Arrow McLaren won his first 1-2 start in the NTT IndyCar series competition as Patooward and Christian Landguard locked out the front row on Saturday during the NTT P1 awards in qualifying for Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix.
Team veteran Oudward won his sixth career pole since July 2022, earning 39.9567 seconds per minute lap on the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and 39.9567 seconds on the Firestone Fast 6 on No. 5 Arrom Claren Chevrolet. Paul was an impressive rebound for Mexican driver O’Ward. He came in a disappointing 23rd place in the Firestone Grand Prix, the opening game of the season in St. Petersburg, which was announced by RP funding earlier this month.
See: Qualified Results
Oward had his best laps in the final segment with 45 seconds left and didn’t have to stand on the gas again. He only needed four laps in Firestone Fast Six to win the pole. Only Alexander Rossi reduced the number of laps during that segment.
“I knew we could get the car to our taste and we could do it,” O’ward said. “I have to thank everyone. We looked back on that. We dialed it after Q1 (the first qualification segment).
Lundgaard, the team’s rookie, is no. 7Arrow followed just behind McLaren Chevrolet at 1:40.1245. Lahar Letterman, who spent the first three full seasons of his career, also qualified for the Sonsio Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course at Lanigan Racing, is his best start since last May. Lundgaard was the fastest in prequalifying practice earlier today.
The best previous initiative to compete in the Arrom Claren top two cars since rejoining the series in 2020, as it was 1-3 by Felix Rosenqvist and Rossi at Texas Motor Speedway in April 2023.
Next is a 25-minute warm-up on Sunday at 11am for the first point paling NTT IndyCar series event at The Thermal Club (FS1, FOX Sports App, IndyCar Radio Network).
Three and two reigning series champion Alex Pallow is No. 3 on the 3rd Saturday, on the 3rd Natural Terrain Road course. We held the qualifying round at 1:40.3092 for 10DHL Chip Ganasi Racing Honda.
Pau, who won the season opener in St. Petersburg, appeared to be polebound early in qualifying. He tore the weekend’s fastest lap during the first segment of qualifying, 1:39.5933, leading the 12 segment with a top lap of 1:39.6518. Pow was the last driver on track during the Firestone Fast 6, but team officials retreated on his final lap and told him to save his Firestone Firehawk alternative tires for Sunday’s race after it was clear he wouldn’t surpass O’Ward.
Colton Hertha took fourth place at 1:40.3978 at Gainbridge Honda in No. 26, leading two Andretti Global Cars in Firestone Fast Six. Teammate Marcus Erickson was fifth in No. 28 Bryant Honda with 1:40.7435.
Rossi is no to continue his solid start with Ed Carpenter Racing, who he participated in after last season. He concluded the top six qualifiers with a best lap of 1:41.0359 at the 20ECR Java House Chevrolet.
The Arrom Claren front row monopoly was one of two major stories during qualifying under the sunny Southern California skies. Another was that Team Pensuke couldn’t make it past the first round of qualifying for the first time in over three years.
Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Joseph Newgarden was the fastest of the three-team Pensuke drivers, finishing 17th in the second PPG Team Pensuke Chevrolet. Two-time series champion Will Power is Poles’ best IndyCar series leader of all time and came next with 21st place Verizon team Penske Chevrolet. Scott McLaughlin came in 25th in the third XPEL Team Penske Chevrolet on 27 cars.
The failure to advance from the first round of the road course took place at Portland International Raceway in September 2021.
