The New Zealander was the last of the Fast Six drivers to take to the track and recorded an opening lap of 234.526mph, before going on to post a four-lap average of 234.220mph, snatching pole position from teammate Will Power.
When NBC Sports told him it was the new 500 pole record, McLaughlin responded, “Really? The Pennzoil Chevy was unreal. Indy wasn’t nice to me and a lot of it was my fault.”
“I need to work on some things and this is the first step and I’m really proud to do this for the boys and girls on the team. The thirsty three, baby, they’re coming.”
For his part, Power, who already won the Indy 500 in 2018, had an excellent run, finishing with an average of 233.917 miles per hour and thus ousting his other teammate Josef Newgarden from the provisional pole.
“When I made my run I was so consistent I thought I was going to make a big shot,” Power said. “But then when I saw my first three laps, I could have done more.”
“But Scott had a very good run. I knew a Penske car would get pole. It’s not just luck, but extremely hard work, after four or five years of difficult qualifying. It’s nice to be back with three cars in the front row and be part of it.”
The fourth driver to take to the track was Newgarden, last year’s winner, who closed the first lap at 234.188 miles per hour. His decline was minimal in the second round to 234,004 and then in the third round to 233,640. His final average then was 233.808 miles, and he gave Penske the entire front row for the second time in history, after that of 1988.
A first lap of over 234 miles on average had deceived Alexander Rossi, who was the third to take to the track with the Arrow McLaren car, but then his average dropped more suddenly than that of his Penske rivals, with the last two laps over the 232 miles. The final average was therefore 233.090 mph, which earned him fourth place on the grid.
Fifth place is a good result for Kyle Larson, given that it is his debut in the great Indiana classic. Arrow McLaren-Rick Hendrick’s driver, however, was never really in the running for pole position, because for three of the four laps he was below 233 miles, finishing with an average of 232.846 miles.
The last to take part in the Fast Six was Santino Ferrucci, who was also the first to take to the track with the AJ Foyt Racing car, failing to average better than 232.692 miles per hour.
Rinus VeeKay, Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet
Photo by: Geoffrey M. Miller / Motorsport Images
The others in the Top 12
Rinus Veekay ended his streak of three consecutive starts on the front row, as the Ed Carpenter Racing driver was the first of those excluded from the Fast 6, finishing the previous phase with an average of 232.610 miles. Seventh place, however, is not a result to throw away, in light of the accident of which he was the victim in the first phase of qualifying.
In eighth position will be Pato O’Ward, who concludes the dominance of Chevrolet engines with the Arrow McLaren car. The first of the Honda-powered cars, in fact, is Felix Rosenqvist, who will start from ninth place with the Meyer Shank Racing single-seater.
Tenth place for the two-time winner Takuma Sato, also equipped with a Honda engine on his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Dallara. The first four rows are completed with Kyle Kirkwood, who perhaps could have brought his Andretti Global car into Fast 6 if he had not grazed the wall at turn 1, and with the winner of the 2014 edition, Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Continuing to scroll through the ranking, there are some luxury exclusions from the top positions, because in 13th and 14th place they will be joined by Colton Herta and Alex Palou, but there are also several veterans who will start from the back: Ed Carpenter is 17th °, while Helio Castroneves occupies 20th position, just ahead of Scott Dixon. Former Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean is then 26th. Marcus Ericsson instead narrowly qualified, but he will only start 32nd, behind the only woman on the grid, Katherine Legge.
1. (3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 02:33.7017 (234.220 mph)
2. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 02:33.9007 (233.917)
3. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 02:33.9726 (233.808)
4. (7) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 02:34.4469 (233.090)
5. (17) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 02:34.6083 (232.848)
6. (14) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 02:34.7110 (232.692)
7. (21) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 02:34.7657 (232.610)
8. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 02:34.7829 (232.584)
9. (60) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 02:34.9686 (232.305)
10. (75) Takuma Sato, Honda, 02:35.0578 (232.171)
11. (27) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 02:35.8490 (230.993)
12. (23) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Chevrolet, 02:36.1367 (230.567)
13. (26) Colton Herta, Honda, 02:34.9616 (232.316)
14. (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 02:34.9682 (232.306)
15. (6) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 02:35.0184 (232.230)
16. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 02:35.0504 (232.183)
17. (20) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 02:35.1608 (232.017)
18. (4) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 02:35.2069 (231.948)
19. (98) Marco Andretti, Honda, 02:35.2458 (231.890)
20. (06) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 02:35.2587 (231.871)
21. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 02:35.2723 (231.851)
22. (78) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 02:35.2750 (231.847)
23. (41) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 02:35.2888 (231.826)
24. (33) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 02:35.3852 (231.682)
25. (66) Tom Blomqvist, Honda, 02:35.4554 (231.578)
26. (77) Romain Grosjean, Chevrolet, 02:35.4982 (231.514)
27. (8) Linus Lundqvist, Honda, 02:35.5034 (231.506)
28. (45) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 02:35.5308 (231.465)
29. (24) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 02:35.6803 (231.243)
30. (30) Pietro Fittipaldi, Honda, 02:35.7768 (231.100)
31. (51) Katherine Legge, Honda, 02:36.4590 (230.092)
32. (28) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 02:36.5037 (230.027)
33. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 02:36.5396 (229.974)
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