Palou secures sixth Pole Position of the season in dominant fashion

Evan Roberts
1 day ago
4 min read

Written by Evan Roberts

Álex Palou would once again prove to be the class of the field as not even a warm Wisconsin afternoon would faze the 2025 Champion who achieved a sixth Pole Position of the season.

Joining him on the Front Row is David Malukas who would top the timesheets for most of the session before the Spaniard's showing. The top three would be completed by last year's Milwaukee Mile 250 winner Pato O'Ward.

Qualifying Report

First out in qualifying for the penultimate race of the season would be Jacob Abel. Having had a difficult rookie season, an average speed of 156.599mph set the speed.

The first of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan cars to set their speed was Devlin DeFrancesco who easily eclipsed Abel to go to the top with an average speed of 159.047mph. StingRay Robb would slot in close behind with a 158.153mph.

Polesitter for the Indianapolis 500, Robert Shwartzman failed to repeat his promising oval performances so far going behind two of the three drivers who had set a time with 158.010mph. Despite this, he would still be the fastest rookie of the session.

Next would be a pair of Britons. First fellow rookie Louis Foster would be first with a 157.529mph closely followed by Callum Ilott with 156.460mph. Both would not be able to deliver on the potential they had shown so far this season, Ilott being the slowest of all drivers.

The final driver of the opening group would be the first of the Arrow McLaren's as Nolan Siegel would set a competitive speed of 158.331mph.

Group two would start with a slew of driver's going to the top of the timings, as Marcus Ericsson took his Andretti Global car just in front of DeFrancesco with an 159.087mph average just to be toppled by Conor Daly soon after who set the first time averaging over 160mph (160.181mph).

Fastest in Practice 1, Josef Newgarden would be the next driver to make his qualifying run. Despite had an eventful season, his worst qualifying performance on an oval (discounting his disqualification for the Indianapolis 500) was a superb sixth. He would be the next to take the top spot with an average of 160.330mph.

Kyffin Simpson would be next, and as one of the three drivers to serve a nine-place grid penalty 20th in the session will mean he will start right towards the rear of the field.

The opening Ed Carpenter Racing driver would be Alexander Rossi who fresh from a season's best finish at Portland would set a competitive speed of 159.378mph to put himself comfortably in the top half of the timesheet.

Graham Rahal had been a driver who experienced clear struggles throughout the season on ovals, an average of 159.378mph put him third with half the field gone.

Always one to watch on an oval circuit is Santino Ferrucci, given his lowly starting qualifying performance after an average of 156.862mph expect more of the same tomorrow. Another thing to look out for is fresh from their controversial and chaotic showing last time out at Portland Christian Rasmussen would interestingly slot in right behind Daly with an average of 160.181mph.

Dutchman Rinus VeeKay would be the last of the Dale Coyne Racing cars an would best teammate Abel yet again to set an average of 159.514mph.

All of a sudden the speed would skyrocket as we saw our first drivers in the 162mph range. Scott McLaughlin would go first with 161.758mph for his average before Malukas would go one better with an astonishing 162.256mph average.

Colton Herta would be next up and heading into Turn 2 there would be echoes of his Indianapolis 500 qualifying crash. Except this time his car would miraculously end up in one piece, as one of the saves of the season saw the Andretti Global driver keep his car out of the wall. In his efforts however, he would end up spinning his car as payback meaning he would end up last of all drivers to set a speed.

Following a swift break for everyone to catch their breath, Marcus Armstrong would open the last group with an average of 159.018mph.

Next would be Felix Rosenqvist who up until this weekend was best average qualifying car on ovals. Unfortunately for the Swede, he would not be able to repeat his success as the first crash of the session saw Rosenqvist lose the back end of his Meyer Shank Racing car coming out of Turn 3. Eventually coming to a halt with big damage to the rear end of his car.

The last of the Team Penske cars - and winner last time out - Will Power would split his teammates with a speed of 160.819mph.

Despite seeing his two Andretti Global teammates flounder towards the bottom of the timesheets, Kyle Kirkwood would surprise by putting himself in the running for the race with an average of 160.353mph to be the fastest of the Honda's.

Still yet to overcome his issues on ovals, Christian Lundgaard would set an average of 158.801mph to go just ahead of teammate Siegel.

Scott Dixon would be next up and considering his string of disappointing qualifying sessions fifth fastest speed will worry competitors as he will have to fight his way through the field yet again, this time due to an engine penalty that will see him demoted nine positions.

Another thing that will scare the grid is a fast O'Ward. Having won at Milwaukee last year, third on the grid will put him in a brilliant position for the start tomorrow.

Last but by no means least was 2025 Champion Palou and even though he had secured the Championship last time out he showed no signs of slowing down in Qualifying. The Spaniard would set the fastest speed of the session (162.971mph) to take his sixth Pole Position of the season.