IndyCar News: McLaughlin Takes the Pole at Firestone GP of St Petersburg

The first qualifying session for the 2026 NTT INDYCAR SERIES Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg saw Scott McLaughlin in the No. 3 DEX Team Penske Chevrolet set the fastest lap at 1m00.5426s.

Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson will start second on the grid. His fast lap was 1m00.5621s. The Swede won this race in 2023.

Dale Coyne Racing’s Dennis Hauger, the 2025 INDY NXT by Firestone champion making his IndyCar rookie debut, will start third after posting a time of 1m00.5743s.

Alex Palou in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda was fourth fastest with a time of 1m00.6842s

David Malukas, the rookie in Team Penske’s No. 12 Chevrolet entry, posted the fifth-fastest lap with a time of 1m00.7638s.

Hauger’s Teammate, Romain Grosjean, in the No 18 BMax Honda, will start sixth tomorrow after a fast timed lap of 1m.01.3462s.

Dennis Hauger Photo courtesy of Penske Entertainment/Joe Skibinski

The biggest surprise came from Dale Coyne Racing, a grassroots team. Both drivers advanced impressively to the Fast 6 shootout for the pole contention. This is a notable achievement for the team, boosted by a technical partnership with Andretti Global, veteran engineering (including Indy 500-winning engineer Bill Pappas on Grosjean’s side), and Hauger’s proven qualifying speed from his INDY NXT rookie season last year.

Scott Dixon

The biggest disappointment in the session was Scott Dixon, driving the No 9 PNC Bank entry, not making the Fast 12. The Kiwi was on his way to making a fast lap when he lost control of the car for a second and missed the Fast 12. The picture above shows what his car looked like on Friday afternoon.

McLaughlin’s early edge puts Team Penske in a strong position on the street course, where he has historically performed well. Palou, the reigning multi-time champion, remains a major threat for the top spot.

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Time	Speed	Behind	Gap
1	3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	1m00.5426s	107.032	–.—-	–.—-
2	28	Marcus Ericsson	Andretti Global	1m00.5621s	106.998	0.0195	0.0195
3	19	Dennis Hauger	Dale Coyne Racing	1m00.5743s	106.976	0.0317	0.0122
4	10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	1m00.6842s	106.782	0.1416	0.1099
5	12	David Malukas	Team Penske	1m00.7638s	106.642	0.2212	0.0796
6	18	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing	1m01.3462s	105.63	0.8036	0.5824
7	66	Marcus Armstrong	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	1m00.7820s	106.611	0.2386	0.0368
8	5	Pato O’Ward	Arrow McLaren	1m00.8863s	106.428	0.3429	0.1043
9	45	Louis Foster	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1m00.9472s	106.322	0.4038	0.0609
10	8	Kyffin Simpson	Chip Ganassi Racing	1m00.9811s	106.262	0.4377	0.0339
11	60	Felix Rosenqvist	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	1m00.9840s	106.257	0.4406	0.0029
12	7	Christian Lundgaard	Arrow McLaren	1m00.9842s	106.257	0.4408	0.0002
13	26	Will Power	Andretti Global	1m01.1936s	105.893	0.3679	0.0696
14	21	Christian Rasmussen	ECR	1m01.1835s	105.911	0.6036	0.0129
15	27	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian	1m01.2308s	105.829	0.4051	0.0372
16	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	1m01.2109s	105.863	0.6310	0.0274
17	14	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1m01.2630s	105.773	0.4373	0.0322
18	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1m01.2257s	105.838	0.6458	0.0148
19	76	Rinus VeeKay	Juncos Hollinger Racing	1m01.3719s	105.586	0.5462	0.1089
20	77	Sting Ray Robb	Juncos Hollinger Racing	1m01.3666s	105.595	0.7867	0.1409
21	47	Mick Schumacher	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1m01.3983s	105.54	0.5726	0.0264
22	6	Nolan Siegel	Arrow McLaren	1m01.4498s	105.452	0.8699	0.0832
23	2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	1m01.4174s	105.508	0.5917	0.0191
24	4	Caio Collet	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1m01.5719s	105.243	0.9920	0.1221
25	20	Alexander Rossi	ECR	1m01.6031s	105.19	1.0232	0.0312

Qualifying Results