IndyCar: Rosenqvist, Palou Take Poles for the $1 Million Challenge

Felix Rosenqvist and Alex Palou each battled gusty winds and changing track conditions Saturday to claim poles for the two heat races Sunday setting the field for The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge.

Rosenqvist and reigning NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Palou will be at the head of the field for their respective 10-lap heat races Sunday on the 17-turn, 3.067-mile desert circuit near Palm Springs, California. The top six finishers in each of those heats will compete in the Sprint for the Purse, a two-segment, 20-lap feature race that awards $500,000 to the winner.

Group 1 Qualifying

Felix Rosenqvist drove his Meyer Shank No 60 entry to the front row for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Race #1 tomorrow with a time of 1:38.5831.

As he did two weeks ago in the season opener in St. Petersburg, Rosenqvist took his No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda to the front row in qualifying, leading the session that set the starting grid for Sunday’s first heat race. The results of the heats will determine which 12 drivers qualify for the feature race, with the top six from each heat advancing to the 20-lap main event.

“We tried to stay cool after a tough morning session, we took a deep breath and worked on the problem. But the team did a great job getting ready and we ended up with another great car. The test sessions have been great for us as a team this weekend.

“We’re jelling, we are figuring out what we need to do to be fast and I feel good. It’s an angry pack to be ahead of (for tomorrow’s heat race), but if we can get away clean at the start, we should be OK because the (tire) degradation isn’t too bad. But the guys are going to be coming at us hard.”

Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske No 3 entry,  qualified second with a lap of 1:38.6068.

Rinus Veekay, driver of the Ed Carpenter No 21 entry, qualified third with a lap of 1:38.6394.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Christian Lundgaard qualified fourth with a time of 1:38.6394.

Team Penske’s teammates, Josef Newgarden and Will Power, qualified fifth and sixth.

The Juncos Hollinger entries Romain Grosjean and Agustin Canapino qualified seventh and eighth.

Six-time champion Scott Dixon qualified ninth.

Santino Ferrucci, Colton Herta, Nolan Siegel, Kyle Kirkwood, and Sting Ray Robb qualified in this order.

(R) Rookie

Group 2 Qualifying

Alex  Palou will start in the front row for the Race #2.

“Looking forward to tomorrow,” Palou said. “After all that confusion with the red flag and everything, we didn’t know if we were going to be able to put a lap together. But happy with that.

“We were using everything (push-to-pass) on that lap before it went red, so happy with that pace. The car is good.”

Palou’s Chip Ganassi teammate, Marcus Armstrong, qualified second with a lap of 1:38.7575.

Graham Rahal of Rahal Letterman Lanigan surprised himself by qualifying third with a time of 1:38.9723.

Linus Lundqvist, Ganassi Racing No 8 entry, qualified fourth with a time of 1:39.0685.

Meyer Shank’s Tom Blomqvist qualified fifth with a time of 1:39.0820.

Pietro Fittipaldi qualified his Rahal Letterman Lanigan No 30 entry sixth with a time of 1:39.1117.

The Arrow McLaren drivers Alexander Rossi, Callum Ilott and Pato O’Ward qualified seventh, eighth and ninth.

Kyffin Simpson, Christian Rasmussen, Colin Braun and Marcus Ericsson round out Group 2.

Marcus Ericsson crashed his Andretti Global No 28 entry four minutes into the Group 2 session.  The car is going to require major repairs.  He was seen and released from the INDYCAR Medical Unit.

(R) Rookie

Lucille Dust reporting live from Thermal Club