Second row start for McLaughlin at Milwaukee

Champion-elect Alex Palou took his sixth pole position of the season to continue his run of IndyCar dominance with Chip Ganassi Racing.

Palou set a two-lap average of 162.971 mph around the mile-long oval. He will have AJ Foyt Racing’s David Malukas alongside him while McLaren’s Pato O’Ward will start third beside McLaughlin.

Scott Dixon was poised to start fifth but took a nine-place grid penalty for an unapproved engine change, which will relegate him to 14th. The penalty promotes Will Power to the top five.

“A very solid run for the Sonsio Chevy,” said McLaughlin.

“That should give us a good starting position tomorrow, one that we can win from for sure.

“Tyre degradation is going to be so critical tomorrow, like it was last year.

“I’ve really enjoyed this track and I think we have a shot to get to Victory Lane again tomorrow.”

It marked pole position six for Palou, who has an unassailable lead over O’Ward in the championship.

“I knew I had a good car,” Palou said.

“I just wanted to get everything out of it, so I just fired as much speed as I think it could handle and a little bit more, and it sticks. It feels amazing to get a pole here.”

Qualifying was punctuated by two incidents. The first involved Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist, who backed his car into the wall at Turn 4.

Andretti Global’s Colton Herta saved his car from slapping the wall after looping around.

Herta said he tried to match his teammate Marcus Ericsson and utilise his line. However, his car didn’t react kindly to it.

“It’s unfortunate,” said Herta.

“We weren’t super confident after practice, so we took a little bit of a swing at it, but it looks like we were loose right from the beginning.

“As soon as we touched that lower patch, the car just went.

“My teammate Marcus had a better line than me in practice, so I went on his line there for qualifying, since we’re on very similar cars, but unfortunately, the car just didn’t like that patch.

“It’s frustrating to have a weekend like this. Luckily, the setup that we’ll go to for the race is very different than qualifying, so we can find what we need to tonight to move up tomorrow.

“I’m glad that we’re back here at The Milwaukee Mile, but this place is really difficult as well.”

The Milwaukee Mile 250 gets underway on Monday, August 25 at 4am AEST with coverage live and exclusively on Stan Sport.

Results: IndyCar Series Snap-On Milwaukee Mile 250, Milwaukee Mile