Palou claims pole at World Wide Technology Raceway; O’Ward and Lundgaard fastest in practice

By Austin Lawton, Staff Writer

Alex Palou described World Wide Technology Raceway (WWT) as “probably my worst place” on Saturday morning during a press conference.

Later that afternoon, the Spaniard went and put the No.10 HRC Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing on pole for the 260-lap contest with a two-lap average of 174.353mph. Saturday’s pole is the fourth consecutive pole award for Palou, who started his streak at the Sonsio Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course on May 8.

Palou, who didn’t think a pole was possible earlier on Saturday morning, exceeded his own expectations.

“You never know. You always want to think that you can make it. Like, that’s always the mindset,” Palou said. “I was not really confident about it. Like, we were shooting for pole, but I think in my head was more like if it’s great, we can be like top five, P1 or P5. If it’s not, it could be like 12th, which I think it happened last year or something.”

Palou was over one mile-per-hour faster than second place David Malukas (173.244mph). In a repeat of Milwaukee last year, Malukas lost out on the top spot to Palou, but remains positive overall in his No.12 Team Penske Chevrolet.

“I actually feel very fortunate we were the third car to go. Obviously reverse order to go at the end. The earlier you went, I mean, it’s going to be a lot harder to go. For me I feel fortunate. I think it’s a really good result. There’s a lot you can do from the front row.”

In third and fourth, it was a pair of Honda’s belonging to Kyle Kirkwood (173.206mph) and Felix Rosenqvist (172.953mph), respectively. Scott McLaughlin would complete the top five at 172.869mph in his Team Penske Chevrolet.

SEE: Bommarito Automotive Group 500 Starting Grid

Arrow McLaren would also have a successful day, with Pato O’Ward (172.696mph) and Christian Lundgaard (169.791mph) fastest in the morning and evening practice sessions, respectively.

Teams were able to…

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