's coverage of the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America begins at 2:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 2:17 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 55 laps.
