Best and worst of times for Ganassi teammates during D.C. IndyCar qualifying

Scott Dixon was firing through his final lap in knockout qualifying for Sunday’s Freedom 250 Washington D.C. Grand Prix, and with moments left in the session, it looked like all three of the Chip Ganassi Racing drivers would transfer into the Firestone Fast 12.

And then the unthinkable happened.

Dixon was on a flyer that would have placed his No. 9 CGR Honda inside the top six along with teammate Kyffin Simpson, who sat safe in fifth. All Dixon needed to do was complete the final few corners and he was into the Fast 12, but Simpson mollywhopped the wall with the No. 8 Honda, crawled to a stop in the middle of the track, and watched as the IndyCar Series triggered a red flag to slow the field.

Forced to reduce his pace, Dixon was unable to navigate the rest of the lap at speed, which knocked the No. 9 Honda out of the Fast 12. Making matters worse, Simpson fell afoul of the rule that deletes a driver’s two fastest laps for causing a pause or stoppage in qualifying, so it wasn’t simply a case of hurting Dixon, but his No. 8 Honda was eliminated from transferring as well.

With Dixon relegated to 14th and Simpson to 25th and last, one innocent error proved more costly than desired.

"We really had a lot of pace and just a small mistake on a fast lap right at the end,” Simpson said. “I just felt good there all weekend and all day today, and then I don't know, just something happened. Just kind of got a little messed up in the brake flow, just over the bumps, and with the car getting light and everything, I just couldn't take the corner. I thought I was going to be OK, which is why I turned in. But it wasn't really there.”

Dixon says he wished he’d “have pushed harder on the first couple laps. I was just trying to make sure I got the right gap to the car in front and then made a mistake on the second to last lap in Turn 2. And then it was close, obviously, for that one. I was up a lot on the next lap, and then obviously yellow there, and then it went red. So yeah, it sucks. Even when I slowed down, I almost made it through. So yeah, definitely tons of time in the car. Frustrating for sure. Obviously, starting in the mid-pack is probably not preferred, but it's what it is to see what we can make of it."

The lone positive from Saturday in D.C. was found with the third member of the Ganassi trio, as Alex Palou did a bit of mollywhopping of his own by setting pole position in the No. 10 Honda by a full 0.5668s over Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood.

“Really fast obviously, to get another pole was great,” Palou said of taking his seventh pole from 15 races this season, which was done in single-car runs inside the Fast Six. “It’s the best thing and the worst thing, at the same time. There’s a side of me that loves it, when I am heading into the corner without knowing if there’s going to be enough grip, it’s like ‘Yeah,’ and the other side of me is like, ‘This is not good. We should not be braking there.’ It was fun, it was great. It is fun when it works out.”

Palou’s pole added one more point to his championship lead, which sits at an imposing 134 points over Kirkwood. After securing the point for pole, 215 total points are available to any one driver for the rest of the season. If Palou can extend his lead to 163 points over Kirkwood, David Malukas, or Christian Lundgaard — the only drivers left with a realistic chance of catching him — by the end of the 250-mile race, the Ganassi ace will be crowned on Sunday.