INDIANAPOLIS – All week long we’ve talked about the INDYCAR Grand Prix being the “Penske Grand Prix.” See, Penske has won four straight NTT IndyCar Series races on the 2.439-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and looked to be the clear cut favorites once again.
Instead, it was their arch rivals from the Chip Ganassi Racing camp stealing the show on Friday.
Rookie Felix Rosenqvist bested the field in Friday’s third and final round of qualifying en route to his first career Indy Car pole. The Swede circled the track with a hot lap of 1:08.2785-seconds in his No. 10 Honda giving Ganassi their 90th career series pole as well.
Rosenqvist, now has to be among the favorites in Saturday’s race as the previous four winners of this event all came from the pole position. Also, three of the last five winners in the series overall came from the pole as well.
Joining Rosenqvist on the front row is his teammate Scott Dixon. The five-time series champion qualified with a time of 1:08.2979-seconds in his No. 9 Honda. It’s no surprise that both cars were on the front row too as both were in the top five of both practice sessions on Friday too.
Also, Dixon finished runner-up in this race the last two years but last year he had to come from the 18th starting spot to do so. Now, he’s starting on the front row.
Jack Harvey (1:08.3238-seconds) will start third in his No. 60 Honda while rookie Colton Herta (1:08.3743-seconds) rolls off fourth in his No. 88 Honda.
Ed Jones rounded out the top five in his No. 20 Chevrolet with a lap of 1:08.4609-seconds. The defending race winner in Will Power will start sixth in his No. 12 Chevrolet.
INDYCAR Grand Prix Starting Lineup
Row 1: Felix Rosenqvist R, Scott Dixon
Row 2: Jack Harvey, Colton Herta R
Row 3: Ed Jones, Will Power
Row 4: Graham Rahal, Simon Pagenaud
Row 5: Marcus Ericsson R, Sebastien Bourdais
Row 6: Takuma Sato, Spencer Pigot
Row 7: Josef Newgarden, Santino Ferrucci
Row 8: Helio Castroneves, Ryan Hunter-Reay
Row 9: Alexander Rossi, James Hinchcliffe
Row 10: Pato O’Ward R, Zach Veach
Row 11: Matheus Leist, Max Chilton
Row 12: Marco Andretti, Tony Kanaan
