Lundgaard takes IndyCar pole at Mid-Ohio

The Christian Lundgaard Revenge Tour got its start Saturday as the Dane earned his first pole position of the season for Arrow McLaren during the same week he learned to expect his dismissal at the end of the year.

Rain and lightning strikes near the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course led to a three-hour delay of qualifying for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 race, and once it was over, Arrow McLaren had a front row lockout as Lundgaard pushed the No. 7 to the top of the field with a lap of 1m04.839s to lead teammate Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Chevy (1m04.864s) and make another statement about his prodigious road racing capabilities.

"I honestly didn't get off to the best of starts in Turn 11, and Turn 1 was a little messy,” Lundgaard said after pipping O’Ward on his last lap. “Had a big overseer out of 12 and 13 as well. We knew it was a one lap tire when it was a one lap shootout, really, for all of us. So, I'm happy at this point. We've got to go finish it off tomorrow, but at least we're in the hunt for three road courses in a row."

The performance brought Lundgaard’s second pole for the team — he was on pole last year at Portland but started seventh after serving an engine change penalty — and fourth of his career after taking two with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

Andretti Global’s Will Power brought his form from Road America, where he finished third, to qualify third in the No. 26 Honda (1m04.877s) in front of Team Penske’s David Malukas, who took fourth in the No. 12 Chevy (1m04.908s). The rest of the top six was comprised of drivers who starred on Saturday in ways that weren’t expected, as ECR’s Christian Rasmussen sent another reminder of how far the team has come by securing fifth in the No. 21 Chevy (1m05.216s). Rinus VeeKay, who definitely wasn’t on anyone’s radar, earned sixth in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevy (1m05.409s).

Surprises were led by Alex Palou, who had the pace to vie for his sixth consecutive pole but made a mistake and was relegated to eighth in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Palou was joined in disappointment by Andretti’s Marcus Ericsson, who was holding sixth in the Firestone Fast 12 with the No. 28 Honda but was bumped to seventh on the final lap by VeeKay. Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood also demonstrated Fast Six speed until it came time to transfer and was unable to do better than 10th with the No. 27 Honda.

Add Penske’s Scott McLaughlin in 19th to the list of disappointed drivers. He had Ganassi’s Scott Dixon in 21st and Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong in 24th as part of the club.

On the positive side, Caio Collet brought AJ Foyt Racing into the Fast 12 with the No. 4 Chevy after taking 11th, and Sting Ray Robb, Nolan Siegel and Mick Schumacher were extremely competitive in a tight field to qualify 13th through 15th, respectively.

The first half of Firestone Fast 12 qualifying saw 12 cars run and split into the fastest six, which would transfer, and the other six who were finished for the rest of the afternoon.

Kyle Kirkwood, Christian Rasmussen, Pato O'Ward, David Malukas, Rinus VeeKay and Graham Rahal moved on; Felix Rosenqvist (P13), Nolan Siegel (P15), Louis Foster (P17), Scott McLaughlin (P19), Scott Dixon (P21), who was penalized for blocking Romain Grosjean and lost his fastest laps up to that point in the outing, and Grosjean (P23) completed the group.

In the second half of the opening knockout round, the remaining 13 drivers took to the track and were led by Alex Palou, Christian Lundgaard, Marcus Ericsson, Josef Newgarden, Will Power and Caio Collet.

They didn’t transfer, but Sting Ray Robb (P14) and Mick Schumacher (P16) put in strong performances and threatened to make it into the Fast 12. Behind them, it was Alexander Rossi (P18), Kyffin Simpson (P20), Santino Ferrucci (P22), Marcus Armstrong (P24) and Dennis Hauger (P25).

The Fast 12 brought a change when a string of five straight poles by Palou met its end as Malukas, a stellar Rasmussen, Lundgaard, Power, O’Ward and VeeKay went on to the Fast Six, while Ericsson (P7), Palou (P8), Newgarden (P9), Kirkwood (P10), Collet (P11) and Rahal (P12) were locked into place.

Lundgaard, the last car across the line, takes pole position.

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