Alex Palou and David Malukas will lead the grid in the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America on Sunday after qualifying first and second, respectively.
Palou finds himself in a very familiar position. This pole marks his fifth of the season and 17th in his INDYCAR career. Last year, he qualified second at Road America and went on to win.
Malukas has seen a start to the season unlike any he has seen before. The Illinois-native earned his first pole position at Phoenix in March, qualified third at the Indy 500 and earned second place, and has led 130 laps—just over half of his career 258 laps led.
On the 4.014-mile, 14-turn road course, both Palou and Malukas qualified with best times sub-1:44 and best speeds narrowly topping 139 miles per hour.
Ahead of qualifying, Palou finished morning practice in P6. Unhappy with his car’s direction, he and his team reverted to their Friday afternoon set-up, aiding Palou’s pole.
“We thought we were going one direction and that it was going to be easier to drive this morning, and it was the opposite… Luckily, it was good,” Palou said. He added that the lack of track evolution made vehicle readjustment easy.
Similarly, Malukas’ team made overnight adjustments to his vehicle. “Going from practice one yesterday to today, we flipped this car upside down overnight… We got it right where we needed it to be in qualifying.”
Palou and Malukas will lead a top ten comprised of Marcus Armstrong, Felix Rosenqvist, Marcus Ericsson, Scott McLaughlin, Santino Ferrucci, Nolan Siegel, rookie Caio Collet and Pato O’Ward.
Pending the results of Sunday’s race, Malukas has the chance to snag the 2nd place position in the INDYCAR championship from Kyle Kirkwood. Malukas trails championship leader Palou by 68 points.
Malukas looks to secure his first career win at the 55-lap XPEL Grand Prix on Sunday.