Fast Six qualifiers relieved after 'chaotic' qualifying

Christian Lundgaard, Scott McLaughlin and Rinus VeeKay were surprised and gratified to find themselves on the first three rows of the grid for the inaugural Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham, regardless of the fact that Louis Foster of Rahal Letterman Lanigan beat them with a brilliant pole position-winning lap. They’re hopeful it keeps them out of harm’s way around the 2.19-mile street course.

VeeKay, who didn’t even target pole in the final segment of qualifying, will start sixth, having saved a set of Firestone’s softer alternate compound for tomorrow’s race.

“Third weekend in a row that we are in the Firestone Fast Six and I haven’t qualified outside of the top 10 in the last four,” said the Juncos Hollinger Racing ace. “Good day here in Markham at a new track for everybody.

“I think this was my first Fast 6 appearance on a street course with this team. Great job by everybody. It was a bit of a scramble to get through at times to make it to the next stage, but we did the right things.

“At the end, in the Fast Six, we saved new tires for tomorrow. We were not going for the pole and I’m really happy with our performance. Tomorrow is going to be when we get the points, so that is going to be what our focus is on. Starting up front, especially on a new street course as brutal as this one, it’s going to be nice to be ahead of the chaos.”

Team Penske’s McLaughlin stated: “Really happy with that qualifying effort, for sure. This Gallagher Chevy team has done a great job all day. It’s been a long day, and we knew qualifying was going to be chaotic.

“We dealt with those red flags as well as you could because they did come out at terrible times for us. Qualifying up front was always going to be key this weekend, and we did that.”

Teammate David Malukas, who lies third in points, will start seventh, while Josef Newgarden will start at the back after a red flag-causing shunt in Q1.

With all due respect to Foster, Lundgaard’s performance was arguably the biggest surprise of the session since the Arrow McLarens looked edgy and uncomfortable to drive – more than most – in first practice, and only some in-cockpit acrobatics from Pato O’Ward made them look respectable in FP2. However, his anxiousness to rejoin the course after a trip into a run-off in Q2 earned him a penalty for causing a local yellow and cost him his fastest lap to that point.

Yet Lundgaard made the most of his car in all three segments of qualifying and claimed a front-row berth, albeit 0.4s adrift of Foster.

“I'm still surprised with that,” said the Dane, who has scored two wins this year and scored his first win in this event’s previous venue, Toronto, back in 2023. “I'm bummed for Pato that he got kicked out of Q1.

“At the end of the day, I think we had some pretty good cars, and we pulled out a tremendous run in the Firestone Fast 6 that I didn't think we had. This is a lot better than where I thought we would be. All to play for tomorrow.”

Asked if he expected it to be a good track for racing, Lundgaard responded: "There is some sections that's going to be a potential disaster. I think the first three corners are tough just from a visibility perspective.

"I think we saw it in the NASCAR Canada race: when you're following close behind, it's very easy to clip that inside wall. The next inside wall shows up real fast.

"I think we saw turn 10, 11 be tough, obviously with Will [Power]'s accident in practice two and a couple in qualifying, as well.

"There's probably two real good passing opportunities, which is [Turns] 5 and 6. Yeah, there may be some carnage…"