Point-leader Palou pads his INDYCAR pole-winning prowess at WWTR
Alex Palou – Bommarito Automotive Group 500 – Photo by Chris Owens
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio
Alex Palou’s relentless pursuit of the INDYCAR record book now includes the section marked “Qualifying.”
Palou posted his fourth consecutive NTT P1 Award Saturday during time trials for the 10th annual Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline at World Wide Technology Raceway. Palou’s two-lap average time/speed of 50.6195-seconds/174.353 mph around the 1.25-mile oval in Madison, Ill., cleared closest pursuer David Malukas by more than 1 mph.
“The team I have around me is incredible,” said Palou, alluding to the crew prepping his No. 10 HRC Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. “My car was on rails today; it was incredible. It’s the place that I’ve struggled the most so far (in my career), so hopefully (this speed) will continue.”
Palou secured his 17th NTT IndyCar Series pole as the last of 25 drivers to qualify at the facility outside downtown St. Louis and within eyesight of the famed Gateway Arch. The four-time/reigning series champion, Palou earned his fifth pole in nine races this season and fourth consecutive NTT P1 Award in the last month. Palou is the first driver to win four consecutive poles since all-time INDYCAR qualifying king Will Power of Australia in 2011.
SEE: Qualifying Results
Palou, who leads the championship standings by 62 points over Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Global, was second in Saturday morning’s practice. Palou’s advantage over Kirkwood equates to more than a full race-worth margin. Palou methodically continues to position himself for an INDYCAR record-tying fourth consecutive title.
“I knew this morning that our car was super-quick,” said Palou, a 29-year-old native of Spain. “But I did not really expect to get the pole here today, honestly. It’s just incredible. Super-proud and can’t wait for (Sunday night’s race).”
Historically, three drivers have won at WWTR from the pole _ Juan Pablo Montoya of Colombia and Chip Ganassi Racing (2000), and Gil de Ferran (2002) and Helio Castroneves (2003), both natives of Brazil and Team Penske wheelmen.
Live coverage of tonight’s 260-lap/325-mile race is scheduled to start at 9 p.m. (EDT on FOX Sports, FOX One, INDYCAR Radio Network powered by OnlyBulls). Palou’s best career finish at WWTR is fourth in 2024, as the asymmetrical oval is the only circuit on the 2026 schedule where Palou has raced in previous seasons without a top-three finish.
Meanwhile, Malukas continued to impress in his debut season with Team Penske by qualifying second via a two-lap average time/speed of 51.9500-seconds/173.244 mph in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet.
“It was incredible. That car was perfect,” said Malukas, a 24-year-old native of Chicago. “Obviously, there was so much of a guessing game from Practice 1 with temperatures, with this new (Firestone Firehawk) tire compound, all of that, and where we wanted to put the car _ and this team got it right where it needed to be.
“I made a mistake on a lap. I got a little bit too excited going into Turn 1, so Lap 2 was a little bit down. We’re here with the front row start at this amazing track, so really good job to this Team Penske Verizon Chevy (crew).”
Kirkwood, the 2025 WWTR winner, put himself in position to defend that victory by qualifying third at 173.206 mph in the No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda of Andretti Global. Sweden’s Felix Rosenqvist, the 2026 Indianapolis 500 champion, joined Kirkwood on Row 2 after his run of 172.953 mph in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Honda.
Scott McLaughlin qualified fifth at 172.869 mph in the No. 3 DEX Team Penske Chevrolet featuring a throwback red-and-white Marlboro Racing livery paying tribute to Castroneves’ 2009 Indy 500 victory.
“It was a good run. Really solid,” said McLaughlin, a 32-year-old native of New Zealand. “The DEX Energy Chevy looks great. I love it. I hope the fans like it, too, because it’s my favorite livery of all time.”
Fellow-Kiwi Marcus Armstrong completed Row 3 after qualifying sixth at 172.483 mph in the No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Honda.
Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden, who leads all drivers with five victories at WWTR, will start eighth after his run of 172.415 mph in the No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet.
“We definitely have something we can work with,” said Newgarden, a 35-year-old resident of Nashville, Tenn., and winner of the season’s first oval event at the 1-mile Phoenix Raceway. “The team’s doing a great job. Excited for the race…and what kind of show we can produce.
“It’s pretty gripped-up out there. It’s warm, but we’re got a little less power than last year, less downforce. So, it’s a different configuration. We’ll see how it races. I don’t think anyone’s got an answer for you, but it feels gripped-up for how hot it is.”
Pato O’Ward will start ninth after qualifying at 171.992 mph in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. “At the end of practice, the car was great,” said O’Ward, who logged 42 practice laps with a top speed of 172.696 mph.
“For qualifying, it was missed somewhere on the ride-height,” said O’Ward, a 27-year-old native of Mexico with family ties to San Antonio, Texas. “It wasn’t feeling like it did at the end of practice. I had to back out so many times where the car was already accelerating. That just kills you, so I’m actually pretty shocked we ended up ninth.”
Santino Ferrucci led the two-car effort from Waller, Texas-based A.J. Foyt Racing in 15th after averaging 170.988 mph in the No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet.
Ferrucci was optimistic about his chances…until the hour-long final practice Saturday evening. Ferrucci had completed 24 laps in the session mimicking Sunday night’s conditions when the engine quit at-speed. Ferrucci, who was able to coast into pit road and his box, debriefed with race engineer Adam Kolesar and Team President Larry Foyt and said in a subsequent TV interview the problem might be hybrid-related.
“I’ve been off the back here before and finished in the top-five,” said Ferrucci, a 28-year-old resident of Dallas. “This race, it’s so long, it’s kind of chaotic, you can definitely pass and there’s multiple lanes. But having a good qualifying is just helpful for when we go to Road America too, for pit box selection. It’s got more consequences moving forward than it does (Sunday night).”
Foyt Racing teammate and series rookie Caio Collet was 20th in the 25-car field at 170.104 mph in the No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevy. “I think the car was much better than what I expected to be, to be honest, and I didn’t extract really the potential of it,” said Collet, a 24-year-old native of Brazil. “Did a small mistake in my first lap. The second lap was decent, but I missed quite a bit in the first lap. But I think we have a good solid baseline.”
Collet, who is recovering from a rib muscle injury suffered when he crashed out of the 110th Indianapolis 500 on May 24, will be racing at night for the first time in INDYCAR tonight.
“Last year (some of) the guys had a really good race starting from the back,” Collet said. “Santino, last year he had a rough qualifying and finished in the top-five. So here it’s a race that if you have a good car and a good clean strategy, you can really move forward.”
Mick Schumacher of Switzerland was the highest-qualifying rookie in 18th at 170.290 mph in the No. 47 Bommarito Automotive Group/ENVE Honda fielded by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
“We had a lot of understeer right from the get-go and that wasn’t ideal. I couldn’t carry the speed that I wanted,” said Schumacher, the 27-year-old son of seven-time Formula One World Driving Champion Michael Schumacher of Germany. “Obviously, with the temperatures being hot and stuff that will happen. We made some changes for that, that we hoped would be good enough for the conditions. We were hoping for a little bit more.
“We came here testing (on April 23) and the car was in a great place. I think that with the temperatures being hotter than I expected, the conditions made the car very ‘understeer-y’ for us. We will work to figure out what we need and we’re going to have a good race. I think the race will be a great spectacle under the lights. I think it’s up to 90 percent sold-out so far, and I hope they will get a couple more. I think we’ll be able to have a good show.”
For the record, Team Penske has won nine INDYCAR races at World Wide Technology Raceway, the facility formerly known as Gateway Motorsports Park and within eyesight of St. Louis’ famed Gateway Arch.
Roger S. Penske’s winning drivers at WWTR are Canadian Paul Tracy (1997), Brazilian Gil de Ferran (2002), fellow-Brazilian Helio Castroneves (2003), Josef Newgarden (2017, 2020-Race 2, 2021, 2022 and 2024) and Australian Will Power (2018). Chip Ganassi Racing has four wins at WWTR, beginning with Italian Alex Zanardi (1998), Juan Pablo Montoya of Colombia (2000) and New Zealander Scott Dixon (2020-Race 1 and 2023).
In addition, 22 drivers have competed in past INDYCAR races at WWTR. Six-time series champion Dixon has 11 starts _ most among the entered drivers. Rookies Caio Collet of Brazil, Dennis Hauger of Norway and Mick Schumacher of Switzerland will make their first starts at WWTR today. And Josef Newgarden tops the list of 16 drivers who have led laps at WWTR with 624. Power is next with 450 while Dixon has paced 422 laps.
Lochie Hughes – INDY NXT By Firestone at World Wide Technology Raceway – Photo by James Black
Australian Lochie Hughes earned his third career pole, and first this season, for Sunday afternoon’s INDY NXT by Firestone event at World Wide Technology Raceway. Hughes turned a two-lap time/average speed of 55.3579-seconds/162.578 mph Saturday in the No. 26 Andretti Global car on the 1.25-mile layout to secure his first oval-track pole.
SEE: Qualifying Results
Hughes entered the 2026 season as the top returnee to INDYCAR’s developmental series after securing two wins and two poles en route to finishing third as a rookie with Andretti Global. But Hughes has struggled this season, with a second-place finish in the Indianapolis Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road-Course his sole podium result. He is fifth in the standings entering this event, 90 points behind leader Enzo Fittipaldi.
“I think I just left the tiniest bit of margin out there, so I was a little bit nervous because I knew probably could have gone a bit quicker,” said Hughes, a 24-year-old native of Gold Coast, Australia. “But it was a really good two laps. It’s so easy to overdo it, as well.
“I’m happy. It’s been a rough start to the year. My mind has been a bit like a pretzel, so I’m relieved to have a pole position. Hopefully we can back it up with a win. That’s what we need. But this is nice. It’s some momentum going the right way.”
Live coverage of today’s 75-lap/93.75-mile race on the asymmetrical oval _ the series’ first oval event _ is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. (EDT on FS1, FOX One and INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls).
Rookie Alessandro de Tullio continued his string of strong qualifying performances by taking the outside spot on the front row at 55.4313-seconds/162.363 mph in the No. 14 A.J. Foyt Racing car. De Tullio, a native of Miami, has logged five poles and two second-place qualifying performances in eight starts this season.
Andretti Global drivers swept Row 2 to give the team three of the top-four qualifying spots. Max Taylor qualified third with his run of 162.212 mph in the No. 28 Susan G. Komen entry, while Josh Pierson was fourth at 161.676 mph in the No. 29 Starchive Andretti car.
Rookie Nikita Johnson qualified fifth at 161.652 mph in the No. 21 Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR car, while fellow-rookie Tymek Kucharczyk of Poland completed Row 3 at 161.494 mph in the No. 71 HMD Motorsports machine.
Meanwhile, the series’ point-leader and arguably its fastest driver on ovals will start from the back of the field. Fittipaldi forfeited his guaranteed qualifying attempt due to a mechanical problem discovered while rolling out for technical inspection. That issue prevented the No. 67 HMD Motorsports entry from going through pre-qualifying tech. Fittipaldi will start 23rd in the 24-car field after leading pre-qualifying practice earlier Saturday.
Fittipaldi, 24, rolled into the weekend after winning last Sunday’s event on the Streets of Downtown Detroit. Fittipaldi’s second victory of the season vaulted him into the championship lead seven points ahead of Johnson and eight in front of HMD teammate Kucharczyk.
The victory also was the first by the legendary Fittipaldi name in Detroit since his grandfather and two-time Indy 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi of Brazil won INDYCAR races on different downtown street circuits in 1989 and 1991. Fittipaldi won the Indianapolis 500 driving for Patrick Racing in 1989 and for Team Penske in 1993.
“Emmo” launched his successful INDYCAR career after winning Formula One World Driving Championships as “Fitti” with Team Lotus in 1972 and McLaren in 1974.
Myles Rowe, winner of two oval races last season, will start 24th after he lost his qualifying run in the No. 99 Abel Motorsports with Force Indy car for failure to follow the direction of INDYCAR. Rowe continued on a third flying lap after taking the checkered for his two-lap run of 162.560 mph, which would have placed him second on the starting grid.
“We’ve been having radio issues for a good portion of the season,” said Rowe, a 25-year-old native of Powder Springs, Ga. “I just didn’t hear the call for the checkered. I’m obviously not trying to do anything to put anybody in danger or anything like that.”
NTT IndyCar Series Point Standings _ 1, Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing, 327; 2, Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global, 265; 3, David Malukas, Team Penske, 248; 3, 4, Christian Lundgaard, Arrow McLaren, 226; 5, Pato O’Ward, Arrow McLaren, 220; 6, Felix Rosenqvist, Meyer Shank Racing, 205; 7, Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske, 192; 8, Josef Newgarden, Team Penske, 187; 9, Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 186; 10, Marcus Armstrong, Meyer Shank Racing, 174;
11, Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing, 173; 12, Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global, 153; 13, Rinus VeeKay, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 143; 14, Alexander Rossi, Ed Carpenter Racing, 140; 15, Kyffin Simpson, Chip Ganassi Racing, 138; 16, Santino Ferrucci, A.J. Foyt Racing, 129; 17, Dennis Hauger, Dale Coyne Racing, 128; 18, Will Power, Andretti Global, 121; 19, Louis Foster, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 121; 20, Nolan Siegel, Arrow McLaren, 110;
21, Romain Grosjean, Dale Coyne Racing, 102; 22, Caio Collet, A.J. Foyt Racing, 90; 23, Sting Ray Robb, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 78; 24, Christian Rasmussen, Ed Carpenter Racing, 76; 25, Mick Schumacher, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 75; 26, Derek Daly, Dryer & Reinbold Racing, 24; 27, Takuma Sato, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 20; 28, Jack Harvey, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, 8; 29, Jacob Abel, Abel Motorsports, 6; 30, Helio Castroneves, Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian, 5;
31, Ed Carpenter, Ed Carpenter Racing, 5; 32, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Arrow McLaren, 5; 33, Katherine Legge, HMD Motorsports with A.J. Foyt Racing, 5.
FOX SPORTS’ 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES BROADCAST SCHEDULE/(RACE WINNER)
Note _ All times Eastern
Sunday, March 1 _ Streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)
Saturday, March 7 _ Phoenix Raceway, Avondale, Ariz., (Josef Newgarden, Team Penske)
Sunday, March 15 _ Streets of Arlington, Texas, (Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global)
Sunday, March 29 _ Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Ala., (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)
Sunday, April 19 _ Streets of Long Beach, Calif., (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)
Saturday, May 9 _ Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road-Course, (Christian Lundgaard, Arrow McLaren)
Sunday, May 24 _ 110th Indianapolis 500, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Oval, (Felix Rosenqvist, Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian)
Sunday, May 31 _ Streets of Downtown Detroit, (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)
Sunday, June 7 _ World Wide Technology Raceway, Madison, Ill., 9 p.m.
Sunday, June 21 _ Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis., 2 p.m.
Sunday, July 5 _ Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio, 12:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 19 _ Nashville Superspeedway, Lebanon, Tenn., TBA
Sunday, Aug. 9 _ Portland (Ore.) International Raceway, 4 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 16 _ Streets of Markham, Canada, Noon
Sunday, Aug. 23 _ Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C., TBA
Saturday, Aug. 29 _ The Milwaukee Mile Race 1, West Allis, Wis., 2:30 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 30 _ The Milwaukee Mile Race 2, West Allis, Wis., 1 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 6 _ WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, Calif., 2:30 p.m.
Note _ Dates and times subject to change.
2026 INDYCAR NXT BY FIRESTONE SCHEDULE/(RACE-WINNER)
Sunday, March 1 _ Streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., (Nikita Johnson, Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR)
Sunday, March 15 _ Streets of Arlington, Texas, (Max Taylor, Andretti Global)
Saturday, March 28 _ Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Ala., (Nikita Johnson, Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR)
Sunday, March 29 _ Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Ala., (Alessandro de Tullio, A.J. Foyt Racing)
Friday, May 8 _ Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road-Course Race 1, (Enzo Fittipaldi, HMD Motorsports)
Saturday, May 9 _ Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road-Course Race 2, (Tymek Kucharczyk, HMD Motorsports)
Sunday, May 31 _ Streets of Downtown Detroit, (Enzo Fittipaldi, HMD Motorsports)
Sunday, June 7 _ World Wide Technology Raceway, Madison, Ill.
Saturday, June 20 _ Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis., Race 1
Sunday, June 21 _ Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis., Race 2
Saturday, July 4 _ Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio, Race 1
Sunday, July 5 _ Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio, Race 2
Sunday, July 19 _ Nashville Superspeedway, Lebanon, Tenn.
Sunday, Aug. 9 _ Portland (Ore.) International Raceway
Sunday, Aug. 30 _ The Milwaukee Mile, West Allis, Wis.
Saturday, Sept. 5 _ Weather Tech Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, Calif., Race 1
Sunday, Sept. 6 _ Weather Tech Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, Calif., Race 2
