IndyCar took to the familiar Indianapolis road course on Friday afternoon to set the grid for the final race of the year around the familiar course.
Clouds rolled in for the session and gusty winds threatened to disrupt the balance of the 27 cars on the track where margins are razor thin.
When the dust settled on the knockout qualifying session, it was Graham Rahal who put his #15 entry in the top spot.
READ MORE: IndyCar IMS road course – Full Qualifying Results
The pole is Rahal’s first in six years, and bookends one of the largest gaps between IndyCar poles in series history.
He completed his lap in 1:10.1132, and completes a redemption run of sorts after having a Month of May to forget, which saw him bumped out of the Indy 500 before finding a seat with Dreyer and Reinbold Racing.
Rahal’s team-mate Christian Lundgaard very nearly took the top spot for himself, but was forced to settle for second place as he missed out by just over a tenth of a second.
The second row was locked out by Arrow McLaren, with Alexander Rossi and Pato O’Ward taking the third and fourth grid slots respectively.
The third row was a team affair as well, with Andretti Autosport locking out the final two spots of the Fast Six.
Devlin DeFrancesco surprised the field with his pace and advanced to his first ever Fast Six round. Romain Grosjean was a hair slower on his final run, and locked in the sixth spot.
Alex Palou, the runaway points leader as the season nears its conclusion, was only able to manage the ninth qualifying spot.
The 2021 champion likely has nothing to worry about, however, and will earn his second championship as long as he doesn’t come across some horrendous luck in the final races of the season.
Scott McLaughlin was even lower on the boards, and was barely able to sneak into the second round of qualifying.
The skilled driver came into the weekend with a new approach to his car’s setup in order to attempt to an improvement on his pervious performances, but those did not appear to help him very much.
Overall, Team Penske had a qualifying to forget. McLaughlin was the only driver among the team to even advance to the second round, with Will Power and Josef Newgarden earning the 17th and 19th starting spots respectively.
It is an ominous sign for the team that has won more races than any other around the familiar road course.
There is one final warm-up session later in the day on Friday, and then it’s straight into the 85-lap race on Saturday afternoon.
