McLaughlin upstages Palou for Laguna Seca IndyCar pole

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin will start from pole for IndyCar’s Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey at Laguna Seca. His blistering 1m09.136s lap around the 2.238 mile, 11-turn road course earned Chevrolet its 250th pole position in the series, upstaging newly crowned champion Alex Palou, who had led into the Fast Six.

“It was pretty solid,” McLaughlin said of his final flying lap. “It wasn’t my best lap, but it was good enough for pole. The last couple of days, the car has had really good speed, just almost effortless speed.

“I’m really proud of the guys. I lost my voice because I’m yelling so much, so I’m really proud of everyone. Long race tomorrow for the Dex Chevy. That’s 250 poles for Team Chevy, so I’m really proud for them. Hopefully we can transition this to a win.”

Palou (1m09.154s) and Indy 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist (1m09.193s) rounded out the top three.

“It kind of hurts a little bit, but at the same time it’s so cool that we’re starting [from] the front row tomorrow,” said Palou.

Ed Carpenter Racing’s Alexander Rossi had his best qualifying session of the season and will start Sunday’s race from fourth. Christian Lundgaard qualified highest out of Arrow McLaren’s driver trio in fifth, but a six-place grid penalty for an engine change will drop him to 11th on Sunday. David Malukas earned a sixth-place start, followed by Kyle Kirkwood in seventh, Marcus Ericsson in eighth, Kyffin Simpson in ninth, and MSR’s Marcus Armstrong in 10th.

Scott Dixon will start his final race for Chip Ganassi Racing from 17th.

In Group 1, less than a tenth and a half separated the drivers who progressed to the Firestone Fast 12. Team Penske’s Malukas led the group with a 1m9.409s lap, with McLaughlin only a hundredth behind. Kirkwood (1m9.420s), Rossi (1:09.497), RLL’s Louis Foster (1m9.542s) and Chip Ganassi Racing's Kyffin Simpson (1m9.545s) also moved on.

Rinus VeeKay (P19) ran wide in Turn 5 on his final lap, ending his chances of progressing. Santino Ferrucci (P21), Romain Grosjean (P23), Pato O’Ward (P13), Mick Schumacher (P15) and Scott Dixon were also eliminated.

Group 2 saw Will Power (P14), Nolan Siegel (P16), Christian Rasmussen (P18), Josef Newgarden (P20), Graham Rahal (P22), Dennis Hauger (P24) and Sting Ray Robb (P25) make their exits while Palou, Ericsson, Rosenqvist, Armstrong, Collet and Lundgaard advanced.

From there, Palou, McLaughlin, Malukas, Lundgaard, Rossi and Rosenqvist moved on to the Firestone Fast Six, eliminating Kirkwood, Ericsson, Simpson, Armstrong, Foster (P11) and Collet (P12).

For most of the Fast Six, it seemed Palou would earn his ninth pole of the season, but McLaughlin’s flyer in the final moments of the session denied the Spaniard a final first-place start.

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