PALOU STAYS HOT TO EDGE O’WARD FOR MID-OHIO POLE

 

The relentless pressure of Alex Palou prevailed again Saturday, as the NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship leader won the NTT P1 Award for The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the 2025 Civic Hybrid.

Palou earned his second consecutive pole and third NTT P1 Award in the last six races this season with a top lap of 1 minute, 5.3511 seconds in the No. 10 Ridgeline Lubricants Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

SEE: Qualifying Results

The driver Palou achieved his sixth career pole position, securing the top spot in two races this season - on May 11 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, and on June 23 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. He also won a non-points exhibition race from the pole in March at The Thermal Club. Palou expressed his satisfaction with the performance of his car, emphasizing the significance of the pole position for the race.

Following closely behind, Pato O’Ward qualified second with his best performance of the season, narrowly missing the top spot by just .0024 of a second. Despite this, O’Ward remained hopeful, highlighting the strong performance of his car throughout the weekend practices and expressing excitement for the upcoming race.

Live coverage of the 80-lap race starts at 1:30 p.m. ET Sunday on NBC, Peacock and the INDYCAR Radio Network. A 30-minute warmup session precedes the race at 10:25 a.m. (Peacock, INDYCAR Radio Network).

David Malukas continued his remarkable rebound from preseason wrist surgery to qualify third at 1:05.6509 in the No. 66 AutoNation/Arctic Wolf Honda fielded by Meyer Shank Racing. Malukas tied his career-best qualifying spot in just his second start this season, and this was his best-ever performance in road and street course qualifying.

Colton Herta will join Malukas on Row 2 after qualifying fourth at 1:05.7653 in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda fielded by Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian.

Marcus Armstrong qualified fifth at 1:05.9402 in the No. 11 Root Insurance Chip Ganassi Racing Honda but will start six positions lower Sunday due to a penalty for an unapproved engine change after the team test June 27 at Iowa Speedway.

Marcus Ericsson closed out the Firestone Fast Six qualifiers at 1:05.9592 in the No. 28 Delaware Life Honda of Andretti Global.

Christian Rasmussen was the top rookie qualifier, ninth at 1:05.6911 in the No. 20 Guy Care Chevrolet of Ed Carpenter Racing. That’s a career best, as his previous top spot was 13th in early June on the streets of Detroit.

While the debut of the new hybrid unit on all engines is a major storyline this weekend, the number of heavy hitters starting from midpack or further back also is drawing headlines. Every team not only worked to understand the change in balance to its cars due to the additional weight from the hybrid unit, but the repaving of the 13-turn, 2.258-mile roller coaster of a road course also created setup challenges due to increased grip.

Series champions Will Power and Scott Dixon, Palou’s closest pursuers in the points, have a long way to go to get to the front Sunday. Six-time Mid-Ohio winner Dixon qualified 14th in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, while 2020 Mid-Ohio winner Power qualified 16th in the No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet.