McLaughlin snatches Barber IndyCar pole from Power

A host of big names failed to make it through to the Fast Six, including Josef Newgarden and Alex Palou, while the top two in the series points in Scott Dixon and Colton Herta did not even clear Round 1 of Qualifying for Race 3 of the season

McLaughlin and Power were among those to start the Fast Six on used alternate compound tyres, the former setting a 1:06.3295s on his first flyer after the latter had kicked off the segment with a 1:06.3354s in the #12 Chevrolet.

Power had pitted immediately after while McLaughlin failed to improve on his next flyer and then he too was back into the lane, with both taking another set of used reds.

Power then clocked a 1:06.0460s despite going slightly wide at Charlotte’s Web (Turn 5), before Christian Lundgaard put the #45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda into a provisional second place on a 1:06.0818s, after which he put his cue in the rack.

Power was still going, though, until he went even wider at Turn 5 and had to call his run off.

That opened the door for McLaughlin and, with the chequered flag out, he completed a 1:05.9490s in the #3 Chevrolet.

Behind that top three was the McLaren IndyCar Team’s Pato O’Ward (#5 Chevrolet) in fourth on a 1:06.2940s, from Felix Rosenqvist (#60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda) on a 1:06.4524s and Marcus Armstrong (#11 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) on a 1:06.9022s.

Earlier, in Group 2, Lundgaard laid down a 1:05.8130s at the start of his red tyre run and that would prove the fastest lap of the segment.

With a minute to go, Graham Rahal (#15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda) moved to sixth on a 1:06.0942s and bumped Newgarden (#2 Penske Chevrolet) out of the Fast Six.

McLaughlin then put Rahal out when he took up third on a 1:05.9344s.

Rahal and Newgarden will therefore line up on Row 4, from Kyle Kirkwood (#27 Andretti Global Honda), Palou (#10 CGR Honda), Romain Grosjean (#77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet), and Tom Blomqvist (#66 MSR Honda).

Back in Round 1 of qualifying, big guns fell very early.

In Group 1, Palou was quickest on a 1:05.5862s while Dixon could only manage seventh on a 1:06.1425s and Herta eighth on a 106.1481s.

Group 2 was an all-Penske top three, led by McLaughlin from Power and Newgarden, with Christian Rasmussen (#20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet) just falling short of the top six right at the end and Alexander Rossi (#7 McLaren Chevrolet) eighth.

Dixon will therefore share Row 7 with Rasmussen, and Herta will be joined on Row 8 by Rossi.

Sunday’s schedule is the Warm Up at 10:15 ET/Monday 00:15 AEST, then the 90-lap Race from 13:30 ET/Monday 03:30 AEST.

Results: Qualifying