Palou continues pole dominance at Road America

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — Alex Palou furthered his pole-winning streak one day before the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America, with the Spaniard scoring his fifth straight pole of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season. 

The Chip Ganassi Racing driver has started on pole at the Indy Road Course, Indianapolis 500, Detroit, Gateway and now Road America. The last driver to earn five consecutive poles between the 1996 and 1997 seasons was also a CGR driver, the late Alex Zanardi. 

Even with his current pole position streak, Palou shared during the post-qualifying press conference that he had a tough qualifying session in Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon. 

“Yeah, it was so tough,” Palou said. “Q1 I felt great. Q2 I struggled a ton. Yesterday I felt great, but this morning I struggled, as well. Yeah, I knew it was going to be very tough to piece it together. My lap, it felt good. There’s always room to improve. You never know if there’s going to be someone that just pieces together even better than you.” 

“Yeah, it’s always surprising,” Palou added. “ It’s always so fun and so tough to get it right. I think everything is so tight that, yeah, still surprises.”

Round 1 Group 1

The first set of drivers headed out to qualify with all three rookies together. As drivers set their first times, Josef Newgarden topped the charts with a 1:46.518 after having surgery on his injured left foot following Gateway.

Newgarden’s teammate, David Malukas, followed in second place with Marcus Ericsson in third. 

Alexander Rossi rose to the top with a lap time of 1:44.803. Soon afterward, Felix Rosenqvist topped Rossi with a lap time of 1:44.637, followed by his Meyer Shank Racing teammate, Marcus Armstrong, in second place. 

Kyffin Simpson and Mick Schumacher moved up to third and fourth place, respectively. Right afterward, Christian Lundgaard topped the charts on soft tires with a 1:44.202. Lundgaard’s Arrow McLaren teammate, Nolan Siegel, moved up to second place as rookies Caio Collet and Dennis Hauger moved up to third and fourth place, respectively. 

Rosenqvist moved back to the top on hard tires with a lap time of 1:44.098, as drivers pit for soft tires. Rossi was hit with a pit lane speeding violation while drivers got ready for their final push laps. 

Hauger improved but stayed in fifth place as Malukas trended to make it to the Fast Six. The No. 12 Team Penske driver moved up to the top with a 1:43.638 lap time. 

Schumacher improved shy of the top five as he slid in seventh. Collet moved up from sixth place to third place with a lap time of 1:44.254. Ericsson moved up to sixth place but was later knocked out by Armstrong as the MSR driver moved up to second place with a lap time of 1:43.638. 

Siegel moved up to third place, while Collet moved up to second. Then, Collet further improved to second place with a lap time of 1:43.890. Ericsson trended to move up as the checkered flag waved and ended in fifth place with a lap time of 1:44.013. 

Malukas, Collet, Armstrong, Siegel, Ericsson and Rosenqvist advanced to the Fast 12.

Round 1 Group 2

As the second half of the drivers set their first laps, Pato O’Ward led the pack on soft tires as Scott McLaughlin and Scott Dixon sat in second place and third place, respectively. 

Alex Palou moved up to the top with a lap time of 1:44.411. Soon afterward, Graham Rahal moved to second place. With eight minutes left in the session, Rinus VeeKay slid up to second place with a lap time of 1:44.772. 

Christian Rasmussen moved to the top with a lap time of 1:44.285, then Santino Ferrucci moved up to second, although he has a grid penalty for taking an additional engine. 

After drivers headed to the pits, Rasmussen was at the top with Ferrucci in second place and Palou in third place. 

Romain Grosjean was seemingly unaware of Will Power’s push laps as the Frenchman exited the pits. The No. 26 Andretti Global Honda driver was forced to avoid the driver of the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda. Nonetheless, the Australian driver improved to the top spot with a lap time of 1:43.789. O’Ward slid below Power in second place with a 1:44.107 lap time. Palou was back at the top with a 1:43.498 lap time. 

McLaughlin made it out of the elimination zone by sliding into third place with a lap time of 1:43.908. However, Kyle Kirkwood and Dixon improved but did not make the Fast Six, finishing seventh and eighth, respectively. 

Once the checkered flag waved, Grosjean lost time after briefly driving in the dirt; however, the DCR driver moved up to sixth place with a lap time of 1:44.282. Dixon trended to improve and knocked out Grosjean to take sixth place with a 1:44.276 lap time. 

Palou, Power, McLaughlin, O’Ward, Ferrucci and Dixon made it to the Fast 12.

Fast 12

Nolan Siegel led the group with a lap time of 1:44.633 as drivers set their first lap in the Fast 12. Alex Palou made it back to the top spot with a lap time of 1:44.454. 

As drivers headed in for fresh soft tires, Palou, Siegel, Scott McLaughlin, Pato O’Ward, Caio Collet and Marcus Armstrong were in the Fast Six. Collet’s left rear tire brushed the grass as he got ready for a push lap. The  AJ Foyt Racing driver continued to brush the dirt and grass as drivers improved their times. 

With a minute left in the session, McLaughlin moved up to second place as Dixon moved to third place. Armstrong displaced Palou as he moved to the top of the charts with a 1:43.871 lap time. Marcus Ericsson moved up to third place with a lap time of 1:44.095. Siegel improved to fifth place as David Malukas, Rosenqvist and Power trended to the Fast Six.

Indianapolis 500 champion Felix Rosenqvist moved to the top with a 1:43.819 lap time. As Malukas bounced off a corner as the checkered flag waved, he took first place with a lap time of 1:43.652. Santino Ferrucci almost made it out of the elimination zone, as he was two hundredths of a second away from knocking out McLaughlin.

Malukas, Rosenqvist, Armstrong, Palou, Ericsson  and McLaughlin moved on to the Firestone Fast Six. 

Firestone Fast Six

Scott McLaughlin was the first driver on track, setting a 1:46.245 lap time. After all of the drivers finished their first laps, McLaughlin remained on top with Felix Rosenqvist in second place and Marcus Ericsson in third place. 

Rosenqvist was the first one to set a push lap as he moved up to provisional pole, as Alex Palou snatched the top spot from the Swedish driver with a lap time of 1:43.661. 

Marcus Armstrong moved up to second place as Ericsson improved to fourth place. As the checkered flag flew, Malukas moved up to second place with a 1:43.954 lap time. 

As McLaughlin stayed in sixth place, both Meyer Shank Racing drivers tried to improve, but Armstrong and Rosenqvist stayed in third and fourth, respectively.

With no other driver able to beat his time, Palou took his fifth straight pole position in his No.10 DHL Honda.

Coverage of the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America will follow the Spain vs. Saudi Arabia FIFA World Cup match on FOX at 2 p.m ET.