Scott McLaughlin Rolls to Pole Position at Gateway

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

MADISON, Ill. – When it comes to qualifying on ovals in 2024, Scott McLaughlin has been on it.

The driver of the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet has not started off the front row in any of the oval races thus far through the NTT IndyCar Series season, adding another oval pole with his qualifying run on Friday afternoon at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.

McLaughlin rocketed to the pole with a two-lap average of 179.972 mph to bank the top spot over Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist.

“The Dex Imaging Chevy was just great from the jump,” McLaughlin said. “We had a focus this morning, well, early noon, just to focus on the qualifying car because we knew we only had a short run before qualifying, and we knew how important it is to be at the front here. It went to plan. The car has been great from the jump. We’re in a really good spot, obviously, for tomorrow.

“As we know, this is INDYCAR. Anything can happen. But we’ll try to stay on our toes and focus on this last practice session tonight just to get our race balance right, and hopefully we can come with a pretty fast printer wagon for tomorrow.”

David Malukas backed up his fast time in practice with a third-place run to give Meyer Shank two out of the top-three fastest in qualifying. Malukas comes into the weekend with a 2.5 average finish at Gateway, looking to finish out the trifecta at the top of the podium on Saturday.

“We definitely did a really good job with the setup,” Malukas said. “Missed it a little bit, but it’s so hard to judge, with the temperature changing and the track being so green. There’s a little bit more time in it, but coming from practice one, it was pretty good.”

Malukas was fearless in his run, nearly skating into the outside wall in both Turn 2 during his run, but kept his foot in it and kept it off the wall to post his fast lap.

“It was definitely getting a little bit close! On that exit from Turn 2, I had to lay on the deployment of the hybrid, I was really pushing it, getting close to those walls – and that’s what it takes to get a good lap.”

Though Rosenqvist was fast enough to capture the outside pole, he won’t be able to enjoy the fruits of his labor as he will have to take a nine-position grid penalty for going over the engine limit. As a result, he will drop to 11^th on the start and Malukas will take his place on the front row.

“It was a pretty solid run, no major mistakes,” Rosenqvist said. “I had a little bit of understeer on the first lap so I tweaked the car a little bit for the second lap. We have a nine-place grid drop so we need to be up there, so I gave it everything I had. It felt like it was a solid run, it’s a solid car, so we’ll hang tight and see where we end up.”

The other two Team Penske cars in Josef Newgarden and Will Power would round out the top-five starters. Newgarden will look to add a fifth win at Gateway as he seeks to get back in the championship points battle.

Meanwhile, Power looks to Saturday night as an opportunity to capitalize on points leader Alex Palou, who will also have to serve a grid penalty for exceeding engine limits. Palou will drop from seventh to 16^th on the start as a result.

Kyle Kirkwood was sixth-fastest in qualifying, along with Romain Grosjean, Marcus Ericsson, and Scott Dixon to round out the top-10.

With Palou, Dixon, and Rosenqvist all having to take grid penalties, Conor Daly will advance into the top-10 for Saturday is his new ride with Juncos Hollinger Racing.

“A qualifying run with the hybrid is different. You’ve got to try to be super optimal on that. Didn’t get to qualify at Iowa, so I hadn’t experienced that yet. It was a good step forward from practice. Is that enough? I don’t know,” Daly said after his run.

“The conditions were very, very volatile. I was easy flat in [Turn] 3 and 4 earlier and this run, I was like man, it was a bit different, so it is what it is. We’ll go to work on it. I don’t think we’re going to be in a bad spot, but we’ll see.”

Qualifying was stopped once for yellow when Colton Herta looped his No. 26 Andretti Global Honda in Turn 1 on his second qualifying lap, backing his car into the outside wall. Though he was able to limp his car back around to the start/finish line, he will be mired deep in the field back in 25^th place on Saturday.

“It just broke loose,” Herta said. “Unfortunate. I think that first lap was decent. I don’t think it was going to get us a pole, but it could have gotten us in the top-five there. And then the second lap, I don’t know if we just wore the tire too much or what happened and it just let go pretty early.

“That was all she wrote unfortunately. It sucks. The Gainbridge Honda seemed like it was going to be good, but we were maybe a little but too aggressive there.”

Jack Harvey and Katherine Legge will start shotgun on the field when the green flag drops after mechanical issues precluded Harvey from making his qualifying run and Legge failed technical inspection prior to qualifying.

Two practice sessions remain on Friday with a short 30-minute high-line session to try and rubber in the upper groove, followed by the final one-hour session later on Friday evening to give the teams one final opportunity to dial in their cars before race day.

Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at Gateway Starting Lineup