Álex Palou won his fifth pole position of the season with a lap of 68.3413 seconds around Laguna Seca in the final round of qualifying ahead of today's Grand Prix of Monterey. It is the 11th pole position of Palou's career. He has won from pole position seven times, including last year at Laguna Seca. He has never finished worse than fourth when starting one pole position. Palou could become the seventh driver to win consecutive Laguna Seca races. Each of the previous six consecutive winners did it for different teams, and none of those teams were Chip Ganassi Racing. A victory would be Palou's third at Laguna Seca. Only one driver has won more than twice at Laguna Seca. That is Bobby Rahal, who won four consecutive times at the track.
Patricio O'Ward was 0.2867 seconds slower than Palou in the final round of qualifying, but O'Ward makes its a clean sweep of the front row for the top two drivers in the championship. This is the first time O'Ward has started second in a race since Mid-Ohio last year, a race where Palou started on pole position. Palou led 53 laps that day, but O'Ward took the lead through the final pit cycle and led the final 24 laps on his way to victory. With his victory at Toronto last week, O'Ward has four top five finishes for the first time in his IndyCar career.
Colton Herta will start third after falling 0.5411 seconds off Palou's best lap in the final round of qualifying. This is Herta's seventh time starting on one of the first two rows this season. His best finish in 2025 was third at Detroit, and he has finished fourth on three other occasions. Herta has finished on the podium in three of five Laguna Seca starts. In the other two, he finished outside the top ten. Herta has never finished better than or equal to his starting position when starting third in a race.
Josef Newgarden qualified fourth, Newgarden's best starting position on a road or street course since he started third at Detroit in June 2024. This is his third time starting in the top five in the last four races. The other two races were at Iowa. After finishing in the top ten in his first three Laguna Seca starts, Newgarden has finished 21st and 19th in his last two trips to Monterey. His only top five finish on a road or street course this season was third at St. Petersburg.
Will Power is a spot behind his Team Penske teammate in fifth. Power opened the season with four top five finishes and five top ten finishes in the first seven races. In the last six races, he was third in one race, but he has finished outside the top ten in the other five, and Power's average finish during that span is 17.5. The Australian has four top ten finishes in five Laguna Seca starts. That includes two podium finishes and three top five results
David Malukas will start sixth. This is the seventh time in the last nine races Malukas has qualified in the top ten. With finishes of fourth and ninth in the last two races, Malukas is aiming for his first three-race top ten finish streak of his career. His best Laguna Seca finish was 13th in 2022. Malukas has finished on the lead lap in 12 of 13 races this season. His lone retirement was due to a mechanical failure in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
Christian Lundgaard has car #7 starting seventh after falling 0.0202 seconds short of making the final round of qualifying. Lundgaard had started 19th or worse in the last three races. Lundgaard had finished in the top ten in his first two Laguna Seca starts before he finished 15th last year. The Dane's average finish over the first seven races this season was 6.714. His average finish over the last six races is 13.5.
Graham Rahal starts eighth, Rahal's third consecutive race starting inside the top ten. It is the first time Rahal has started in the top ten for three consecutive races since a five-race streak starting in the 2019 season finale and stretching through the first four races of 2020. In five Laguna Seca starts, Rahal has an average finish of 17th, and he has finished 18th or worse in the last three visits. In the last two years, Rahal has been caught in an opening lap accident.
Louis Foster is a spot behind his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammate in ninth. Foster is one of five drivers entered in this race with Indy Lights victories at Laguna Seca. Three drivers have won at Laguna Seca in Indy Lights and IndyCar. They would be Bryan Herta, Cristiano da Matta and Scott Dixon. Jimmy Vasser and Patrick Carpentier are the only driver to win in Atlantics and IndyCar at Laguna Seca.
Marcus Armstrong rounds out the top ten, his best starting position in three trips to Laguna Seca. Last week, Armstrong was 14th at Toronto after starting third. That is his best finish from a top five starting position. In his previous three starts inside the top five, he failed to finish better than 24th. Though he has started in the top ten in seven races this season, only four of those races ended in top ten finishes. Armstrong had finished on the lead lap in seven consecutive races, the longest streak of his IndyCar career.
Christian Rasmussen will start 11th, his second-best starting position of the season and only the second time he has started inside the top fifteen in 2025. The Dane started tenth at Detroit. This is only the sixth time Rasmussen has started inside the top fifteen in his IndyCar career. While Rasmussen has finished in the top ten in his last four oval starts, he has failed to finish in the top ten in 14 consecutive road/street course races.
Felix Rosenqvist caused a local yellow late in the second round, and it cost Rosenqvist his fastest qualifying lap, which was second fastest in the round. Instead, Rosenqvist was relegated to 12th on the starting grid. In five Laguna Seca races, Rosenqvist has two top five finishes, two finishes of 19th, and an 11th. In 2019, he started 14th and finished fifth after causing a local yellow prevented Rosenqvist from advancing from the first round of qualifying.
Scott McLaughlin was 0.1101 seconds from making it out of the first qualifying group, and McLaughlin will start 13th at Laguna Seca. This is his fifth consecutive race starting outside the top ten. McLaughlin has finished outside the top twenty in three of the last four races. Laguna Seca is the 14th race of the season. He has finished in the top ten of the 14th race of the season in the last four season.
Kyffin Simpson fell 0.0405 seconds shy of advancing from the second qualifying group, placing the Caymanian in 14th starting spot. Simpson is coming off his first career podium finish as he was third in Toronto. It was Simpson's 30th career start. Prior to Simpson, the last driver to have a first career podium finish in the 30th start of a career was Josef Newgarden.
Marcus Ericsson is starting 15th. Ericsson had started 18th in his last two visits to Laguna Seca. The Swede scored his first top five finish in 13 races after he was fifth in Toronto last week. Ericsson has not had consecutive top five finishes since 2022 when he was fourth at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and then won the Indianapolis 500. His best finish at Laguna Seca is sixth.
Nolan Siegel will be on the outside of row eight as Siegel was 0.0784 seconds slower than the time needed to make it out of the second qualifying group. He had qualified in the top fifteen in the five races prior to this weekend. Siegel made his Arrow McLaren debut last year at Laguna Seca. He went from 23rd to 12th in that race.
Rinus VeeKay will be 17th on the grid. VeeKay was second last week at Toronto, Dale Coyne Racing's best finish since the 2022 Gateway race. The last time Dale Coyne Racing has had consecutive podium finishes was the first two races in 2017 with Sébastien Bourdais winning at St. Petersburg and finishing second at Long Beach.
A bobble in the final corner of Kyle Kirkwood's final qualifying lap cost Kirkwood over two-tenths of a second, and instead of advancing to the second round, Kirkwood will start 18th as he was 0.1124 seconds off advancing. After three consecutive top five finishes in the month of June, Kirkwood does not have a top five finish in month of July. Last season, Kirkwood finished in the top five in all three June races, and he had only two top five finishes in the nine following races.
Scott Dixon has his worst starting position at Laguna Seca with Dixon taking 19th spot. This is the third time in four Laguna Seca races he is starting outside the top ten. He won from 11th in 2023. This is the ninth time in 14 races this season Dixon is starting outside the top ten. Prior to last year's opening lap accident at Portland, Dixon had finished on the podium in the 14th race of the season in six consecutive seasons.
Santino Ferrucci is starting 20th, the 13th time in 14 races he has qualified outside the top ten. Ferrucci's ninth-place finish last year at Laguna Seca was A.J. Foyt Racing's best result at the circuit since it returned to the calendar in 2019. The team's best finish at the track is eighth, which came in 1992 with Mike Groff. Ferrucci started 17th in last year's race. Seven of his last eight top ten finishes have come from starting spots outside the top ten.
Jacob Abel has his second-best starting position of the season in 21st. Abel's best qualifying effort was 20th at Detroit last month. The only other time he has started better than 25th was at Thermal Club where he rolled off from the 23rd position. Abel's best finish on a permanent road course this season was 22nd at Mid-Ohio earlier this month.
Alexander Rossi has his worst starting position at Laguna Seca as the Californian will start 22nd, the ninth consecutive time Rossi is starting outside the top ten this season. Rossi has finished outside the top fifteen in the last three races. This is the first time Rossi has finished outside the top fifteen in three consecutive races in his career.
Conor Daly finds himself in 23rd grid position. This is Daly's second worst starting position of the season. He started 25th at Detroit last month. This is the seventh time he has started outside the top twenty this season, but it is the first time he has started outside the top twenty in consecutive races in 2025. In three Laguna Seca starts, Daly has an average finish of 20.667 with his best result being 16th.
Callum Ilott is to Daly's outside on row 12. Ilott scored his first top ten finish of the season last week with an eighth in Toronto. Only once has Ilott had consecutive top ten finishes. That was in the first two races of the 2023 season at St. Petersburg and Texas. Ilott was fifth in his last Laguna Seca appearance two years ago.
Robert Shwartzman had started in the top twenty in the last three races, but that streak ends with Shwartzman qualifying 25th for this race. Shwartzman is looking for his first top fifteen finish on a road or street circuit. His best starting spot on a road course was 17th at Road America. Shwartzman has finished better than his starting spot in six of nine road/street course races this season.
Sting Ray Robb is starting 26th. This is the fourth consecutive race Robb is starting outside the top twenty, and his ninth time starting outside the top twenty this season. Robb has finished in the top twenty in both his Laguna Seca starts. He was 12th in 2023 before finishing 20th last year. His only victory in Indy Lights came at Laguna Seca in 2022.
Devlin DeFrancesco had a spin in qualifying and the Canadian will take 27th on the grid, matching his worst starting position of the season. DeFrancesco started 27th at Barber Motorsports Park in April. DeFrancesco had finishes of 15th and 22nd in his first two Laguna Seca starts. He has retired from the last two races.
Fox's coverage of the JavaHouse Grand Prix of Monterey will begin at 3:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:22 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 95 laps.
