INDYCAR: McLaughlin, Palou capture poles at Milwaukee

WEST ALLIS, Wisc. — Scott McLaughlin and Alex Palou both take pole in the most unique qualifying session of the season at the Milwaukee Mile.

The NTT INDYCAR Series condensed the Milwaukee double-header weekend as much as possible. This meant two qualifying sessions wrapped in one.

The drivers were tasked with setting two consecutive qualifying laps. The first lap set the starting grid for Saturday’s Snap-On Makers and Fixers 250. Then the second lap set the starting grid for Sunday’s Snap-On Milwaukee Mile 250.

Therefore, McLaughlin will start from the pole later today and Palou will take the top spot for tomorrows race.

Snap-On Makers and Fixers Notable Positions

For Scotty Mac, this is his second pole of the season and the 12th of his career.

He will be joined on the front row by championship lead Alex Palou. Palou has a chance in both race this weekend to win the championship and it looks as though he would like to accomplish the feat as fast as he can.

David Malukas follows those two from third looking for his first INDYCAR win. Malukas enters the Milwaukee Mile as the driver with the highest average finish on the track type.

Pato O’Ward will join Malukas on the second row from fourth. Then the previous oval winner in the series, Josef Newgarden, rounds out the top five from fifth.

Will Power dawns a different livery for the first time this season and will start alongside him from sixth.

The highest qualifying rookie is Dennis Hauger directly behind Power in seventh. Finally, Kyle Kirkwood goes from winner a week ago in Washington D.C. to a 22nd starting position for later today in Milwaukee.

Snap-On Milwaukee Mile 250 Notable Positions

Then, Alex Palou continues to tear up the timing sheets with his eighth pole of the season and now the 20th of his illustrious career.

He bested Pato O’Ward by mere inches on the track. Palou captured the pole with a crazy 0.0003 second differential.

Then Josef Newgarden picked up on his second flying lap to qualify in third with a smaller deficit to make up to capture the lead.

Stunningly Mick Schumacher has done it again. For the second time this season on an oval the rookie has qualified in the top five. He will start fourth in a qualifying performance that will continue to feed the Meyer Shank Racing rumors for the German.

Will Power also improved on his second lap. His jump was only good enough for one additional position, but the fifth starting position is his.

Finally, Louis Foster will share the third row from sixth with the INDY 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist behind him in seventh.

Both drivers will start inside the top ten in both Milwaukee Mile races this weekend.

Even with the change in format the number of entrants remained the same. All 25 usual suspects have qualified into the final two oval races of the season. Both sessions went uninterrupted and without incident.

Below are the starting lineups for both of the INDYCAR events during the Snap-On Tools Milwaukee Mile weekend.

Starting Lineup for Saturday

Starting Lineup for Sunday