Road America appears to love rookie Indy NXT champions after the 2024 pole position went to former Chip Ganassi Racing driver and 2022 NXT title winner Linus Lundqvist in a shock run to the top starting spot, and the trend continued for a second year as reigning NXT champ and rookie Louis Foster knocked IndyCar’s best off of P1 to capture his first pole for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
The Briton was able to edge championship leader Alex Palou from pole with a lap of 1m44.514s in the No. 45 Honda, and while he tried to respond, Palou was unable to match Foster and settled for second with a 1m44.629s lap in the No. 10 Ganassi Honda. Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood completed a 1-2-3 for Honda with the No. 27 entry (1m44.852s).
First among the Bowties was Scott McLaughlin, who ranked as the lone representative from Team Penske in the Firestone Fast Six with the No. 3 Chevy (1m45.013s). The toasty conditions with ambient temperatures just over 90F made it difficult for everyone to get long-last grip from their faster alternate compounds.
That dynamic was demonstrated by Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard who was fastest in the cooler morning session but was limited to fifth in qualifying with a 1m45.082s in the No. 7 Chevy. Foster’s RLL teammate Graham Rahal completed the top six with the No. 15 Honda (1m45.487s).
“I said to the guys as we got into Fast 12 to not put reds on, because I wasn’t confident that we would make it through to the Fast Six,” Foster said. “Boy was I wrong. Absolutely awesome. The No. 45 crew has been amazing all weekend. Couldn’t ask for a better start to the weekend. I still can’t believe it.”
Of the drivers expected to vie for pole, Penske’s Will Power and Josef Newgarden were eighth and tenth respectively, and Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward was 11th. The greatest surprise was Andretti’s Colton Herta who was nearly speechless in 15th.
“Pretty poor,” Herta said. “Can’t really be happy with that one. I don’t really have much to say. We haven’t been on it this weekend, unfortunately, and we need to find some stuff here for tomorrow, for sure.”
The first round of knockout qualifying saw Palou shoot to the top of the 13 drivers on track with a giant lap of 1m44.477s, well clear of Rahal in second (1m44.819s). Transferring as well from third through sixth were Scott Dixon, a surging Callum Ilott, O’Ward, and Kirkwood.
Newgarden was first on the other side of the transfer line (P13), followed by Nolan Siegel (P13), Marcus Armstrong (P15), Robert Shwartzman (P17), Devlin DeFrancesco (P19), Conor Daly (P21) and Kyffin Simpson (P23).
After the run was over race control determined Dixon held up DeFrancesco, who was on a flyer, and Dixon was sent to the back of the field in P25, which promoted Newgarden to sixth and made it able to take part in the Fast 12.
The second round was led by Christian Rasmussen (1m44.740s) and had a transferring group of McLaughlin, David Malukas, Power, Felix Rosenqvist, and Foster behind him.
Marcus Ericsson (P14), Herta (P16), Santino Ferrucci (P18), Rasmussen (P20), Rinus VeeKay (P22), Alexander Rossi (P24), Sting Ray Robb (P26) and Jacob Abel (P27) were done for the day.
The Fast 12 was a blend of surprises and expectations as Palou, Lundgaard, Foster, McLaughlin, Kirkwood, and Rahal took the top six and Malukas (P7), Power (P8), Ilott (P9), Newgarden (P10), O’Ward (P11) and Rosenqvist were cleaved from the Fast Six run for pole.
