Rosenqvist, Palou earn poles for Sunday’s Thermal heats

Meyer Shank Racing earned its first NTT IndyCar Series pole on Saturday as new team leader Felix Rosenqvist placed the No. 60 Honda on top of the split field of drivers for Sunday morning’s first heat race with a lap of 1m38.583s.

Among the 14 drivers in Rosenqvist’s group, Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin was second, Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay was third, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard was fourth, and the rest of the Penske trio in Josef Newgarden and Will Power completed the top six as drivers got to use an extra and brief bump of horsepower from push-to-pass.

“When we showed up here, people were eating ice cream and it was chill, and now it feels normal,” Rosenqvist told RACER of the switch from open testing to qualifying. “Because no one’s done this — like the push-to-pass deal — like, you’re one and done. If you must mess up that lap, you’re there in the back. I think it’s pretty cool.”

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou led the other half of the grid for Sunday’s second heat race, lapping the 17-turn road course with a 1m38.567s tour in the No. 10 Honda to lead the 13 drivers in his group. Palou was shadowed in second by teammate Marcus Armstrong, RLL’s Graham Rahal, Ganassi’s Linus Lundqvist, MSR’s Tom Blomqvist, and RLL’s Pietro Fittipaldi in sixth.

A crash by Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson capped a bad day for the team, and with a red flag to retrieve the uninjured Swede’s car, the remaining drivers had an out lap and one flying lap to try and dislodge Arrow McLaren’s Callum Ilott from pole. Palou was ripe for the challenge.

“I love it,” Palou said. “Those are the best moments, honestly. The tires are cooked. No more push-to-pass. You don’t have a lot of time, but it’s awesome. That’s what we love about motorsport when it goes right and when it goes wrong.”’

With the fields set for the two heat races, Sunday’s activities will follow a tight timeline as IndyCar works within the live TV window offered by NBC.