Palou was the one who took pole at the Snap-On Milwaukee Mile 250. The big action came a couple minutes earlier when Herta spun but kept it out of the wall and then a little later when Rosenqvist crashed in his opening timed lap.
Calm And Collected Start
DeFrancesco was fastest after the first group of people qualified with an average of 159.0 MPH over 2 laps. As soon as the second group of drivers started, that average was quickly improved by Daly. He had an opening lap of 160.4 MPH and was the first driver today to hit 160 MPH. After the two laps his average speed was 160.1 MPH. Which saw him go to the top of the standings at the time. Newgarden was up next and he was fighting with the car, changing settings on the car to get everything out of the car. With success, Newgarden put it on provisional pole.
Everything Is Heating Up
As soon as the third group started, you could tell that the track was heating up. McLaughlin had an opening lap of 162.1 MPH and ended his qualifying with an average of 161.7 MPH. Malukas ended his qualifying with an average of 162.2 MPH. Within 2 qualifying laps the average speed went up by 1.9 MPH. The track was improving quickly. Too quickly for Herta, as he had a spin but amazingly kept it out of the wall. This is not his first time having troubles during qualifying on ovals, as earlier this year he had a big crash at the INDY500.
Rosenqvist had a big moment that saw him go into the wall. He came on the radio very quickly to say that he was okay. Qualifying was put on hold for a little bit so that the marshals could clear off the car and clean the track. Rosenqvist crashing was not on my bingo card for this qualifying as he had the best average qualifying position on ovals this year. The cars in groups 3 and 4 were, on average, 1 MPH faster than the cars in groups 1 and 2.
Too Close For Comfort
Then it was time for the two who everyone had been waiting for. O’Ward had a big shot to take provisional pole from Malukas with an opening lap of 162.5 MPH. His second lap wasn’t enough to give that to him; he ended up just behind Malukas in P2 with an average of 162.0 MPH.
Palou really showed why he already got the championship in his back pocket. His opening lap was a 163.2 MPH. Malukas was watching Palou in suspense; would Malukas finally get his first pole after all the trouble he had in these last couple years? His answer came soon enough. Palou had pulled it out of the bag and put on an average of 162.9 MPH. Palou got pole once more for the penultimate race of the year.
Top 10
Here is how the top 10 shaped up after that qualifying session.
- Alex Palou
- David Malukas
- Pato O’Ward
- Scott McLaughlin
- Scott Dixon*
- Will Power
- Kyle Kirkwood
- Josef Newgarden
- Conor Daly
- Christian Rasmussen
*Dixon has a 9-place grid drop. He will start the race in 14th.
Will Alex Palou get one race win closer to equalling the record of 10 race wins in a season? Will we see a new winner? Watch the race tomorrow evening at 20:00 CEST.