The Team Penske driver tagged the inside wall at Turn 8 with three minutes to go in the session, which shot his car into the adjacent concrete barrier.
That brought out the red flag and an early end to his day.
“I knew it straight away,” said McLaughlin on the broadcast.
“I just turned a little bit early into Turn 8 there and clipped the inside wall. I’m really bummed for the guys. It’s a silly mistake.
“It is what it is. You’re trying to find the limits, but just don’t want to give them the work, to be honest.”
McLaughlin had been the fastest driver in the previous day’s practice and offered some optimism ahead of Monday’s race.
Secure your spot today.
“We’re going to have a heap of tyres and a really fast car,” he said.
“We’ll charge through from the back and have some fun.”
Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson took pole position by a whopping four tenths of a second over Chip Ganassi Racing’s four-time champion Alex Palou.
It’s the first pole position for Ericsson in his IndyCar career.
“It feels really good,” said Ericsson.
“It’s been obviously a lot of races in IndyCar, but before that I did a lot of races in F1 and then GP3 was my last pole position in 2013, so it’s been like a lifetime since last pole position.
“It was really close to St. Pete already, obviously second there, just two hundredths of a second off pole. So it was frustrating that night.
“I was thinking about, I could have done this and this different to get that first pole. It got me really fired up, because I knew we were going to have a good shot here in Arlington.
“It just feels amazing. I think the team has done a really good job.
“I think we’ve showed that already in St. Pete, obviously. Phoenix was a bit of a struggle. But really, really good to finish qualifying in P1 and then start from pole tomorrow.”
McLaren’s Pato O’Ward was the best of the Chevrolet-powered drivers in third ahead of another Andretti of Will Power.
Meyer Shank Racing duo Felix Rosenqvist and Marcus Armstrong completed the top six.
Monday’s race is scheduled for 3:30am AEDT with coverage live and exclusively on Stan Sport.
Results: IndyCar Series Grand Prix of Arlington, Qualifying (combined)
| Pos | Num | Driver | Team | Engine | Lap | Diff | Gap |
| 1 | 28 | Marcus Ericsson | Andretti Global | Honda | 1:34.3562 | ||
| 2 | 10 | Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi Racing | Honda | 1:34.8180 | 0.4618 | 0.4618 |
| 3 | 5 | Pato O’Ward | Arrow McLaren | Chevrolet | 1:34.8453 | 0.4891 | 0.0273 |
| 4 | 26 | Will Power | Andretti Global | Honda | 1:35.0856 | 0.7294 | 0.2403 |
| 5 | 60 | Felix Rosenqvist | Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian | Honda | 1:35.1607 | 0.8045 | 0.0751 |
| 6 | 66 | Marcus Armstrong | Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian | Honda | 1:35.6012 | 1.245 | 0.4405 |
| 7 | 27 | Kyle Kirkwood | Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian | Honda | 1:33.8868 | 0.4819 | 0.0415 |
| 8 | 21 | Christian Rasmussen | ECR | Chevrolet | 1:34.1440 | 0.7391 | 0.2572 |
| 9 | 12 | David Malukas | Team Penske | Chevrolet | 1:34.2456 | 0.8407 | 0.1016 |
| 10 | 20 | Alexander Rossi | ECR | Chevrolet | 1:34.3040 | 0.8991 | 0.0584 |
| 11 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | Chevrolet | 1:34.3957 | 0.9908 | 0.0917 |
| 12 | 14 | Santino Ferrucci | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | Chevrolet | 1:34.4898 | 1.0849 | 0.0941 |
| 13 | 45 | Louis Foster | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Honda | 1:34.6639 | 0.9241 | 0.0972 |
| 14 | 8 | Kyffin Simpson | Chip Ganassi Racing | Honda | 1:34.7931 | 0.8458 | 0.0496 |
| 15 | 18 | Romain Grosjean | Dale Coyne Racing | Chevrolet | 1:34.7199 | 0.9801 | 0.056 |
| 16 | 4 | Caio Collet | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | Chevrolet | 1:35.0300 | 1.0827 | 0.2369 |
| 17 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Honda | 1:34.8391 | 1.0993 | 0.1192 |
| 18 | 7 | Christian Lundgaard | Arrow McLaren | Chevrolet | 1:35.0760 | 1.1287 | 0.046 |
| 19 | 19 | Dennis Hauger | Dale Coyne Racing | Chevrolet | 1:34.8731 | 1.1333 | 0.034 |
| 20 | 9 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Honda | 1:35.1306 | 1.1833 | 0.0546 |
| 21 | 76 | Rinus VeeKay | Juncos Hollinger Racing | Chevrolet | 1:34.9196 | 1.1798 | 0.0465 |
| 22 | 6 | Nolan Siegel | Arrow McLaren | Chevrolet | 1:35.2288 | 1.2815 | 0.0982 |
| 23 | 77 | Sting Ray Robb | Juncos Hollinger Racing | Chevrolet | 1:36.1786 | 2.4388 | 1.259 |
| 24 | 15 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Honda | 1:35.3159 | 1.3686 | 0.0871 |
| 25 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | Team Penske | Chevrolet | 1:38.6580 | 4.7107 | 3.3421 |
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