By Austin Lawton, Staff Writer

Alex Palou described World Wide Technology Raceway (WWT) as “probably my worst place” on Saturday morning during a press conference.

Later that afternoon, the Spaniard went and put the No.10 HRC Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing on pole for the 260-lap contest with a two-lap average of 174.353mph. Saturday’s pole is the fourth consecutive pole award for Palou, who started his streak at the Sonsio Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course on May 8.  

Palou, who didn’t think a pole was possible earlier on Saturday morning, exceeded his own expectations. 

“You never know. You always want to think that you can make it. Like, that’s always the mindset,” Palou said. “I was not really confident about it. Like, we were shooting for pole, but I think in my head was more like if it’s great, we can be like top five, P1 or P5. If it’s not, it could be like 12th, which I think it happened last year or something.”

Palou was over one mile-per-hour faster than second place David Malukas (173.244mph). In a repeat of Milwaukee last year, Malukas lost out on the top spot to Palou, but remains positive overall in his No.12 Team Penske Chevrolet. 

“I actually feel very fortunate we were the third car to go. Obviously reverse order to go at the end. The earlier you went, I mean, it’s going to be a lot harder to go. For me I feel fortunate. I think it’s a really good result. There’s a lot you can do from the front row.” 

In third and fourth, it was a pair of Honda’s belonging to Kyle Kirkwood (173.206mph) and Felix Rosenqvist (172.953mph), respectively. Scott McLaughlin would complete the top five at 172.869mph in his Team Penske Chevrolet. 

SEE: Bommarito Automotive Group 500 Starting Grid 

Arrow McLaren would also have a successful day, with Pato O’Ward (172.696mph) and Christian Lundgaard (169.791mph) fastest in the morning and evening practice sessions, respectively. 

Teams were able to experiment with running the second groove at WWT Raceway during a 40-minute session on Saturday evening. Rosenqvist, the winner of the Indy 500, had high hopes for the high groove holding up. 

“I think it will hold up,” Rosenqvist said. “Last year it did, at least with some drivers. I think it’s going to be the same, like some guys are going to be able to do it, some not. I think it’s been a really good race the last couple of years.” 

Another added element into Sunday’s race comes in the form of a new aerodynamic package. IndyCar has cut the horsepower boost, along with adding higher downforce to the cars, thus resulting in lower speeds. Despite the changes to the cars, drivers like Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon think the changes will provide for some interesting racing.  

“The track feels like high grip,” Newgarden told the media after his eighth place qualifying run. “The night will always produce more grip. It’s just a matter of who used the second lane. The more people we get up to the high line, the better the race will be. 

“It will be interesting,” Dixon said. “I think if you have any kind of issue, where you maybe mess up a little bit or you go high, the train’s going to come. If you lose any kind of momentum, it takes a long time to get it back with such low power.”

The tire compound Firestone is bringing to WWT Raceway is the same compound that ran at Phoenix in March. With a tire that produced good racing in the past, Malukas, who was fast at Phoenix, thinks the racing will be just the same on Sunday. 

“Yes. I mean, we tested in October,” Malukas said. “I thought the racing, obviously only two cars on track, I still think it’s good. Overall in the end it’s to protect the tires. You don’t want the tires going off. It’s a safety issue. Mid race you don’t want drivers doing that because it’s a pretty unfortunate scenario. I think the racing is going to be equal or even better.”